Members met at the Perry Hall Hotel for their September meeting following the summer break.

Our guest speaker was Valerie Evans, CBE, who has been a very active Soroptimist since 1977. Her career in education and soroptimism have worked closely together. Valerie has a background in science education. She was appointed to Her Majesty's Inspectorate in 1967. In 1977 she became the Regional Staff Inspector for the East and West Midlands and retired in 1990. She was awarded the CBE for services to education in 1991. She is now a writer and lecturer and activist on human rights, particularly those of women. She is involved in a wide range of voluntary work. Valerie was elected chair of the UK Women's National Commission (WNC) from 1997 - 99.

She is an active member of Soroptimist International and was their regional link with the ECE Regional Commission of the UN. She also chairs the UK Gender Statistics Users Group and still works with the Women's National Commission on their International Working Group. During the summer our president Judith Green has entertained small groups of members at her house. One special party held at past president Gail Teague's in July was to celebrate our founder members Chris Spencer and Norah Byng's election as honorary member of the club. They were joined by Ada Hampton, also a founder and honorary member and other club members.