Clan Grant 2002 AGM, May 3-5

Event Highlights

Rand Allan

Commissioner SW States

Director-at-Large, Clan Grant Society USA

Photos from the 2002 AGM

 

This year, for the first time, the Clan Grant AGM was held on the West Coast of the United States, in Southern California. We in Southern California felt that the Loch Prado Highland Games and Gathering of the Clans would be the ideal venue for holding our clan's AGM. The Games are sponsored by Clans of the Highlands (COH), a Southern California Confederation of Highland Clans. The focus of COH, of which Clan Grant is a member, is to foster camaraderie amongst the clans, and to promote the education of Scottish and Clan Culture. COH maintains that without the clans, there would have been no highland games or much of what we identify today as uniquely Scottish. Loch Prado is the only Highland Gathering in the United States that is run by the clans, for the clans.

 

Friday, May 3 - Today was reserved for settling in at our respective hotels or campgrounds. We checked in at the host hotel, where we immediately met David Grant and John and Helen Grant.  David, my wife, Christine, and I then proceeded to drive over to Prado Regional Park to locate our space and do the preliminary setup of our clan tents in preparation for the weekend activities. Following the tent set-ups, we returned back to the hotel, where a hospitality room was set up to host the arriving Grants. We spent a couple of hours learning a bit about each other. We finally decided to eat dinner and all 11 of us invaded the Olive Garden Restaurant next door to the hotel. After dinner, a few of us returned to the hospitality room to plan the activities for the AGM.

 

Saturday, May 4 - We arrived bright and early to set up the tents. COH had located us in an ideal location. We were under the shade of a tree for most of the day and in direct view of Prado Lake (Loch Prado).  There was still a mist on the lake and with all of the clan tents and pipe bands, it was not hard to imagine you were in another country. At 9:00 a.m., the trumpets sounded a fanfare, announcing the opening of Loch Prado. We did a brisk business at the tent booth throughout the day answering questions for people that happened by. Around mid-morning, the Southern California contingent of Clan Grant began drifting in and by 11:00 a.m., our ranks had swelled to more than 30 people, the largest group so far to assemble for a Clan Grant AGM.

 

We began to gather for the Parade of the Clans around 11:30. The honor of carrying the new Clan Grant marching banner was given to the Michael Jackonis family youngsters, local members of Clan Grant. For the spectators, the event is quite a treat. All of the clans (about 40+ clans) are split into 4 groups to assemble at separate areas of the Grounds area. At 12 noon, each group, led by a pipe band, makes their way to the central glen of the grounds for a role call of the clans. It was a stirring sight to see nearly 200+ clansmen and women stream into the glen from different areas of the park for the role call. After everyone had gathered, the Chairman of the Games gave a brief introduction and called the roll of clans. Each clan was expected to call out their motto or battle cry. Needless to say, Clan Grant nearly shattered glass with our 30+-voice cry.

 

 

Immediately after the Parade of the Clans, we set up in the picnic area behind our tents for a Bar-B-Q lunch. The local members of Clan Grant got together and prepared a meal of bangers, marinated chicken wings, sodas, desserts, and assorted salads for all of the Grants. During our meal, two new families of Grants came by and joined the Society, so we invited them to the Bar-B-Q.

 

 

 

 

Following the Bar-B-Q, we held our AGM in the shade of the trees behind the Clan Grant tents. David Grant was installed as president of the Clan Grant Society; Rand Allan of Poway and John Grant of Kansas City were installed as Directors-at-Large; Dr. Phil Smith was re-installed as Secretary; and Allan Grant, Richard Grant of Tennessee, and Jim Suttie were installed in absentia as vice-president, treasurer, and Director-at-Large, respectively.  Shown in picture, left to right, is John Grant, David Grant, Rand Allan, and Dr. Phil Smith. David Grant outlined some of the basic ideas he wanted to focus on during his tenure as president. As we are entering the Information Age in the 21^st century, we should be improving our communication capabilities by better utilizing the Craigellachie Newsletter, our national website, and the national Clan Grant Internet Listserver, set up to rapidly communicate information to our members. In order to increase our membership, David called upon the commissioners and others of the Clan Grant Society to actively recruit new members and contact existing members to renew their memberships.

