The Pavilion Suite at the offices of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Southwark, London was the stunning location for the Futures for Women AGM in June 2016.  Our thanks go to Emma Whalley-Hands who arranged the room for us.

At the end of the AGM members present bade farewell to Professor Janet Dine who has resigned from the Board of Trustees due to pressure of work.   Janet is currently working on a sustainability project and visits Oslo in Norway on a regular basis.  Chairman Joanna Murray (left) and President Lady Appleyard (right) helped Janet cut her farewell cake.

Our thanks go to Professor Janet Dine for her support for Futures for Women.

The 2016 Futures for Women AGM is being held on Wednesday 8 June at a new prestigious location of the Pavilion Suite at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which overlooks the Thames near to HMS Belfast.  We would like to express our thanks to Emma Whalley-Hands who has kindly made the arrangements for us.

Prior to the AGM at 12 noon we will be holding a networking event with women who have benefited from an interest-free loan from Futures for Women and who are now progressing their career.  Trustee Amy McVittie will deliver a presentation on Futures for Women statistics which demonstrate how many women have been awarded an interest-free loan and the range of courses they have studied.

The formal AGM will follow the networking event and during the meeting we will be saying farewell to Trustee Professor Janet Dine who is resigning from the Board due to work commitments overseas.

We would be delighted to welcome anyone who is interested in our work at our networking event and AGM.  If you would like to attend please contact our Secretary on futuresforwomen@btinternet.com

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, is urging charity donors to remain vigilant to the continuing threat of mandate fraud and the changing tactics that fraudsters are using to target charities and their donors.

Mandate fraud occurs when the fraudster tricks a donor into changing bank account details, in order to divert legitimate payments intended for a genuine charity to bank accounts instead controlled by fraudsters. This often involves the fraudster impersonating an organisation representative, either by email, direct mail or telephone communication. The fraudster may also use headed paper and/or the company logo to lend credibility and to gain the charity’s trust.

If you have a standing order established in order to make regular donations to a charity please be on your guard if you are asked to change the bank account details and verify the request before taking action.

A biography of a remarkable woman who for many years was President of the Society for Promoting the Training of Women (now Futures for Women) has just been published.  ‘Queen of Spies’ is a biography of Baroness Daphne Park, who was one of the first women to undertake a fully operational role in the Secret Intelligence Service culminating in her appointment as Controller Western Hemisphere in 1975, the highest post ever occupied by a woman.  After retiring from SIS in 1979 Baroness P ark was elected Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, where she remained until 1989.  BaronessPark died in 2010 aged 88 years. 

“Queen of Spies” is written by Paddy Hayes and published by Duckworth Overlook.

Raising the necessary funding to cover the costs of undertaking a post-graduate degree is always going to be challenging but one of our grantees hasn’t let that put her off.  Dani was offered a place to study an MA in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies but had a shortfall in funding.  Following a successful application to Futures for Women and two other charitable trusts Dani then established a sponsorship page on a “crowd funding” website where members of the public can donate to your cause.  As the donations started to arrive Dani decided to organize a raffle and after speaking to companies local to her home she managed to secure over 25 prizes such as gift vouchers and original paintings and sculptures from well known artists.    Dani has now raised over £4450 from various sources and has already covered the tuition fees for her first year.    We think this result is a fantastic achievement and are sure that such innovative thinking and boundless energy will put Dani in good stead whilst studying at University and during her eventual career in the heritage sector.

Original painting donated as a raffle prize by Keith Nash

After 35 years service as a Trustee of Futures for Women Dr Carolyn Boulter decided to resign from the Board at our AGM in June 2015.  Members and ex-grantees who were present at the meeting joined Carolyn in cutting a cake and sharing a cup of tea.

Carolyn is a former Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of FfW.  She has been instrumental in introducing new, more efficient, administrative processes for the charity and also instigated the annual Development Day meeting which gives Trustees an opportunity to discuss a specific issue.  Our lunch at Englefield House in March 2015 was masterminded by Carolyn who worked tirelessly to promote the event to her contacts in her local community.

Carolyn will remain busy in her “retirement” as she is involved with many other charities and organisations local to Theale.

Carolyn (centre) cuts her cake

One of our most recent grantees is undertaking a PhD in documentary film. She has recently directed a short film called ‘Faith & I’ which challenges religious prejuduces and is the first resource of its kind showing the positive influence of faith in the lives of three young women from the Sikh, Muslim and Jewish traditions. The film is currently being used by secondary schools in Scotland. To view an online streamed copy of the full film and some information about the project visit

http://www.eifa.org.uk/faith-and-i/