Scottish Homecoming Announced for 2014

[Jock Scot]

Was the Scotland branch of your Clan asked to host a tent and they declined?

The Clan Sinclair tent was manned by our Chief, who lives in Scotland, and other members of the Clan Sinclair organization who live in Scotland.
Members from the USA attended, but did not host or set up.

OTOH, if the Scottish Sinclairs had not wanted to, we in the USA certainly would have hosted the tent.

Are the Scotland-based members of your clan in frequent contact with the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs? Seems like they used that organization to reach clansmen. I'm not entirely sure how they reached out to clans.

I can really only speak of my Clan's experience.

Sounds simple does it not?The short answer is no. The problem was that most Scots(I think that is a fair statement) don't belong to any clan association, they don't do clan committees/associations. Therefore, from a local's point of view, word of mouth and knowing that the first Saturday of, for example, June is their particular clan gathering is all that is needed and that is the usual way of things. So the usual way of passing on new clan ventures like the Homecoming totally failed in Scotland, as it was bound to do.

It is quite true that the message did not get through to many local clans early enough and by the time it did, if it ever did, it was found that many foreign clan associations had usurped the local clan positions, probably unwittingly. I think clan Cunningham, for example, had this problem. What might have happened had the outsiders not stepped in is a fair question and I suppose many clans may not not have been represented on the day. In the event, a disastrous combination of incompetence, arrogance and ignorance of the management has created a lot of unnecessary ill will. I seem to recall that some Scots had the same combination and the same result in 1746.

It may sound like sour grapes, it is not, but the fact that the locals were rather rudely ignored, in spite of some locals pleading with "those on high" that local advertising of the event was urgently needed, left many of us feeling really isolated and the end result is now we could not care less about the whole thing.

Whether that legacy of indifference by the locals, will be maintained, time will tell, but a lot of work will be needed in the Highlands to right more than a few wrongs( perceived or real) on this matter.