A Happy New Year to you everyone and good luck to you and yours for 2009!
There is still time to buy tickets for our main event of the year - the Heather and Thistle Society's 56th Annual Burns Supper and Ball at the Marriott Westchase on January 24th. I'm looking forward to greeting members and friends old and new at what promises to be a great night. Thanks to Jim Monteith and his team for all their efforts putting the evening together. It really is a mammoth task.
It has to be said that attendance at our monthly meetings has been very disappointing, and we really need to boost our numbers this year. This is also the time of year when we put together our executive team for the coming year. Thanks to Cheryl May we do have a complete slate of office bearers to present to members but we still need help in other positions.
Everyone joined the Society to support its basic aim of promoting Scottish heritage in the Houston community and surrounding area. Now we need more active participation to sustain that effort. Our meetings are really interesting, and as November showed, the unexpected can happen - so please come along, and we ask that all members old and new to volunteer to take up one of these Chairs, none of which is too onerous:
Membership, Sunshine, Publicity, Hospitality
The Society needs your help, now is the time to step up!
This year's Christmas Party was a fine success, although as noted above, a larger attendance would have made it even better. High-quality gifts ranging from books on Scottish and Welsh literature and kids toys all the way to (shock) wine and whisky were exchanged with quite a bit of "stealing" I can tell you.
Please note that the day after the Burns Supper, that is on Sunday January 25 at 3:00 PM we'll gather at our Burns Bust in Hermann Park to honor the Bard's 250th Anniversary. Please join us.
The Society's Burns Group will present A(nother) Night at Poosie Nansie's Inn, a play based on the words of Robert Burns arranged by Jack Hume and introduced by Arthur Down. We have a lot of fun doing this each year, and I'll say it again, a good attendance definitely motivates us.
Burns - what else! We will be celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns on January 25, 2009. A ceremony will be held at 3:00pm at the bust of Robert Burns in the International Commemorative Sculpture Garden in Hermann Park. Please join us for this unique occasion.
At the February 2009 meeting we are going to have a session about the 55-year history of the Heather & Thistle Society. Jack Hume is going to prepare an overview, but the idea is that members should come prepared to talk about their perspective on H&T and everyone is encouraged to bring along memorabilia from past H&T events. Program Chair Gordon Macleod is on his feet for the first time since his accident ten weeks ago. Gordon will be at the Burns Supper and we look forward to seeing him again.
Robert Boyd
Chieftain