I hope you were all energized by the information and story telling provided at the SISEAP AGM, General meeting and the Federation meeting. The two weekends highlighted your Soroptimist impact in your communities, and at the National and International level. The many hours (63,176) of volunteer service to implement and advocate for gender equality, education and empowerment of women and girls equated to the equivalent of $3,790,560 AUD dollars in contribution to society, never doubt that Soroptimists do make a difference.
As Soroptimists have you ever lacked ideas for program work at your club level? You need to read not only your National Presidents annual report but ALL National Presidents reports, there are many ideas for project work and partnership with our sister Soroptimists clubs, please do take the time, it is well worth the read.
I encourage club programme members to take a look at the videos available on the SISEAP Youtube channel, there is a selection of short videos up to 10 minutes in length which are worthy of showcasing at a club dinner meeting, let the story telling inform members of the work we do each and every day.
As Soroptimists we are also volunteers, we volunteer our time, expertise and skills to implement projects to fulfill our vision and mission. Above I congratulated you on the combined volunteer service hours, but the 63,176 hours listed above does not take into account the hundreds of hours of volunteer service work undertaken to enable our organisation to function. As a volunteer (Soroptimist), you fill the key roles of President, Treasurer and Secretary at club, national and Federation level, as volunteers you handle the day to day tasks, project manage and raise funds. Without you, our organisation would not exist, Soroptimist International has survived for 100 years on a strong volunteer commitment. Volunteering as a Soroptimist shows that you can take initiative, and are committed to working to ensure a gender equal world, and you do this through being resourceful and creative, you learn and grow and pass on these skills to others in your club, so why is it that the organisation is struggling to fill roles? We cannot fulfil our vision if we only want to volunteer for the programme work and not the day to day work. The programme, membership, communications and governance committee are offering you the opportunity to join their team, come on board, learn new skills, bring your ideas and increase your knowledge of the organisation.