Page 28 - BPW-UK ANNUAL REVIEW 2022-2023_Neat

During 2022 we continued with our regular twice monthly Zoom sessions and finally also had
some face to face activities, namely our Summer Cruise, our Christmas celebration lunch and
most excitingly the local heats of the Public Speaking Competition for Young People!

In August, Judith Cook organised a cruise up the River Avon which saw both members from
across the region and their guests enjoy a sunny afternoon meandering along the river to the
mouth of the estuary. We experienced the swing bridge bringing city centre traffic to a halt as
we entered and exited the lock and most of the way we were accompanied by the famous rep-
lication Tudor ship, The Matthew. The beautiful Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed and built
by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, soared above our heads and our cameras were on overtime!

Our Christmas lunch was at Haywards in Keynsham and again members and guests joined us.
We all shared some stories from our time as members and thoroughly enjoyed the food and ex-
cellent company. Haywards weren’t able to sponsor our 2022 meetings due to staff shortages
but we are hoping that will change in 2023.

Isobel Chivers, Judith Cook, Jackie Franklin and I set up a Public Speaking Task Force to resur-
rect the Public Speaking Competition for our region. Isobel and Judith, using existing contacts
and researching new ones, sent out a communication to find out the level of interest and po-
tential support there would be for running local heats. They were delighted when not only
schools that had competed before came back to us but also new schools expressed an interest!
After much communication we ran two heats, one in Bristol and one in Cardiff. It was a com-
plete joy to be back out there helping the young people develop such a key skill for their fu-
tures. Also thanks to the financial support of both BPW UK and Elaine Milne at Milne
Wealthanagement we are able to take 2 teams to Belfast next year.

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