Volume 39, No. 1, January 2018
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Greetings Gentlemen of the Society:
This is my first newsletter as the incoming president of St. Andrews Society and I write this was great pride. I think we will all see some changes coming over the next year or 2 and with the guidance of the past presidents I think that we will be able to make some improvements. Our next meeting will be on this Thursday 1/11/18. I hope to see most of you there for our first meeting of the new year. We have several goals for our meetings. The first is to make the meeting more fluid and the second somewhat more entertaining. There have been a number of suggestions about shortening some of the rote parts of the meeting. To this end, starting now, the minutes of the previous meeting will be emailed to the membership prior to the bimonthly regular membership meetings. It will be the responsibility of the members to review the minutes and if there are any questions or corrections related to the minutes this will definitely be discussed at the meeting. If no corrections are felt to be necessary I will simply ask for a motion to except those minutes rather than having the secretary have to repeat the details. Going forward we will also discuss the possibility of having some type of presentation from the treasurer presented beforehand.
Many of the meetings recently have been held without any form of entertainment. There has been a program committee in the past but this has not been active over the past several years. I have asked Norm Rice to chair a new program committee with additional members including Jay Higle, Jack McEneny, and Gordie Peters. I would hope that we would be able to have a schedule of programs for at least 6 months to a year so the members would know what they can expect at the upcoming meetings. This group will also be very important in helping us obtain quality entertainment for our major events as well. Anyone who has a specific interest in presenting or a topic that they would like to have presented is strongly encouraged to contact the members of the program committee with their suggestions. I have purchased a projector for the society which hopefully will be here in time for next week’s meeting. This will be available for power point or photo presentations by guests or members. Dow Smith has kindly agreed to give us a presentation this coming Thursday of his travels through Scotland.
We have just come off 2 very successful gatherings. St. Andrews Nicht on November 30 was well attended and a delight for all. We were in the main dining room at the Fort Orange club this year which was a treat. We were also entertained by James Ruff with his Gaelic songs and the Celtic Harp. James is a professor of music at Vassar College and put on a wonderful presentation. We also had a very successful Christmas party with fine foods, comradery, and carols on 12/17 at the rooms. I do believe that a good time was had by all and I hope that this will become a regular event.
On Burn’s night, January 25, we will be meeting at the Normanside Country Club in Delmar for our annual Burns Supper. This dinner is being organized by our second vice president, Mr. Andrew Patterson and the reservations have gone out in the mail. Please have them back by January 15 or bring a check with you on Thursday. Please remember that we have had an auction at the time of the Burns night dinner for the last few years. This has been a very successful means of raising additional funds and defraying the cost of the event. Anyone who has an item to offer for the auction is invited to bring that with them. Also, please bring your check books so that you can bid on these items. Lastly it is traditional for the members to step up to the open mike on Burns night to share anecdotes about Robbie or read his songs or poems.
There are a number of items that we need to address to make this a more successful society. This includes increasing membership, increasing participation at events, and having more active participation of the members. These are items which we will be addressing at future meetings and that I will be discussing in future presidential letters. There are a number of committees to be filled. They tend to be managed by the same people year after year. I would very much like to have the members look at different committees and let me know if there are any that they would be interested in serving on. The list of committees and the rosters from last year are available online in the membership section of the website. One group of people that are sorely missed is ours stewards. Traditionally we have had 3 volunteers that have helped set up for the meeting and other events. We have a few trusted members who continue to help with this effort but essentially no real stewards at this time. I would very much appreciate anyone who could step forward for this job. It also comes with some really cool aprons. And lastly Lady Night is the second Thursday in March and we are all looking for a good turn out that evening.
Aye yours,
Richard MacDowell, President