Who We Are and What We Do
We are an association of clan/family heritage groups, societies, festivals, and businesses dedicated to supporting Scottish culture and heritage in Canada and around the world. As a federally registered non-profit charity in Canada, we welcome membership from organizations aligned with our mission, regardless of their location. Approximately 43% of our 105 members are based outside of Canada.
Representation at Events and Online Meetings
We represent our members at games and festivals using three 10’ by 5’ banners featuring a poster for each of our member organizations. These posters contain the member name, crest/logo, with names, septs, motto, tartans or other info appropriate for the member. They also include a tracked QR code and URL to a webpage with more details about the member, including links to their website, membership contact, and social media. The goal for the poster and webpage is to attract prospective members, attendees, and customers to our organizations.
Our display has proven popular and is now considered an important feature at festivals and games. In 2024, Scots Canada will represent our member organizations at over 20 games and events across Canada and the USA. A board director typically attends these events in person to set up and curate the display banners. When possible, we also distribute brochures, magazines, application forms, and business cards on behalf of our member groups.
At many events, we assist booth visitors in researching their names to help them discover which clan or family they may belong to. This service has been very successful and often directs visitors to our member organizations. Additionally, we provide a binder for our member organizations to display at their own booths, featuring the equivalent image of the poster for each member.
We hold two general meetings a year with a Fall meeting in November as a business meeting for annual reporting and elections. A Spring meeting is held, often in combination with Tartan Day, for communication and community sharing.
Communication via Website, Social Media, Emails and Newsletters
Our website provides links to contact our members, links to our newsletters and Scots Canada Updates, an event listing and submission form, look ups references for names and clans plus Scottish resource links. A Scots Canada Ancestral Map of Scotland and Ireland is currently being developed for the website as well as being integrated into the display banners mentioned above.
We produce a quarterly newsletter featuring contributions from our members, community interest items, and announcements about special member events. Newsletters are available as PDFs and FlipBooks on our website.
In addition, we send a Scots Canada Update email about twice a month, providing updates on upcoming Scots Canada and member activities, as well as other items of interest. All members are encouraged to contribute articles and special notices for distribution in our emails. Businesses and festivals receive advertising space in these publications at no charge.
For our festival member organizations, we highlight their upcoming events and include notices about clan, family and society registrations in both our emails and newsletters.
Funding, Education, and Support for Youth
We founded and continue to sponsor the Clans and Scottish Societies of Canada – Scottish Studies Graduate Student Bursary at the University of Guelph and welcome opportunities for sponsorship like this.
We have recently launched a youth initiative wherein we're asking all our members to appoint youth delegates to work with our Vice Chair for Youth. The goal is to engage our youth in our member groups as well as in the greater Scottish diaspora.
We offer educational sessions, including our recent symposium series from October 2023 to January 2024, which addressed the challenges faced by our member organizations.
The next set of symposiums sessions will be held in late 2024 with the goal of presenting how to implement solutions to our members’ challenges. The planning, format, and content of the symposium are driven by survey results from our membership regarding their needs and priorities.
We also have a member activity funding program, which provides limited matching funds for a member organization’s participation in a non-profit event supporting Scottish culture and heritage.
About Membership
Memberships are annually based aligned with Scots Canada’s fiscal year of September 1 to August 31. The current membership fee is $50 CAD. During the festival season starting each May, we start memberships immediately with the membership then being valid through the next fiscal year.
Scots Canada recognizes that there are many of those of Scottish heritage who may not be able to belong to a clan, family or society. We’re are examining the different ways in which this may be corrected such as by having a new membership class for individuals and their families.