News from Coates Crescent BRANCH AWARDS Members are the bedrock of RSCDS and without you the Society would not exist today. Congratulations to all the Branch Award recipients this year and a huge thank you for all your contributions to the strategic and charitable aims of the Society. Branch Aberdeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fiona McIver Belfast Branch . . . . . . . . . Evelyn M. Redmond Castle Douglas . . . . . . . . . John Luff and Eric Landay Delaware Valley . . . . . . . . Cecily Selling Derbyshire Northeast . . Liz and Ian Stead East Angus . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lorna Valentine Exeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pauline Beeson Glasgow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Irene Harper Helensburgh & District . Irene Smith International . . . . . . . . . . . Jan Jones London Branch . . . . . . . . . Simon Wales London Canada . . . . . . . . Margaret Campbell Los Angeles . . . . . . . . . . . . Jon Reeves and Dana Dunaway New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . Michael Laidlaw Orange County . . . . . . . . Jan Lauer, Bob Patterson and Renée Boblette Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Betty Anderson, Frances Murray and Pat Scrimgeour Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yumiko Kosugi Twin Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . Chandi McCracken-Holm, Fer Horn and Eric Dam Winnipeg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ron Krug Nova Scotia . . . . . . . . . . . Noni Regan For more information about Branch Awards, visit the Get Involved Section/member recognition at www.rscds.org
2023 AGM Elections to Management Board and Committees Elections for the vacancies will take place in November. All candidate profiles are available on the website. The results will be announced at the AGM on 4 November 2023
MOTION TO 2023 AGM With UK inflation still remaining high, the Society is consciously balancing the desire of the Society to provide more to members with the other financial constraints that members may be facing at this time by keeping the increase in the full annual subscription below inflation levels as at June 2023. “The Management Board proposes that for the year from 1st July 2024, the basic full annual subscription shall be increased by £2 to £28 per annum, with other membership subscriptions based prorata on this amount”
EDUCATION AND TRAINING During the year, the Education and Training Committee organised teacher certificate unit exams, Core Training for Instructors (CTI) and other assessments. Exams and Assessments were held at St Andrews, TAC, Toronto, Italy, London, Falkirk and Aberdeen. 34 members have completed Teacher Certificate Exams, 8 have taken Dancing Achievement Awards and 46 have sat Medal Tests. Worldwide, 13 instructors completed CTI and 26 are currently taking CTI training.
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Unit 1 The fixed dates for the Unit 1 written paper in 2024 are: 11 March (October date to be confirmed). The videos from the second Virtual Teachers Conference are available to watch again on the website: https://rscds.org/learn/ teaching-scottish-country-dance/elearning-teachers/virtualteachers-conference-2023. For teachers wishing to receive the Teachers’ e-newsletters, please ask your branch secretary to add your attributes to the RSCDS database. Get in touch with us if you are interested in running a Basic Teaching Skills course in your local area: https://rscds.org/learn/ teacher-training/basic-teaching-skills
MEMBERSHIP SERVICES The Membership Services committee has been very busy this year with the release of the Index to Formations and Book 53 and CDs. The Zoom launches of the publications were recorded on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRSCDS
YOUTH SERVICES At the 2022 AGM, members voted to pass a motion introducing a new free Junior Membership to encourage dancers under the age of 12 to dance. Youth Services and the RSCDS staff, together with branches with established youth classes collaborated on a Youth page on the Society’s website. A new Junior Membership handbook was launched at Summer School this year and was very well received by all the participants. The handbook includes quizzes, colouring sheets and achievement stickers, all aimed at introducing new members to Scottish country dance formations and vocabulary. There is even an opportunity to write a postcard to Rowan, the Youth Services mascot who is currently busy travelling the world. Branches are able to request Junior Membership handbooks to give to new members. More information is available on the RSCDS website, where you will also find a list of branches and groups that currently host classes for young dancers.
MEMBERSHIP FIGURES The RSCDS counts 160 Branches and Coates Crescent members. We recorded 9604 members in 2022-2023 (9572 in 2021/22; 9143 in 2020/21). We are hopeful of reaching our pre-covid figures which in 2019/20 were at 10,932 members. We would like to thank our members and branch officers once again for their support.
United Kingdom: 83 branches 4169 members: England 2070, Northern Ireland 126, Scotland 1927, Wales 46 Europe: 11 branches 583 members: Austria 40, France 203, Germany 189, Italy 56, Netherlands 17, Sweden 78 Australasia: 11 branches 1716 members: Australia 613, Japan 430 New Zealand 673 North America: 51 Branches, 2646 members: Canada 1114, USA 1532 South Africa: 2 branches 31 members International, Youth branch and Coates Crescent Members: 459 members*: International 196, Youth 41, CC Members 222 *Many of our members belonging to this category are from Argentina, Belgium, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, USA and Uruguay.