 

Sunday, May 5 - This was a day to relax and just enjoy the day and each other's company. A quick Kirkin' of the Tartans was held by a Presbyterian Minister of Clan Scott. A smaller crowd of Grants participated in the Sunday Parade of Clans (we only rattled the window panes this time). We held a second full Bar-B-Q with Saturday's leftovers and invited our friends at Clan Hall over to help finish up the food. While we were eating lunch, this big, burly man with tattoos and long hair came sauntering up to Phil Smith. He announced that he heard tell  Phil was a world expert in tartans and wondered if Phil would be able to help him with his problem. It seems that his clan is a very small clan and several decades ago, they lost all knowledge of their clan tartan. Phil stated that he knew of their clan and he did indeed know their tartan, whereupon he pulled out his book of tartans and showed him the pattern of his clan's tartan. The man grabbed Phil's hand and exclaimed that his clan had been searching for their tartan for years and had about given up all hope of ever finding it. I declared this a day of celebration for his clan and pulled out a bottle of Grant's Scotch. His eyes got all big and wide, and he exclaimed "My God! Not only do they have their own world expert on tartans, they have their own whiskey, too!".  We celebrated with a round of Grant's Scotch, then he pulled out his personal favorite and we shared another round.

 

Later in the day a woman came by the tent. She stated that her grandkids' mother was a Grant and had recently died in an accident. She came to the tent because she wanted to show her grandkids that they had a heritage beyond their parents and immediate family. Although their mother was gone, there was a whole new world of kin that she wanted them to learn about. We sold her two t-shirts and sat and talked with them for a while about Clan Grant.

 

We listened to Kenneth MacAlpine of the Clan MacAlpine Society as he talked about ideas to bring the Siol Alpin Clans into closer association with each other. The Siol Alpin Clans (Grant, MacGregor, MacAlpine, MacAulay of Ardencaple, MacFie (MacDuffie), MacKinnon, MacNab, and MacQuarrie) believe themselves to be related to each other through common ancestors in the royal clan of King Kenneth MacAlpine, who ruled Scotland in the 9^th century A.D. One of ways Kenneth suggested to bring the clans closer together was for the members of each clan to wear their plant badge, the Scots Pine, which is common to only the Siol Alpin clans. The plant badge is the ancient form of clan identification before there were clan tartans or belt-and-buckle badges. It is primarily worn in the balmoral cap behind the belt and buckle badge, or lacking a cap, in the shirt as you would wear a flower in your lapel. This not only identifies us as a member of Clan Grant, it also identifies us as one of the Siol Alpin clans.  A second suggested way suggested by Kenneth for the Siol Alpin clans to gain a closer association with each other is to group our tents together at the Highland gatherings held throughout the United States. This physically closer association with the Siol Alpin clans serves to reinforce our ties with each other.

 

Throughout the weekend, there were a whole host of activities for the participants of the Highland Gathering. In keeping with the COH tradition of activities for the clans, all athletics, dancing competitions, harp competitions, and piping competitions were held strictly at the amateur level. There were archery activities for the kids, lots of food, a haggis ceremony, sheep herding, and historical re-enactments. For the first time in the United States, haggis hurling was held at Loch Prado as an official sporting event.  Tradition holds that haggis hurling first began generations ago when the Scottish wives would throw a haggis across the stream to their husbands for their lunch and the men would catch the haggis in their kilt to avoid rupturing the haggis. You decide if it was true or not. There was haggis hurling competitions for children, women, and men. Since this was the first event ever held in the United States (it's big in Canada and the UK), the winner of each category walked away with a national record for the event. As a primary focus of COH is education, instructional classes were held in genealogy, the Gaelic language, harp-playing, and storytelling. An added bonus to the weekend activities was a lecture series by Dr. Phil Smith of Clan Grant, who gave talks on Exploding the Tartan Myth and Gaelic - a Living Language. Phil continued to consult with clans and individual clansmembers throughout the weekend.  His advise was greatly appreciated by many.

 

At 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, the games concluded and we packed up the tents, said our good-byes, promised to keep in touch with our newly-discovered kin, and drove home, happily revitalized and excited about new beginnings and possibilities within Clan Grant.