PO Box 765, Rapid City SD 57709 BlackHillsCelticEvents.org 605-716-7186 Volume 8 Issue 2 February 2006 You may contribute news and photos by email to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org This will be your LAST newsletter IF you have NOT paid your Scottish Irish Society dues for 2006 Check it off your list of things TO DO and send in your renewal today! Renewals can be made online via our website or mail to P.O. Box 795, Rapid City, SD 57709. Dues are $20 per individual or $30 per family. Members get discounts at Society events. Invite your friends to join the Society. We don’t want anyone missing out on any of the exciting activities coming up! Saint Patrick’s Day Dinner and Ceilidh - March 18, 2006 This is always a popular event for the entire family, so get those tickets NOW! Tickets are available at the Dahl Arts Center & via the S.I.S. Web site: www.BlackHillsCelticEvents.org . Tickets will also be available at the February 16th Society membership meeting. Menu is being devised and will likely include appetizers, Irish stew, fruit, shortbread, and bread pudding. John Burke and Jim Byrne are heading up the meal planning. The dinner will be at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 717 Quincy, 6:00 p.m. social and 7:00 p.m. dinner. Please buy your tickets by March 15th. February 16th Membership Program Learn about Imbolc, a Celtic holiday traditionally celebrated in February. There was an accidental ‘double booking’ for the January general meeting at the TREA building, which required some fast shuttling around (thank you Pat & Gary Hamilton for hosting the meeting at the last minute!) All is OK now and February’s meeting is at the TREA building, as usual. February 16 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, TREA* Building, Rapid City Program: Imbolc (Candlemas) Celtic celebration March 2 7:00 p.m. Board Meeting March 16 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, TREA* Building, Rapid City March 17 T.B.A. String Thaw will be playing at the Dublin Square March 18 6:00 p.m. St Patrick’s Day Dinner, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Rapid City To be announced Rummage Sale *TREA = The Retired Enlisted Association building, 1981 East Centre Street, Rapid City This is my first message to the members since the January election. Thank you for the vote of confidence. I hope that I can live up to it. My main message this month pertains to our mission in the Black Hills Celtic Community. We have 5 to 6 society sponsored events each year. While most of them are open to the public they include mainly members and friends. However, other opportunities come to us. They come by invitation or through the efforts of a member with an idea. The net result is that we have the opportunity to share our culture with many others in the community. It seems that there is at least one event per month in addition to our own. We helped String Thaw and the Dahl Arts Center with Martinmas last October. Our last Hogmanay was a joint effort with the Black Hills Symphony. We are invited to have dance lessons with the Sons of Norway. The School of Mines would like us to participate in their annual Cultural Expo. I could list more. We do not, we cannot, accept all invitations that come our way. Most of the invitations that we accept are keyed to the personal interest of at least one member. We informally pole other members for their interest level. If we have enough support and if we can afford it, we go for it. I am personally committed to sharing our knowledge and culture throughout our community. Next time that we are invited to help another group present a cross cultural event, please volunteer to help. They are always fun and rewarding. Gary Hamilton Bill and Sally Knight did an EXCELLENT job heading up the Robert Burns Dinner planning committee! Sally’s menu for the evening received RAVE reviews! The entertainment was plentiful with many folks reading some of Burn’s poems, some singing songs and some toasts as well. String Thaw entertained us well, as always. Toast to the Lassies, by Jim Byrne: A toast to the lassies, so fair and so sassy, Whose charms give delight to us men? As I look around, I am duty bound To proclaim these angels from heaven. Here’s to Sally Knight, so regal and bright, Whose hair has a silvery sheen. And let everyone know, whether friend or foe That she is our Queen of Halloween. Here’s to young Aliyah, we’re sure glad to see ya With raven locks and flashing blue eyes. By day she’s a scholar; by night she’s a mother Singing her girls lullabies. Here’s to Midge Schmidt, who’s done much for this outfit And set an example to follow: Go the extra mile, wearing a smile And speak words that ring true and not hollow. Here’s to Nila Boone, who worked hard on this room Setting each place with