The July 2020 edition of The Claymore is now available.
COSCA Annual General Meeting
The COSCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be convened on Saturday, 21 November at 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada), remotely via Zoom. Only authorized representatives of each member organization will be eligible to vote. We will be electing officers and trustees, plus revisions to our bylaws. The proposed revisions and the full bylaws are below.
- Summary List of Changes Made;
- Final Copy of Revised Bylaws, With Changes; and
- Marked Up Copy with Proposed Bylaw Changes–Additions, Deletions and Other Changes–Highlighted in Red.
Download the instructions for joining the ZOOM meeting here.
If you have not paid your dues yet for 2020, please act quickly to do so by contacting Scott Swann, our Membership Chairman, at scots1314@gmail.com. Only members-in-good-standing whose dues have been paid for 2020 will be allowed to vote on candidates for office and other matters up for a vote at the November AGM.
Also, each Clan Society and other Organizational Member of COSCA must designate one person to represent them at the AGM to cast their vote. While all are encouraged to attend the online AGM, as per our Bylaws only one vote per member will be counted—even if a Clan Society which is an Organizational Member of COSCA itself has many hundreds of members. To designate your Official Voting Representative (OVR) for the upcoming AGM, each Organizational Members of COSCA is asked to contact our Secretary, Charlie Sherwood, at tulsaexile@yahoo.com.
2020 Scottish North American Community Conference
This Conference is an opportunity for those of us in the Scottish North American community to share views, values, experiences and best practices. The conference aims to raise awareness of Scotland and Scottish culture; to develop a better understanding of the roles, objectives and operations of the various government, academic, non-profit and private sector organizations that operate in the Scottish-North American community and to identify opportunities to enhance communication and collaboration within the community.
The conference is presented by the founding partners, The American-Scottish Foundation and the CHICAGO SCOTS in association with St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit and additional co-sponsors, Council of Scottish Clans & Associations (COSCA) and the Toronto, Ontario-based Scottish Studies Foundation.
Attendees will have the opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas with key figures from Scotland, America and Canada on topics affecting and involving the Scottish-North American community both here and in Scotland. The theme of this year’s conference is “Enduring Bond of Scottish-North American Friendship.” As in the past, conference organizers expect to have active participation from the Scottish Government, VisitScotland and other key Scottish and Scottish-North American missioned organizations.
See the Celtic Life magazine article in the December 2020 edition:
The Scottish North American Community Conference: The SNACC brings Scots together online this December (PDF)
See the Scottish Banner magazine artile in the November 2020 edition:
The 17thAnnual Scottish North American Community Conference will take place virtually this year on Zoom December 4th-6th (PDF)
Get your tickets here. After you purchase your ticket for the Scottish North American Community Conference we will send over your Zoom link event invite which you will be able to use to join the Conference.
You can download a PDF of a promotional flyer here, which you can distribute moung your members.
Robert The Bruce film is now available online:
Screen Media has released the film on most digital platforms. This year coincides with the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, when The Bruce declared Scotland a free land, and the 25th anniversary of the release of the film Braveheart from which Robert The Bruce picks up the historical timeline. Angus Macfadyen once again portrays Robert the Bruce. See more here.
700th Anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath
This year, 2020, will be a big year for us in the Scottish-American Community, as we join our cousins in Scotland to celebrate the 700th Anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath — the Scottish declaration of independence from the English king, signed and sealed by King Robert and the Scottish barons in 1320. FYI, this is the lead article in the January/February 2020 edition of The Highlander magazine, which I recommend to
you. Celebratory events are scheduled all year in Scotland, but a procession and a formal (in modern English) reading of the Declaration will take place in the town of Arbroath on April 5th. Learn more here.
