SIE Montréal


L-R: Annette Büssenschütt, Club Wiesbaden; Brigitte Plambeck-Rätz, Club Oldenburg; Roswitha Briel, Club Wiesbaden; Sigrid Niebling, Club Fulda and Verena von Tresckow-Bronke, Club Frankfurt am Main


Three German Soroptimists are experiencing their first SI Convention. Two of them have been on holiday in the Canadian countryside and ask themselves, “Do we really want to do this? Return to big city life of Montréal, swap the serenity of whale watching for dreary air-conditioned conference rooms, struggle through speeches in English and demanding workshops?” Yes! Just 10 minutes into the programme


Canadian women with amazing biographies and varying cultural backgrounds give outstanding talks on the Convention theme ‘Women: Leaders in Civil Society’. They show how a vision can become reality – a truly moving experience. The topics are covered in greater detail in the workshops. The Best Practice projects demonstrate how


and our Soroptimist hearts are racing. We greet the representatives of each country with thundering applause and revel in the midst of the global SI community. At the Friendship Evening we meet fellow


acquaintances from Germany and from our Link clubs. Well-prepared women attending their umpteenth Convention present us with potato pins from Idaho, candles in the form of roses from San Francisco and koala bears from Australia. We invite them all to Germany to join us in celebrating Club Frankfurt’s 60th anniversary in 2012 and to attend the SI/E Congress in Berlin in 2013.


SIA


SIA member Alice Wells, now International President. shares some of her federation members’ comments.


Coast: “SI Convention was fabulous - I am especially impressed by ALL our speakers. This was my first international convention - now I’m hooked!” Christine Duranceau, MD, PhD, SI LaQuinta, Golden West Region USA


Raquel Arreola Ruiz, SIA President Elect,


Mexico/Central America Region: “In just a few words, I can tell you that I enjoyed very much this Convention. The Convention Center was a great place. The agenda was always on time, most of all I met wonderful Soroptimists from all over the world.” Myra Lau, Region Governor, Desert


TIS September 2011 Page 10


from the Former Governor General of Canada, The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson gave nine points that makes a society civil and moral. The point that hit home the most to me was: A civil society is best if it has diversity which leads to friendship, understanding and tolerance. Other lectures were from women who had accomplished so much in their lives that you wonder if they ever slept. The lectures were interesting, deep, sometimes emotional, which brought tears to many of the audience’s eyes. By the end of the week, I was raring to continue working towards the goals set by Soroptimist International.” Linda Nixon, Governor Elect, Golden


West Region USA: “I met so many new Soroptimist friends and learned about club projects, region/union practices, and federation operations. I would never had discovered this new knowledge without having access to so many Soroptimists from around the world. I have to say that the


“It was inspiring. The keynote address


our organisation of nearly 90,000 women has done so much good and is now ushering in the new worldwide SI theme, ‘Education and Leadership’. As different as the projects are, they all have one thing in common: sustainable change is best achieved through educating women. It is particularly satisfying to hear SI


Over the next three days, we hear


SIE: A first timer at Convention!


By Annette Büssenschuett and Roswitha Briel, Club Wiesbaden and Sigrid Niebling, Club Fulda


from Phoenix, Arizona. Similar to this passage from one continent to another, the venue of the next SI Convention in 2015 will be Istanbul, the city that links Asia with Europe. In Canada, German sobriety meets North


American enthusiasm. It takes getting used to, but was it a problem? Not at all! We respect each other’s differences. After all, we are united in two ambitious goals: to improve the lives and status of woman and girls through education, empowerment or enabling opportunities, as well as to be a global voice for increasing access to education and leadership for women and girls. Further ‘highlights’ of the Convention are


President Hanne Jensbo specifically mention our German Union Mentoring Programme and encourage other countries to join the European-wide programme. Making a symbolic journey around the


globe, we witness the change of insignia: Hanne from Aarhus, Denmark to Alice Wells


singing Canadian hymns, friendly hostesses at each escalator, SI on YouTube, marvellous outfits at the gala event including a Scottish kilt, maple syrup galore, breath-taking circus numbers, daily ‘Lost and Found’ announcements, a toast and colourful balloons welcoming Alice and several generations of former SI Presidents on stage – everything and everyone is excellent.


SIA: First timers at Convention!


“water lady” Maude Barlow was terrific!” Her compelling presentation was one I hope none of us will soon forget. I can’t imagine that any other convention could top this one! However, the only way to find out will be to do it all again in four years! President Geneva Taylor, SI-Indy Metro, Midwestern Region: “One speaker quoted Jung; ‘The most powerful thing in a home is the unrealised dreams of a parent’. Meaning all of our dreams for the future, whether we have our own children or not, drive the belief of what is possible and the achievement of these possibilities in the people we inspire. “It was great to hear about clubs across the


world and the partnering and projects that they’ve put in place to help African women. In another seminar we learned about how difficult it is for girls to get an education in Zimbabwe and that a mere $6 can pay for the fees for a girl to go to school for a year. I even received a $50 Billion dollar Zimbabwe note, that was basically made “play money” when the country chose to use the US Dollar as its main currency and how many people lost their savings due to this changeover. “I learned that there is so much still to do


in the world; we should continue making a difference in the lives of women and girls in every way we can.”


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