Page 34 - BPW UK ANNUAL REVIEW 2021-2022 - PART I and II

2021 continued to present us all with issues both personally and within BPW but in SEW we
have been delighted to have attracted 5 new members to our area, Kate Fraser Smith, Karen
Brickstock, Elaine Milne, Otoha Hayashi and Sue Dewey. 3 came following personal recommen-
dations; one transferred her membership from BPW International and one from BPW North
West/Midlands after moving into the SEW area. It has been great to welcome every one of
them and I’m delighted that Karen has agreed to be our Members Emergency Fund representa-
tive going forward, Elaine will be taking over the SEW finances at our AGM and Kate has been
an active member of the new Website Taskforce.

We are still having our SEW twice monthly Zoom meetings with post meeting updates
being sent by email and posting to those without the technology. Plus I’m delighted that
Haywards@Grasmere Hotel in Keynsham has agreed to sponsor our face to face meetings when
they start again, hopefully in April/May 2022.

What have we got up to on Zoom in 2021???? Goodness SO much! In no particular order:
We all thoroughly enjoyed listening to our Gordon Holmes speaker Christina Marriott
sharing her primary concern that life expectancy is actually reducing, at our BPW UK Confer-
ence. Our thanks go to Jill Turner for facilitating a really interesting session.

SEW representatives are active members of various working groups, most importantly
Marketing & Media, Membership. Members have contributed to the website redesign, content
(still a work in progress), design of new members packs, revision of the membership forms,
both application and renewal, plus devising a questionnaire and communication to be sent ex-
ternally asking what women want from a Women’s Organization going forward. These will be
great recruitment initiatives.

Our SEW members gave a number of interesting talks during the year, Isobel Chivers on
the joy of looking after and driving classic cars; Jackie Franklin making full use of her historic
June O’Dell Training Award and showing us some the fascinating designs she creates with her
beading expertise; an informative talk about Florence Nightingale by Jill Turner; Judith Cook
enlightened us about how Covid actually operates and Kate Fraser Smith shared her presenta-
tion about how different cultures impact our perception and communication skills. Sylvia Perry
shared some tales of the lighter side of BPW membership, locally, nationally and international-
ly and most importantly as well as addressing the serious issues that have affected women over
the decades, it was great to hear of the fun and lasting friendships she has made. I feel there
may be more so we might ask for the next instalment!

We had Angela Greenwood, Lead Guide at Westonbirt - the National Arboretum, share
her passion for the trees, flora and fauna there and it was super to hear about women entre-
preneurs in that field historically, however they were only able to undertake the research if
they were financially independent!

On a more serious note Janice Alexander shared her involvement in the Girl Child initia-
tives and what is going on at BPW International/BPW Europe and the recognition they are re-
ceiving for their introduction of the New Charter of the Girl’s Rights in many European coun-
tries. We also discussed Violence against Women and all the dreadful headlines during this last
year. Covid restrictions have certainly impacted women severely. We’ve been in contact with
Nextlink, our local organization that supports women’s refuges in both Bristol and South
Gloucestershire. Sylvia Perry and Jo Kinsey collected and collated items for further Red Boxes
and Nextlink arranged to pick them up.

B P W U K - A NN U AL RE VIEW 2 0 2 1 ~ 2 0 2 2