News from Coates Crescent

Branch Awards update

The RSCDS presents Branch Awards to members who contribute in support of their local Branch, and once again a number of individuals have been honoured. Listed below are all those members who have received Awards since November 2019 – congratulations to you all!

Atlanta Sylvia Priest Banffshire Alice Archibald Banffshire Margaret Cowie Banffshire Isobel Turner Central Germany Viktor Lehmann International Fiona Grant International Stephanie Robertson Mid Argyll Mike Murray New Zealand Dorothy Wilson New Zealand Howard McNally Norwich Ann Salmon Ottawa Brian McKintosh San Diego Ward Fleri

Unfortunately, several Branches had to postpone their celebrations due to the COVID-19 situation. However, we hope that the Award presentations will take place next year instead. Since Branch Awards were introduced in 2004, 486 members have received one.

For more information about Branch Awards, visit www.rscds.org/ get-involved/membership/member-recognition

Christopher Wilson, Chairman of Atlanta Branch, presenting Sylvia Priest with her award at the Unicoi Spring Workshop

Viktor Lehman, Central Germany Branch

New Branches and Groups

We are pleased to announce the formation of two new branches and one affiliated group. Welcome to the Herts and Borders Branch, the Breton Branch from Brittany, and the Silver Tassie Scottish Dance Club from Perm in the Russian Federation.

2020 AGM

It is with deep regret that the Management Board announced the cancellation of this year’s Autumn Gathering. However, it has been agreed that a virtual AGM will be hosted from 12 Coates Crescent on Saturday 7 November at 2pm instead. For more details please visit www.rscds.org/events/rscds-agm-2020.

Elections to Management Posts

Nominees for this year’s elections are listed below and their profiles are available on the RSCDS website. The results will be announced at the virtual AGM on 7 November 2020.

Chairman Elect of the RSCDS William Williamson sole nominee for Chairman Elect. Management Board (7 places, 3 for 3 yrs, 3 for 2yrs, 1 for 1yr) Neil Copland Trevor Clarke Fiona Grant David Macdonald Jane Meikle Joan Nesbit

Education and Training (2 places) Jane McIntosh Oluf Olufsen Rachel Shankland

Membership Services (Convenor Elect plus 5 places, no election necessary)

Angela Young sole nominee for Convenor Elect Ainslie Dunnett Keith Rose

Youth Services (Convenor Elect plus 2 places, no election necessary)

No nominations for Convenor Elect Abigail Brown

Motion from the Management Board There is one motion on the AGM order paper:

The Management Board proposes that for the year from 1 July 2021, the basic full annual subscription shall be maintained at £18, with other membership subscriptions based pro-rata on this amount.

Publications and Shop Updates

The Membership Services Committee is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of the new Combined Book 39-45. This Combined Book will be the 7th in the series and a FREE PDF version will accompany every purchase of the printed book.

RSCDS Communications and Marketing

Do you already follow and/or like us on social media?

We are seeking to nearly double our reach to 7,000 followers who like our page by the end of the year. Please follow, like and share our page so we know you are out there! Remember to ‘like’ any posts too as this will help us develop our future content.

Over the last few months, we have received several enquiries from members who have accidentally unsubscribed from mailchimp (the mailing platform which also supports our Dance Scottish At Home eNewsletters). It is easy to re-subscribe. Please note that mailchimp requires a ‘double opt-in’ method, which means that you cannot be signed up to our email mailing list without your knowledge. As with all emails, remember to check the sender’s address at the top before clicking on any links – our contact details always end in @rscds.org, so if the message is not from an email with this domain we recommend you do not click the link. Contact us at info@rscds.org if you have any questions.

Member Communication Survey

Following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are keen to hear your views on the future of our communications. Your feedback is very important to the Management Board as a guide to future decision making. This survey is anonymous and should only take a few minutes of your time. A printed copy of the survey has been included with the printed magazine for those members without email addresses and we would be grateful if you could complete and return this to us at 12 Coates Crescent. Members receiving the magazine digitally will find the link to the digital survey on their digital magazine mailing.

RSCDS Website – What’s New?

Get Creative! This latest initiative led by the Youth Services Committee offers creative and interactive materials for Young Dancers to use that celebrate the world of Scottish country dance. The new resource includes downloadable colouring pages, tricky puzzles to complete, word games to solve, how-to craft projects and a request for young dancers to submit their masterpieces. Head to www.rscds.org/get-creative to discover more.

Catch up with all of our Summer Celebration events and Dance Scottish At Home activities through the website. The various DSAH online class recordings of warm-ups, technique exercises, dances and cool-downs are available to view. You can also listen again to all the podcast recordings.

Visit: www.rscds.org/get-involved/dance-scottish-home and www.rscds.org/events/dance-scottish-summer-celebration to enjoy them again!

Good news! The Unit 3 tracks for teachers have now been added to the ‘Learn’ section. To learn more, visit www.rscds.org/learn/ music-resources/teaching-tracks .

Watch out for new Scottish Step resources coming soon!

RSCDS Archive

The Archive has been in existence since the 1970s and our catalogue is continually growing. In recent years the collection has been digitised (with work still ongoing) and there is now a fairly large digital archive in addition to the physical archive. Many items in the Archive can be accessed online through the Archive digital Catalogue on the RSCDS website. The content of the Archive includes the Administrative Records of the Society, historical information about Scottish Dance, the Society and its dances, a recorded music collection, an oral history collection and an extensive video and film collection. Additionally, the Archive holdings include individual collections dedicated to, for example, Jean Milligan and Ysobel Stewart. There is also a section which is for deposited Branch Archives.

To find out more visit: www.archive.rscds.org Contact: archive@rscds.org