care. Her family is Manx, she deserves many thanks So applaud her with much fanfare! Here’s to Pat Hamilton, our well-spoken clarion Writing all news fit to print. She turns head like a wrench, when dressed as a wench And causes men’s eyes to glint. Here’s to Carole Conrad, who doesn’t do too bad Keeping track of our profits and losses. She laughs like Bacall, has a waistline that’s small, And a smile that she constantly flosses. If I had talent, like Robbie Burns did, To express my love for the lasses, I’d recite some more, but I don’t, so I won’t. I bid all to lift up your glasses! Toast to the Laddies, by Sally Knight: Come hither Lads, I have something to say, That on this celebration of Robert Burns day If you are hoping for a lass’s kiss You best not be eating all the haggis! P.S. For those of you unlucky enough to taste a ‘salty’ bread pudding, it turns out that a salt shaker accidentally got dumped on one end of one pan! Our apologies … do try it again! :) A sideboard on the Burns dinner. You may have noticed that we sold tickets for the Robert burns Dinner through the Dahl Arts Center. We channeled most of our publicity through the Dahl. This is new. And for the most part it was successful. We learned a few tricks about event publicity and we will use that new knowledge for St. Patrick’s dinner advertising. As for ticket sales, 30% sold through the Dahl. A whopping 70% of tickets were sold by members. This tells us that our members are interested, involved and are proud of our events. Keep up the good work for the St. Pat’s dinner! r Dance Caller Lessons At the last meeting the board moved to support an arts grant application to bring a dance instructor to Rapid City to teach Dance Calling for Celtic dance steps. String Thaw and Molly Bennett would conduct the lessons. Molly is the talented caller who directed us at the Hogmanay. She did an excellent job. If the grant application is successful we would be able to recruit prospective dance callers from SIS to attend the lessons. We could then conduct lessons at monthly meetings. Our only commitment at this time is a letter of reference from the S.I.S. President to the granting agency. Dancing Option John Burke is also a member of a Sons of Norway dance group. That group is interested in sharing lessons with the S.I.S. We could learn some Norwegian dances and they could learn some Celtic ones. More information will come in the future. Contact John Burke if you are interested in learning some dances. We Almost Lost Our Meeting Room at TREA! Some of you may have arrived at TREA last month to find a different group using our meeting room. This was a scheduling error, compounded by the fact that we no longer use TREA for board meetings. The TREA management thought that we no longer wished to use the room so they gave it to another group. The January 19th meeting was consequently held at Pat and Gary Hamilton’s house. CROWDED! This next meeting, February 16th will be held at TREA. This brings to mind the fact that we could change meeting locations any time the membership wishes. If you have a better location to suggest, just check into it. We meet third Thursdays. We need to seat 20 to 30 persons. A room suited to video or projector presentations is best. We have a new Web-apprentice, let’s hope we survive. Robert Millican, our Webmaster is out of the country on military duty for a time. He is the one responsible for the dancing pipers and pay online services that you see. Gary Hamilton has agreed to try his hand at website maintenance and performing simple updates. Robert has said that he can check in on the site from his duty station and advise Gary from time to time. If you are reading this text then we may assume that Gary has successfully edited the site to include the February Newsletter. Your Input Needed This newsletter would be far more interesting with your input: news, events, culture, history, photos, new Celtic businesses, anything. Submit your articles in MS Word doc and photos in jpg format. E-mail to info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org . Occupying the old Filly’s comedy club, Dublin Square has been open since the end of January and the crowds are finding out about it! The owner, Ray Graff, plans to serve food by Saint Patrick’s Day and has booked String Thaw to play on March 17th. Mark your calendar to stop in and say hi! Midge Schmidt has been a member of the S.I.S. since its inception, serving on the board for the majority of those years. As partial recognition for, and appreciation of, her many years of service on the board and in the kitchen (she is a renowned bread pudding chef!), the board voted to make Midge an ‘Honorary Board Member’. This gives her ALL of the glory and NONE of the hassles! THANKS MIDGE!!!! Elections were held at the January membership