COSCA report

[Thomas Thompson]

My Impressions of the Council of Scottish Clans & Associations (COSCA) Clan Caucus 2013 at Banner Elk, NC. July 11, 2013.

    About 100 of us attended the day long caucus.  An audio production of the event will be available later next week. Cosca.net

 Special Guest speakers:
      Sir Malcollm MacGregor of MacGregor – on behalf of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.                                                                                                     
      Jamie, Lord Sempill – why “Gathering 2014” failed at birth.
      Rt Hon. Henry McLeish – Scottish Labour Party politician – Modern Scotland.
      Dr Bruce Durie – Ancestral Tourism for the Scottish diaspora.

  My impressions of the caucus. Over all it was a lot of talk and very little concrete actions. Lord Sempill outlined why the planned gathering 2014 failed – multitude of Gov bureaucrats on numerous panels without a single leader and without a definable goal.
 Sir Malcolm MacGregor spoke on clan problems in particular those without Chiefs and without land (in Scotland)
 The Rt. Hon. McLeish caught my attention with his analysis of the disconnection between the interests of modern Scots and that of the diaspora. In Scotland the games are sponsored by local clans, usually on clan lands, and very little resemblance to our American games. Their chief interests are the coming election (Separation) and EU problems; compounded by their shallow knowledge of their nation's history. The diaspora clans are mostly interested in individual and/or clan history and mainly think of Scotland as it was in the 15th,16th, and 17th century.
 I found Dr. Durie's talk most interesting. He promised me to put his power point slides on the COSCA web page. He pointed out the lack of a cohesive site of local resources for those searching for family history. An additional factor is the attitude of local shopkeepers and tourist facilities personnel to regard ancestral tourism as only a source of easy money that doesn't require knowledge or effort.
    We did develop 5 problem areas and urged the appointment of working committees for each.

  Tom Thompson, President Clan Thompson Society

[Michael Thompson]

Great report Tom. Nice to know what's going on.