Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)
Advocating for human rights and gender equality, Soroptimist International is a global volunteer movement with a network of over 75,000 club members in 122 countries. Founded in 1921, it is the largest women’s service club in the world. The membership of Soroptimist peaked in the last quarter of the twentieth Century. As with most service clubs and similar organizations, Soroptimist has seen a decline in members, particularly in the Americas and Europe. Referring to Soroptimist, Barbro Stalbecker-Pountney, a lawyer and the current President of Soroptimist International of Toronto, will lead a discussion on the relevance of such clubs to the social fabric of society and growing civic disengagement amongst younger generations in particular. Is there a way to re-engage?
At the heart of Soroptimist International’s advocacy is its work across six United Nations (UN) Centres, where its UN representatives ensure that the voices of women and girls are heard. The membership of Soroptimist works on grassroots projects to improve the lives of women and girls locally and globally – helping women and girls achieve their individual and collective potential, realize aspirations and have an equal voice in communities worldwide.
Our featured speaker Barbro Stalbecker-Pountney, the current President of Soroptimist International of Toronto, is also a Past Director of Soroptimist International of the Americas Eastern Canada Region Board. Barbro is a lawyer who obtained her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Western Ontario, and her Master of Laws degree from Osgoode Law School, York University. After beginning her career in general practice in a small community in Bruce/Gray counties, she returned to Toronto, spent several years in legal publishing before returning to law practice. She takes a preventative approach to legal issues and focusses her law practice on wills, and estates in addition to charity and not-for-profit law. A regular presenter to community groups in her areas of concentration, Barbro also teaches law at Humber College. She is an active participant in her community and has served in many capacities including positions such as: Past Chair Mental Health Programme Services of Metropolitan Toronto; Past Co-Chair, Older Women’s Network; Past Board member, Children’s Aid Society of Grey County; Past President, Scandinavian Canadian Business Association; Past Chair General Practice Section (Ontario Bar Association); Past Board member, Swedish Women’s Educational Association (Toronto). She held the position of Editor, Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (Ont.) for a number of years and is Co Author of “Cohabitation: the law in Canada”.
Our featured musician will be Emilyn Stam. Emilyn Stam is a Toronto-based fiddler, pianist and accordionist who creates, performs, records and teaches in folk, trad, and neo-trad styles from Europe and Canada. She has 4 Canadian Folk Music Award Nominations, (The Shoeless, Eh?!, Lemon Bucket Orkestra) and 2 Juno Award Nominations (Lemon Bucket Orkestra). For more on our musical performer, please check out her website emilynstam.com. Emilyn with be performing with her partner John Williams.
To RSVP to this event, visit our Meetup page.