The first morning of the gathering started with blue skies, surely a good omen for the rest of the week. There was a steady stream of people from all corners of the globe entering the Aros Hall to register and pickup their welcome packs from Vera and Donald MacLean's very busy team. The Scottish Clan Maclean Association had a shop on the other side of the room selling merchandise including the souvneir gathering magazine. In the room adjacent, Ian Philips was providing advice on genealogical research, whilst White and MacLean publishing were running a book stall alongside, selling books by MacLean authors.

Upstairs there were representatives from the Clan Maclean Heritage Trust as well as a stall for the Duart Castle Shop. The main hall also provided a central meeting point for Clanspeople to have a chat over a tea or coffee and renew old friendships.

Items will be posted here as they happen!

Anns an leabhar “America’s Braemar” le mo chairdean Dòmhnall MacDhòmhnaill, fhuair mi iomradh a’ chuimhneachain iomchaidh don na Fuadaichean: anns na goireasan fir ann an taigh-seinnse ann an Glaschu, an Lìos Mòr, tha na h-ainmeannan An Darna Morair MacDhòmhnaill, Col. Gordon of Cluny, Patrick Sellar, Bean Gordon-Cathcart, mar eiseimpleir, a-stigh anns na poitean-mhùin. Sin freagarrach, nach eil?
Annag

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Chaidh mi dhan Colaiste Ghàidhlig aig Naomh Anna an seachdainn seo chaidh agus bha e math mar as àbhaist. Bha poile de thachartasan a’dol air adhart ‘san t-saoghal Gàidhlig an Ceap Breatain an seachdainn seo chaidh leis Fèis an Eilean agus an seachdainn tumaidh aig a’ cholaiste. Rinn sinn deasbad air na riaghailtean airson a’ Ghàidhlig ionnsachadh: Anns a cheud dol a mach, cuir romhad ma tha e nad chomas, deagh fhear-teagaisg a bhi agad – saoraidh e moran ùine dhut le bhi glanadh air falbh moran imcheistean a bheireadh bhuat do mhisneach, gad chumail o droch mhodh labhairt ionnsachadh a dh’fheumas a bhi air a dhi-chuimhneachadh leat air a cheann mu dheireadh. Tuilleadh a-rithist…
Annag

As you will all be aware, the development of the Maclean.org website is an ongoing affair in which Ian (Glasgow) does all the work - and our thanks go to him for this - and the content is more or less masterminded by me, Alasdair (Belgium), as the MacleanNet president. However, neither Ian nor I create the content unless specifically in our areas of interest and we rely on others to submit items to us for inclusion. So, if you have anything you'd like to publish on the website, then send it to me at alasdair@maclean.org.

As to what is coming up: well, Ian and I have had our thinking hats on and a number of new developments are currently in the pipe-line and the first has already become available - there is now to be a Gaelic-language blog running and as soon as Anne Landin gets her mind round it, I expect we'll see Gaelic on the Blog.

The second development is that Ian has or will put on the website the four talks given at the Gathering so that all those who were unable to attend will be able to see what was talked about.

Then there is the History Wiki - this is currently being worked on and will be overseen by Don Kiely in Alaska. The idea here is that we will run a wiki (like Wikipedia) but initially this will be about Clan and Scottish History. Don is getting his mind round this at the moment and I expect we'll have it fully up and running by the end of the month.

We have other plans - social networking, some sort of forum to replace the newsgroups and a general improvement of the introductory pages to each section. And, on top of all that, Ian is making it possible for all the Clan Maclean Associations around the world to edit and upload material to their pages via a browser. All these changes will be taking place over the next few months and will be announced here on the Blog.

Today was a big day – the presidents of the various Clan Maclean Associations around the world met for the only face-to-face CMIA meeting held in the five-year cycle. Col Donald handed over the presidency of the CMIA to Duncan of Nevada after eight years in the role.
Then it was off to the Clan Congress, chaired by the Chief, Sir Lachlan Maclean, to hear reports on the activities of the Associations and to listen to Rev Alan of Dochgarroch outline the work of the Heritage Trust over the last five years. – there has been some pretty impressive stuff achieved including a major donation to the restoration of Moy Castle, the ancestral seat of the Maclaines of Lochbuie.

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What wonderful weather!!! Glorious sun and no wind. On the way out of the Hall I came across Laura Schweitzer (daughter of the Judge! – Sandy Mclean who was appointed to the bench by Arnold Schwartzneger)

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The day dawned VERY wet – the sort of rain that reminds you why raincoats were called “waterproofs”. As far as we were concerned this was not going to be a problem except that it would mean a day with a wet dog. A huge Scottish breakfast set us up well and we ventured forth for the Aros Hall and another day talking to people about history and ancestry. The trouble was that we were now on “island time” and thus late. Oh well. I wasn’t concerned but I found I was the only one with a key – oops!

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Tuesday saw the start of the main registration period with something like 300 people checking in and collecting their registration packs. Most of these seemed to want to talk about their history or their ancestors and so Jean, Ian and I spent most of the day on our feet talking. Despite the huge flows of people (“…my g-g-g-grandfather emigrated from Mull in 1710 – can you tell me anything about him?”) we did manage to get out into the sunshine on occasion but out on the street everyone seemed to be called Maclean – I wonder why.

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