meeting. Thank you Nila for your hard work recruiting candidates. As a result of the election, we have kept many old faces and we have a new face, Jim Marrs, and a new president, Gary Hamilton. We want to thank Bill Knight for filling in as interim president for these past few months. Refer to the end of the newsletter for a complete roster of the new board. Our Society is fortunate to have grown by several new members over the past couple of months. Please welcome: Larry Schmoll, Emory Speer Jr, Cindy Howell, Megan McFarland, Mimi & Brian Tschida, Christine & Matthew Murraine, Janice Murraine, Joe & Vicki Wallace, and Laurie & Douglas Craggun. We’ll try to get some profiles of our new members in upcoming newsletters. Lori & Doug jumped right into the Robert Burns festivities by baking some scrumptious Bread Pudding and helping with the setup and cleanup (AND their son LOVED the haggis!). Be sure to introduce yourselves to all our new members at our next Society meeting or our St Patrick’s Day Dinner. Membership growth is important. We are, as usual, down on membership right now. Typically we grow throughout the year and lose members at renewal time. Looking at past years, back to 2002, we experienced 60-70% turnover in the membership list each year. Most of the lost members were people that none of you may know. A goal would be to establish a solid core of active members with a lower turnover rate. To that end we could use a membership chairperson. Please consider serving in that position. You would not need to do all of the work. You merely need to see that recruiting and new member follow-up activities are happening smoothly. Events like the Saint Patrick’s Day dinner require publication in a variety of media. The Society would like a member to serve as a publicist. You do not need to do it all, but can work with others to publicize our events through flyers, posters, news releases, etc. As mentioned above, the Dahl provides much support in this area. If you are interested please contact a board member. Last month I shared a few items for Arthur Herman’s book, “How the Scots Invented the Modern World”. This month I have been reading snippets about the rise of John Knox as a religious and political power in Scotland. At the time, the royals of Scotland subscribed publicly to the Catholic Church. To the people of Scotland the Catholic Church and the royals represented a self serving monarchy. In 1559 Knox launched a campaign to overthrow the Catholic Church bringing his brand of Calvinism to the fore. While Calvinism may seem to us to be a harsh and austere dogma (no dancing, no piping, no card playing, no public festivals), Knox with the help of George Buchanan brought about the fall of the Catholic Church in Scotland. Soon afterward the power of the royal monarchy began to fade. Buchanan asserted that all political power belonged to the people. People had the right to select their leaders. “Government of the people, by the people” should sound familiar to you. A new system of governance for the Kirk evolved, including elected representatives to serve on a national Kirk assembly. Remember, at the time there was little separation between church and state. Knox and Buchanan had created the first Democracy in Europe. As these events unfolded the General Assembly in Glasgow followed. By 1649 the absolute power of royal monarchies had left Scotland forever. Gary Hamilton Treasurer’s report: SIS account currently has a balance of $1,916. Hogmanay profit = $1.223.60 Hogmanay cost = $717.25 Elections held, results were: Gary Hamilton as president, Bill Knight as vice president. Members of the board are: John Burke, James Byrne, James Marrs, and Kerry Smith. Aliyah Sanders will continue as appointed member representing the School of Mines and Carole Conrad as Treasurer. Unfinished business: Burns dinner plans continue. Food purchases will depend on tickets sold. New safety guidelines will be enforced. SIS will have a membership table this year and cook books will also be sold. The amount of $600 has been budgeted for the dinner from SIS account for Sally and her culinary committee to work with. The proposal for SIS members to wear name tags at events was approved. The suggestion for minutes to be generalized for the newsletter was approved. Those who wish full minutes can read at general meetings, be sent by email or postal mail. St. Patrick’s Day plans were also discussed. Gary Hamilton will begin to make tickets. Menu will be more Irish. Held at Episcopal Church on March 18, 2006. New Business: Sally Knight will be the membership chairperson to follow up with new members. A publicist to help with advertisement is still needed. Karen Snook has agreed to assist with graphics. Membership renewals were addressed. Members who have not renewed at this time will