September 2019 Chairman's Blog

Many of our branches and other Scottish dance clubs are starting a new season of dancing.  I hope it goes well for you all.  However, there was lots of dancing over the summer (and winter for those of you south of the equator).  Scroll back through our social media postings and learn about some of the fantastic events in Scotland, England, Australia, Canada and many other places.  My own Branch, London, organises dancing in one of the central parks every year.  If the weather is kind there is always a lively crowd of locals and tourists, seen here dancing the Orcadian Strip the Willow.

It has been a busy period too for the Management Board.  In August we wrote to every branch explaining our proposal to reduce annual membership subscriptions.  We are also encouraging branches to increase by the same amount the fee they charge to members.  The result would be that members pay the same, the amount of money coming into the Society as a whole would not change, but more of it would be available to support local classes, dances and other activities.  After all it is through branches that we meet the public, teach people to dance and recruit new members.  If you support this idea, ask your Committee to instruct your delegates to vote for the Board’s motion at our AGM in November.

We have also provided a new Licence Agreement for each branch.   It sets out the terms of the relationship between your branch and the Society and updates the original Licence issued in 1996 to take account of the change made to the Society’s legal status four years ago.  If you are curious you can find a copy of the Licence Agreement here.

Later this month the Society, under the ‘Dance Scottish’ banner, will be making the case for teaching Scottish dancing in schools at the Scottish Learning Festival.  In November we have our own Global Youth Week.

I am looking forward to meeting many of you at the Autumn Gathering in Perth on 1-3 November.  This is what we used to call The AGM Weekend, but we have re-branded it to emphasise that it is a dancing and social event, as well as a business conference. Our ‘new book’ of 30 Popular Dances will be on sale at the Gathering.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Society, and many thanks to all the volunteers and our office team who give us so many wonderful dancing occasions to enjoy in so many different places.