Bylaws History

When John Grant, Los Angeles, and George Grant, Chattanooga were given permission and encouragement to start a Clan Grant Society in the U.S. from Lord Strathspey, they consulted with the leaders of three highly successful Clan Societies; Donald, MacPherson, MacLeod. Guidance was sought to identify how they functioned; What pitfalls to avoid; What hills needed to be climbed; How to achieve a successful organization and assure longevity.

They all advised that we function as ancient clans, without by-laws and constitution, until we had built and cadre of leadership around the country. This would eliminate hassles over organization etc. We could ask for volunteers to function as officers, look for leadership as we expanded across the country. Without the constrictions imposed by boiler plate Constitution and By Laws we could identify those provisions needed by the Grant Clan for our success. It also allowed the organization to accumulate the funds required for operations. We suffered a setback when John Grant passed away in mid 80's.

This approach worked well for Clan Grant. We grew in the United States, helped start in Canada and funded start up in Scotland. We found leader volunteers who became our commissioners around the country.

When everything was working well, Clan Society growing, with financial stability it was time to formalize. George Grant asked Gordon Grant, in 1993, to prepare and handle a 501-C-7 application for us to become Tax exempt and concurrently produce a Constitution and By Laws. This took about 2 years for everything to take place.

Betsy Riggs and Gordon Grant review changes to the first draft.

George & Lucille Grant retired as Convener in 1996, and ,established a nominating committee for election of our officers and board. We held our first Annual General Meeting at Stone Mountain Games in Atlanta, GA where the documents were adopted.

A total of three drafts of the proposed by-laws were presented to the Board of Directors and posted on the website. The release of the second draft was followed by a coast-to-coast conference call among the the board members. The discussion lasted an hour with several changes to the second draft being suggested. The third draft was released in the days preceding the Stone Mtn. Games. The webmaster had only a poor-quality photocopy to work with and the scanning and OCR process produced some rather embarrassing errors in spelling.

On October 18, 1997, the first Annual General Meeting of the Clan Grant Society was held in a small clearing just off the Clan tent area at Stone Mtn. Park, Georgia, during the 25th annual Stone Mtn. Highland Games. While there were other items of business covered, the main purpose of this first AGM was to discuss and ratify the by-laws. A lively discussion ensued over various parts of the bylaws and proposed amendments. For a detailed picture of the deliberations, see the Minutes of the 1st AGM. In the end, the amended by-laws were passed unanimously.