This year a group of 7 from our club are attending the SI2011 Convention in Montreal.

The Theme for the Convention is Women: Leaders in Civil Society. We have chosen this theme because Civil Society is the buzz word of our time, quite often used, and often misunderstood. Our own organization, Soroptimist International, is accredited to the Commonwealth as a Civil Society Organization. During the course of the Convention, we will explore this theme in depth through various “Sub-Themes” or subsets that will reflect all aspects of our underlying theme of Civil Society.

It is our desire to have Canadian women leaders in their various fields of endeavor come speak to us and not only teach us how to be leaders but to also showcase Canada and Canadian values to the rest of the world. We have chosen various Canadian women leaders that we feel are role models. We believe these women will be able to share some interesting and pertinent insights on global issues and challenges that women face and innovative solutions that could inform and enlighten our membership.

The following are our Sub-Themes:

Women as Catalysts of Change in Human Rights
Women as Role Models in Arts, Entertainment, and Media
Women as Role Models in Commerce and Entrepreneurship
Women as Leaders in Health & Sciences and Sports
Women as Stewards of the Environment
Women as Catalysts of Change in Government

The kickoff is our ECR Conference on Sunday morning, followed by lunch with Western Canada Region. We’ll keep you posted on updates throughout the conference. Here is the program at a glance »