Diana Bell

GB State

Organisation President

2023 - 2025

State President's Report
April 2025

The preparations for the European Forum Conference https://dkg-ef-conference2025.weebly.com have been taking priority.  Kathy Hodgson, our conference treasurer, is to be thanked for all the time and effort she has put into getting the finances up and running.

This is the first ever European Forum Conference and we were asked to take on the hosting role. There is a great deal to learn about working together with the European Forum, and our Committee meeting in Oldenburg, near Bremen in Germany, was very productive.

There was a problem locating our EF Conference on the DKG main website, but it is now more prominently displayed. The Canadian Regional is taking place just before ours, and the main International Convention in New Orleans is just after.

At our EF Conference I’m pleased to say we have some really excellent speakers, including some international ones such as Dr Diane Bell and Louise Evans (Catch her on YouTube) who has just been given the Global Women Leadership Award. Do look at all our wonderful speakers on the website. We also have some interesting events – the BBQ on Friday night should prove to be entertaining with Morris and Scottish dancing, singing with Aileen Dickson, and the Grand Dinner has some excellent music - thanks to the Blue Café Jazz Trio. After Gordon’s quiz we find out who is the recipient of the European Achievement Award.

One of our members from Washington State, who you will meet at the EF Conference, is Dr Claire Smith who gave us a very interesting Zoom talk about her experience of British and American schooling. This was minuted by AI (thanks to Anne Goldstein).  We also had a fascinating talk on Human Values by Suzanne Palermo minuted by AI.  You can read more of what was said in the Spring edition of GB News in Brief.

Five Alpha members visited the Wellcome Collection ‘Hard Graft’ Exhibition, which was well thought out and quite enjoyable. As was meeting face-to-face for the coffee, lunch and chat.

Judith Sutton, Alpha Chapter member, sadly passed away aged 95. She was one of the original DKG Alpha Chapter members in Britain, joining in November 1977. She was always very supportive of us. Read more about Judith’s life (Eulogy and DKG membership) on the History page, bottom right-hand column.

Gamma Chapter Report April 2025

Thanks to all in DKG GB.  We continue to support each other through life challenges, our illnesses and our sad losses.  I have seen my aim as helping us to have access to high quality meetings, despite our ‘falling rolls’. Our enthusiasm about education continues to shine. This is illustrated by the commitment to the European conference. Diana’s leadership is amazing.

Joan’s super-efficient organising ability has enabled our Planning team to put together a strong Zoom programme with splendid speakers.  Our meetings have been put onto my YouTube, with unlisted links, so all of us can access them at our leisure.  We’ve had speakers based in US and Italy this past year, of course, this would have been impossible in the past!

Thanks to the trip leaders for the face-to-face opportunities to meet, which are truly appreciated.  

An innovation this year has been giving AI a trial on Zoom for summarising meetings. This has really been a revelation, with its immediacy and general accuracy.

Many thanks again to Sandra for hosting our Christmas get-together, this time with a difference, as we enjoyed making decoupage Christmas decorations. Thanks too to Sheila. Her sunny get-together in the garden, with excellent food and drink, was a highlight of the summer.

Our film for December’s St Lucy’s Day made an impact and was much appreciated – particularly our own piano and chorus rendition of In The Bleak Midwinter!

Here are some meetings we had:

13 July 2024. One Life, Many Stories  I gave a talk about the 68 Czech mainly Jewish children who came to safety from Nazi oppression to Chislehurst, Kent in 1939.

19 October 2024. The Art of Icons. Former teacher Veronica Jones talked about her experience on an icon writing course.

9 November 2024. Leaders. Prof. Denis Tourish again stretched our minds with insights into what makes leaders tick.

18 January 2025. Dr Claire Smith from Washington State, talked about the difference between US and UK education.

15 February 2025. Suzanne Palermo, internationally known speaker on Human Values, introduced us to her website for children - Marty and Human Values.  She continues to keep in touch with us.

Alpha Chapter Report June 2025

This is a very brief report, as our meetings this year have mainly involved planning for the European Forum Conference in July at the University of Sussex.  

Since my last report at our AGM in April, we celebrated the 80^th anniversary of VE Day in May. Members shared various memories of events they, or others they knew, had experienced. These memories were both poignant and joyful in this country and in others.

Once again the use of recording in Zoom meant that those who were unable to attend our meetings could access them at a later date.

Earlier in the year there was also the interesting presentation in February, when the European Educational topic was an Introduction to AI.

Jacqueline van Meeteren from the Netherlands presented this, and gave a very informative session to those of us who were not totally up-to-date on AI. She will be one of the speakers at the conference.

After the conference, normal service will be resumed for our pattern of meetings, maybe with a relaxing outing at some later date in the Summer.

Barbara Kern

Click to see the list of GB State Presidents list.pdf 

  and Great Britain's Chapter Presidents