History of building an online Soroptimist Program
After her club folded, our club’s first President, Kim Bush started to look for another club to join… there was no club close to where she lived. Kim tried to start a club in Kelowna and South Okanagan when COVID hit! Kim then decided to start an “On Line” club. With lots & lots of support from WCR (Colleen Penrowley) and Surrey Delta club (Linda Cunliffe), an online club was starting to look like a reality. Kim downloaded SIA “How to build a Club” and followed the checklist. Kim, Colleen and Linda sought out potential members to join this new club. At the same time, 5 club members from Eastern Canada Region were looking for an online club and decided to join SICWO. The club now had enough members to register as a viable club.
Membership Opportunities to grow your club:
- College & University students: consider club members sponsoring or subsidizing a student to join a club
- Invite personal contacts who live in areas without a Soroptimist club, to your meetings
- Join an online club before setting up an “in person” club in your area… using the online club to learn more about Soroptimist before establishing a new in person club
- Opportunities to be able to access club meetings in the comfort of your home
- women who travel for their business or leisure can access a club meeting anywhere.
Benefits:
- Online Clubs are easy to access from your home or office by phone, tablet or computer.
- In case you can not attend the club meeting, recording is accessible for review
- AI Copilot also assists with taking minutes, but must be reviewed for type errors
- Access to the meetings can be picked up anywhere in the world!
Engaging Members & Maintaining Participation:
- Each meeting 2 different members research and present SOLT
- “Shout Outs” at the beginning of our meeting updates us on members lives
- Each chair reports on their Program with discussions from members
Impacts & Achievements of Online:
- Fundraising: Cooking classes & Pink Teas
- Attending discussion groups offering Indigenous studies
- Developing & Sharing online DiBi programs with other clubs
- Accessibility to form & share International Friendship Links
Success Stories:
- Development of a friendship link with SISEAP Sisters Online (also an online club). SEAP stands for ‘South East Asia Pacific’, the name of their Federation. We have had several fun meetings. Playing games and celebrating events. One of the members will be travelling to Canada and has reached out to us to meet her.
- Dream It Be It online was delivered by SICWO to a school in northern Manitoba. DiBi was developed with the collaboration with SI Vancouver and is on their summer school platform for students to access.
- Live Your Dream Award: 11 women from across Canada (including NWT & Yukon) were able to participate in the program. An indigenous woman from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories was our primary award recipient.
- Attending club group discussions and committing to learning about Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation through online studies with First Nations University and group discussions.
- Taking Period Poverty information and advocacy from coast to coast to coast..
- Online support in signing a petition to be delivered to our Canadian Parliament on the right to access safe drinking water.
- Girls Matter program, partnering with SI clubs in Africa to educate girls.