IT was business all the way at the October meeting of the Bromsgrove and Redditch Soroptimists Club at the Perry Hall Hotel in Bromsgrove.

We were welcomed by President Carolyn Gibbs, who told us of the functions that she had attended in the past month, including the region press officers meeting held in Solihull. At the meeting everyone discussed the ways that they spread the word about activities and aims of Soroptimism from their own clubs. The message is "we want the public to know who we are, where we are and what we do world-wide."

The next item was about the annual federation conference, which is to be held in Bournemouth at the end of October. A group of our members will be attending. The conference theme is "Peace and Tolerance" and Martin Bell, UNICEF special representative for humanitarian emergencies, is the keynote speaker.

We had to discuss and approve many of the motions and amendments to be made to the new 2004 constitution so that our delegates Judith Green and Gail Teague could vote on them at the AGM.

Next, all the executive officers gave their reports and the meeting closed.