Points Made at Breakout Sessions

The Breakout Sessions at the Clan Convention generated a wide range of discussion points. The list below is not completely comprehensive, but is based on the points considered to be salient by the Group rapporteurs when they met in the tea break immediately following the sessions themselves. Notes from that session have been supplemented by reference to the more considered notes submitted later by rapporteurs.

The points are made in no particular order of importance, except that [X] marks what seem to be particularly key ‘mega-points’. Some points emerged in more than one Group.

Tourism

• Chiefs. Be proactive, available, welcoming. Show leadership. Offer leadership to the young. Present the truth about Scotland past and present.
• [X] Create an ‘authority’ linked to Standing Council (SC), funded, to promote clan ambassadorship, and promote wide range of ‘ancestral’ activities. An authority to represent the clan interest to the political system, eg on tourism issues. [Is this or could it be the SC itself?]
• [X] Public sector funding for clan/ancestral tourism. Negotiate with Visit Scotland, especially for low capacity times of year.
• Encourage/organise visitors to be involved in building and maintenance projects.
• Getting information on events in Scotland is not easy. Simple central site need : maybe not SC.
• Better and more accessible information on transport within Scotland.
• Have VisitScotland representation at US games and gatherings, with targeted literature.
• Have accessible information and ideas for the less well-off traveller.
• Discounts. Ease the costs of getting to clan gatherings. (cf Irish practice).
• Get more information on ‘clan’ to tour guides and similar.
• ‘Bundle’ exemplar itineraries linked to particular clans.
• Have ‘clan brochures’. SC should facilitate.
• Link Clan + Kinship + Highland Games.
• Get Clan and Genealogy into schools (see below). Provide relevant school resources.
• European links. Push clan tourism to European market.
• Consider official financial support for clan organisation.
• Provide training for those organising clan-linked tours and trips.
• Use SC as source of help for clan organisation.
• Support clan-linked tourism within Scotland..
• Don’t forget the Lowlands. Or England. Treat them as ‘overseas’ in planning marketing.
• Do something about culture of poor service in Scottish tourist and hospitality industries.
• A Scottish Tartan Day or Heritage Month.
• Scotland should present itself better

Youth Engagement

• Youth must ”own” the activities that involve them.
• [X] Promote awareness of clan in schools. Get information into schools. The next generation must understand Scotland’s international links. (‘Scotland’s People’ system is available to schools). Better school emphasis on local and family history.
• Involve parents.
• [X] Use the IT possibilities. (a ) Model of US ‘fraternities’ : could the internet (Facebook etc) be used to create dispersed youth fraternities linked to clan, etc. (b) centralised availability of all kinds of relevant information. Hyperlinks.
• Young Scot to organise web-based discussions, in Scotland and internationally.
• Organise student exchanges using clan links.
• Inclusive, accessible chiefs.
• Youth ‘councils’ within a clan.
• Youth Parliament to extend their information links.
• Use/link the Feisd movement.
• Have a single central information point.
• Sport. Could there be Highland Games organised similar to the Island Games, with international and interclan competition? Use increasing US interest in football (soccer).
• Support study in Scotland, hosting student incomers on a clan basis. Twinning.
• Organise ‘field trips’.

What is Wanted of the Standing Council?

• Don’t overcommit the SC so that they fail to deliver.
• Gatherings at 4 or 5 year intervals, please.
• SC should be as inclusive as possible.
• SC should be a proactive body, with plans. Plan ahead for visits by chiefs – esp Australia.
• More direction of international links needed.
• [X] Have centralised website availability and management. Maintain up-to-date Communication role : central point of information access. Disseminate quarterly written bulletins.
• Win hearts and minds within Scotland.
• Encompass the Ulster Scots within the clan system.
• [X] Who is the SC’s audience? What are its objectives? Isn’t all this ‘broader than the Chiefs’? Should the SC not become an umbrella organisation. Validate/accredit aspects of heritage.
• Clan networking could be extended through the new world of IT..
• Dissemination of better information on principles of heredity. [Appears to refer to the question of whether a clan chiefship has to descend by primogeniture].
• A mediation function in the event of disputes involving clans.
• Link Highland Games to US games.
• Establish formal links to US organisations such as COSCA – US umbrella organisation. Also the Australian Scottish Heritage Council, and the NZ Scottish Clan Organisation. The Clans Foundation (c/o Thor Ewing)?
• Involve Scots.

Other

• ‘Tartan tat’. Shoddy goods less of a problem than duff information. SC role in ensuring integrity and quality.
• 50% of clans/names don’t have a chief. How do you get one? Could the process be made easier (cf Lyon).
• Smaller societies and organisations need to be co-ordinated, and possibly funded.
• Overseas clans wan to link to clans in Scotland, not just to chiefs. Get organised!!
• Publicity for the Gathering within Scotland was abysmal.
• Scots do not celebrate their Scottishness through clans. They must learn t appreciate overseas Scots needs in this respect.
• St Andrews societies are disjointed, and not a coherent network.
• Are clans exclusive, or can anyone join?