receive one last newsletter with a note explaining they will not receive further newsletters until dues are paid. Carole Conrad has the updated list. Pat Hamilton requests that general meeting programs be first on the agenda versus business items. Approved. Program ideas for February: Irish stories, or the history of Imbolc. Sally Knight, secretary. (Members can request complete minutes from the secretary or read at general member meetings.) Treasurer’s report showed $2,212 in the SIS account. Not all bills for the Burns dinner have been paid at this time. The Dahl sold 28 tickets and owes SIS about $120. Gary Hamilton expressed disappointment with press releases for the Burns dinner by the Rapid City Journal and radio advertisement and pointed out that 70% of ticket sales were done by members. New Business: Gary Hamilton has printed tickets for St. Patrick’s dinner. Gary showed members a poster designed by Karen Snook which was approved to use. Robert Millican, Pat Hamilton, Gary Hamilton, and Aliyah Sanders will maintain website. Holly Lemay has asked for SIS to support her in an art grant that will bring Molly Bennet to Rapid City to teach dance calling. Carole Conrad made a motion to support the art grant. Gary Hamilton informed members that the Exchange Club committee will have a convention this year with a Celtic theme. John Burke has asked the SIS to join him in the Son’s of Norway group that meet at the Canyon Lake Senior Citizen Center for mutual shared dance lessons. Sally Knight, secretary. (Members can request complete minutes from the secretary or read at general member meetings.) In Case You Did Not Know 1) I despise long business meetings! Whether I am at a club meeting or a meeting connected with my work, I grow impatient and fidgety at drawn out meetings. I think that business conducted during general membership meetings should take no longer than 30 minutes. Programs and social activities should take up the rest of the time. We need to work toward that end. We will have meeting agendas and we have an abridged set of Roberts rules of Order to use when needed. 2) The Scottish and Irish Society of the Black Hills is not a democracy! But then neither is the state of South Dakota nor the United States of America. The S.I.S. is run by a representative form of governance. You, the members of S.I.S. elect board members to do most of your business. The minutes of board meetings are summarized in the newsletter and they are read at general membership meetings. Members have the power to overrule board actions by a motion with a quorum of the members. The S.I.S. is your club too. Pay attention to the business of the S.I.S. If you have input for the board, pass it along. If you and enough members wish to pre-empt or override a board decision, make a motion at a general membership meeting. There will be no hard feelings. We must make many decisions in good faith with no idea what you wish to see happen. 3) Individual board members often act on their own to make major decisions on your behalf. Not every action made on your behalf by board members can be deliberated at a meeting. It is often necessary for your leaders to make decisions on the fly. These decisions often commit, or at least involve promises to spend money from your treasury. Opportunities on a deadline often present themselves in between regular business meetings. Your leaders are routinely faced with the choice of passing up a good idea or gambling that the commitment will be supported by members at the next business meeting. The decision deadline for the 2005 Hogmanay was just such a situation. Your Interim President and a few board members made a commitment to the Black Hills Symphony to support the event without a business meeting. However, the actual dispersal of the money was preceded by a motion passed at a business meeting. The board tries to keep abreast of the S.I.S. budget and member desires so that such decisions can be handled expeditiously. Requiring board members to meet for every decision would tie up too many hours of personal time. Keep your board informed about your ideas and your ideals for the proper conduct of S.I.S. business. Gary Hamilton, President President Gary Hamilton, info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Vice President Bill Knight Secretary Sally Knight Treasurer Carole Conrad Board Members Aliyah Sanders, Kerry Smith, Jim Byrne, James Marrs Membership Open Web Site Robert Millican with apprentices: Gary & Pat Hamilton, and Aliyah Sanders Newsletter Pat Hamilton, info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org If you would like to contribute an article or story, list an event, submit a photo, etc. to the newsletter, please email the item to me by the 5th of each month. p http://ccoble.addr.com/News_Letters/Html/200602.mht 1