Dear Member,

Happy Hogmany (or Happy New Year) to all our SDFA members, present and past.

As we start the new year we look forward to sharing our sense of identity and pride in our Scottish heritage and celebrate our cultural background.

Were you able to attend a Scottish gathering, a Highland games, or Scottish or Celtic event in 2023?  You need to make a plan to visit one in 2024 and make a New Year’s resolution to attend an event.  The squeal of the pipes, the Highland dancers, the authentic foods, and the show of athletic strength and skill all stir that Scottish pride.

There are several new Highland games, hopefully there is one near you. The American-Scottish Foundation, americanscottishfoundation.com, has a good calendar in their newsletter (subscribe for free) showing the Scottish events schedule across the United States and Canada.  There is also a free copy download of the “Scottish Banner” at the end of their newsletter for their subscribers.

We had a great 2023 with a growth in our membership.  We want you to grow with us again in the new year.  You will see many changes in the Association, more communications to share our pride in our Scottish heritage.  One of the new features in our quarterly newsletter will be a feature called, “What I know about Scotland is…”, where you can contribute just one thing that you know about Scotland.  We will make a list of all of the contributions in the newsletter and we can all learn something.  If you would like to be in the first issue, all you have to do is email me your fact to sdfa.membership@gmail.com before January 15.  This should be fun and I need your participation.  An example would be: “What I know about Scotland is that Scotland is about the size of South Carolina”.

If you have not renewed your membership for 2024, please do so, so you don’t miss out on the January newsletter.  All 2023 memberships terminate on January 31.  It’s easy to renew on the website www.scottishdistricts.com.

Don’t forget the online meeting on January 10 at 8:00 PM.  A 40 minute meeting to bring you up to date on what your Association is doing.  If you have any question or suggestion that you would like to have discussed email it to Dennis Blythe, President – djblythe1@gmail.com.

I look forward to hearing from you in this new year.

Aye,

Bill Boyd FSA Scot
Membership Secretary