Scottish Homecoming Announced for 2014

[cessna152towser]

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

No were never invited and when we sought to get involved with the Edinburgh gathering we were told that we could not have a clan tent because it had already been allocated to this smaller and newer group from the USA. I had an exchange of e-mails with Jamie Sempill who claimed to have done some internet research and decided that this other group could better represent us. Though I have reason to believe that he simply went around the groups who had tents at Stone Mountain in 2007 or 2008 and invited the people manning them to go to Edinburgh. Scottish participation from a number of other lowland clans was similarly excluded from Edinburgh.
My own clan society and the American society who came to Edinburgh both contacted me and requested me to meet with Leslie (LAScotswoman) who was a member of both societies and who came over to Scotland to do some troubleshooting. She had done a lot of research on the clan genealogy and had identified a potential hereditary Head of Family who would unite the various societies who wanted to represent the family. She and I met with the Lord Lyon to discuss the recognition of a Chief and also with Sir Crispin Agnew QC who would represent the applicant in the Lyon Court. As a direct consequence we now have a petition before the Lord Lyon for appointment of a Chief, we are meantime represented on the new Council of Armigerous Clans, and a new unified clan society with worldwide membership has been set up.
The Edinburgh gathering, well it left a bitter taste with many Scots but the North Americans seem to have loved it. Thanks to the initiative of Richard Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Chief of Clan Scott, we were able to hold our own Muster of the Clans for the lowland families at the end of September in the Scottish Borders where many of our visitors from USA and Canada told us they had only decided to come after hearing glowing reports from friends who had been to Edinburgh in July.

[AcuteEnigma]

So if someone had gone round to all the Scottish Games in Scotland and told those hosting the clan tents that there would be a really big all Clans gathering then maybe the locals would have had first shot at hosting the tents?

Is there some other way to reach Clan representatives in Scotland?

I'd be happy to spend 2012 going around to each local games in Scotland signing Clans up for the 2014 event.

;-)

[Jock Scot]

So if someone had gone round to all the Scottish Games in Scotland and told those hosting the clan tents that there would be a really big all Clans gathering then maybe the locals would have had first shot at hosting the tents?

Is there some other way to reach Clan representatives in Scotland?

I'd be happy to spend 2012 going around to each local games in Scotland signing Clans up for the 2014 event.

;-)

Alright I admit that I don't frequent Highland games very often these days, so things may have changed, although I doubt it.

At a Scottish Highland games there might be a clan tent of the local Clan. There is not a whole row of different Clan tents and there is no parade of Clans. The Clan thing is very much there, but lower than low key. For clan members visiting another clan's patch for a games we are very much the visitors. We are welcome but......

Honestly we don't do clan associations we don't need to, we are already there!We don't do razz-ama-tazz.We don't spend weeks, or, even months working out who and where we are going to meet.Many of us don't think about gatherings until ten minutes before we go. The clan thing is important to us, but not uppermost in our minds, its more of a subconscious thing that surfaces once in a while.These things just tend to happen, they don't of course, but it is all low key. This is where the management of the last "Homecoming" completely misunderstood how things work in Scotland and to reach the local population it was not much good chatting to the good people of Stone Mountain who do things in a very different way and then just expect the locals to turn up!

OK lets look forward and hope some lessons have been learned and I hope this time around those lessons will be put to good use. PLEASE!

[cessna152towser]

So if someone had gone round to all the Scottish Games in Scotland and told those hosting the clan tents that there would be a really big all Clans gathering then maybe the locals would have had first shot at hosting the tents?

Sounds good in theory, but we don't go in for clan tents in Scotland on the same scale as games in Canada and USA. At a Scottish games it is rare to have more than two or three clans represented, unsually it is only the clans whose ancestral home is local to the area where the games are being held who will have a tent. You would need to go round lots of different games all over Scotland through the season to see all the different clans, whereas at games in USA and Canada you can see them all side by side in a Clan Village.
Hopefully now that the Council of Armigerous Clans has been set up this will provide a new line of contact, but the feeling was that we Scots were simply not wanted by the organisers of the 2009 Edinburgh gathering.

[BoldHighlander]

OK lets look forward and hope some lessons have been learned and I hope this time around those lessons will be put to good use. PLEASE!

Indeed! As someone who was unable to attend last year's event, this thread has been an eye opener!

I realize that these Homecoming event(s) are/were geared more towards tourism than for the locals (at least that's how I view it), I sincerely hope the organizers do indeed do a better job of including the local population in the event.

At a Scottish Highland games there might be a clan tent of the local Clan. There is not a whole row of different Clan tents and there is no parade of Clans. The Clan thing is very much there, but lower than low key. For clan members visiting another clan's patch for a games we are very much the visitors. We are welcome but......

Honestly we don't do clan associations we don't need to, we are already there!

Of course North America being a land of immigrants we don't have the luxury of being there already, thus the need/desire for the Clan Associations & Scottish Societies

You would need to go round lots of different games all over Scotland through the season to see all the different clans

Ahhh...how I wish I had the time & the $$$$ to run around Scotland visiting the different games etc, & rounding up local support