Note of the meeting of the North Tolsta Historical Society at the Schoolhouse, North Tolsta, on Tuesday 24 April 2007.

PRESENT: D.Murray; A. MacKenzie; S. MacIver; C M Smith; M Murray ; R. Macleod; Murdo Maciver and R. Murray.

APOLOGIES : A. Murray; A.A. Smith; A. Macleod and D. Macleod.

CHAIR: D.Murray

•  Note of January 29 th meeting and matters arising

Copies of Clachan Crìche are still selling. An order for 10 more books had been received from the Gaelic Books Council during the Easter period.

2. Tolsta Head Walk

The Tolsta Head Walk is included in the Scottish Outdoor Access Festival, which is due to start on 28 th April. The ‘inaugural' Tolsta Head walk is expected to take place on Thursday 10 th May and walkers are asked to assemble at the Camach at 12 noon. Susan Rabe will advertise the walk in the Stornoway Gazette and the Comann Eachdraidh will advertise locally and on their website.

3.   Social Evening - Aig Muir Friday 8 th June 2007

It was agreed that the format for the evening should be similar to the Aig Muir evening of 2005. Invitations would be sent out to all seamen with Tolsta connections and a presentation would be prepared of any photos received. A subcommittee was formed to make the necessary arrangements and D. Murray suggested we should let Chrisella Ross of Proiseact na Sgeulachan know that we are planning this evening.

4.   Archiving and Digitising Project

Mark Elliot visited the Comann Eachdraidh on 8 th March and agreed to prepare a report, which would help us order suitable material for archiving our records. Anna was asked to follow this up with Mark. The group involved with the genealogy had met to check and recheck crofts 1-20 and Anna Munro had now entered this information on Brothers' Keeper – over 1,000 names in the first 20 crofts! Bill Lawson will meet with DM once crofts 21-43 have been completed. D. Murray gave a financial statement for the project to date.

5.   Hebridean Connections

Cathie Mary had attended the last meeting of Hebridean Connections on Friday 20 th April and reported to the meeting. A new company limited by guarantee and with charitable status is to be formed. Each CE will have one director per CE on the board of the company. This is a personal membership so floating representation is not possible. Two names were put forward as suitable directors. This will be finalised at a later date. The meeting agreed that the Hebridean Connections website should have Gaelic content and that CEs should include Gaelic patronymics in their genealogy. Sarah Egan asked

  all CE to start thinking and planning for the Year of Homecoming 2009.

•  Financial Statement

Current balance as per bank statement was £3,711.

7.   Correspondence

Apart from some genealogy enquiries the only other correspondence related to Gasd – a Gaelic Arts Conference, which was to take place in An Lanntair in May.

•  Date of Next Meeting

No date was set for the next committee meeting. The Aig Muir subcommittee would meet on Tuesday May 1 st and meetings for the genealogy group would be arranged during May.