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.

[Brian K]

Perhaps this time I won't be stuck in South Britain (so near, yet so far). On the other hand, there are worse situations than hanging out here with a congenial bunch of choristers:

Hmmm, Fluter. 'Twould be grand indeed to be "stuck" there. Looks like a place I could spend hours, especially if there were others with whom I could raise my voice in praise.

[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.

;-)

[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.

[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!

[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