Note of the meeting of the North Tolsta Historical Society at the   Schoolhouse, North Tolsta , on 24 May 2005 .

Present: A. Murray, D. Murray , R. Murray, S.MacIver, R. MacLeod, M. Murray, DJ MacRitchie, A.MacLeod, R. Moir, D. Lawson, A. Campbell and John A MacIver

Apologies: A.A. Smith, A.M. Henderson and A. Mackenzie

Chair: Donald Murray

1. Note of the Last Meeting The Note of the last meeting was approved.

2. Matters arising

2.1         Amendment/Young Historians      

Young Historians held their social evening on 11 March 2005 .

2.2         CED Plaque

NTHS had received a plaque as acknowledgement of funding although nobody was quite sure for which project. D.Murray would clarify.

2.3         Western Isles Countryside Access Programme

A report had gone to Policy and Resources and Sustainable Development committees, at the Comhairle, approving £12k under the above programme towards the proposed 'Ard Walk'.

2.4         Web Site The main web site was now back in operation.

2.5         BBC The BBC programmes had been broadcast and at least two of the NTHS photos were used.

3.            Finance   A full statement would be presented at the next meeting. The balance recorded on the night was £1,899.28.

4. Correspondence    

The following correspondence had been received:

• Heb Printers' quote was favourable and they would print Seanchas from now on.
• Hi-Arts circular for publicising events.
• Freda Colwell - re the design/build of Garry Bridge ; she and her husband had visited Tolsta.  
• VAL - Children Protection seminar on 3 June 2005 .
• Donald MacInnes, US - genealogical enquiry.
• RMK Associates - renewal of insurance. On that point, NTHS needed to ensure that it was adequately covered. The premium was £184.00 p.a. and it was agreed on the night to increase the policy by £2,000 to £10,000 to cover additional equipment.
• Isles FM fund raiser.
• Julia Barkova, Moscow State University - Celtic culture enquiry.
• Michael Paterson, Vancouver - web site enquiry re translation.
• Scottish Islands Network (e-mail circular from Lisa Stephen about a forthcoming seminar in Scandinavia on agriculture and environment).
• Donald John Macarthur - information on the HMS California.
• Donald Younge   - his letter would appear in the next Seanchas.

5.            "Aig Muir" Event   An excellent evening for all concerned. Young Historians had filmed the event, currently being edited, with a view to producing a DVD and a video.

6.            Links : Partnership for Change This seminar had been held over three days at the Lews Castle College and had been attended by representatives form NTHS. The event had attracted in the region of 80 delegates. A full report would be forwarded to historical societies, among others, in due course. Meanwhile, a questionnaire in relation to the event would be completed by D. Murray.  

7.            Hebridean Connections It was agreed to invite DW Stewart (academic/historian) and Donnie Morrison to a meeting regarding the above initiative.  

8             Visitors Iain Murray (Gress) had visited New Zealand and an article about his visit would appear in the next edition of Seanchas.

David Smith - web site enquiry prior to a visit to Lewis by him.  

9.            Other Business There were some pressing matters to be dealt with which required a team effort:

9.1        Scanning of photos - it was agreed to arrange an evening so that we could scan these and return originals.

9.2        It was agreed that Donnie Lawson would put the two CDs of photos onto the new computer.

9.3        E-mails -Rhoda would check the e-mail correspondence and Donald Murray would respond to these.

9.4        Main website - Donnie and Ruairidh Moir would keep web site updated.   

9.5        Bàrdachd - Angus, Donald and Sandra would continue their work on this. At some point there would need to be a choice of the best bàrdachd for publication purposes.   

9.6        Interviews - it was agreed to conduct some interviews with older people in the community in the interests of retaining/recording for posterity a wealth of historical information.   Rita Macleod, Alex Angus and Mairead would lead on this.

9.7        Seanchas - Donald and Rhoda would continue to co-ordinate/collect/etc., articles for Seanchas.

9.8        Uist Trip - John A MacIver would coordinate the proposed study visit to Uist (transportation, costs, etc).   This was an element of the YH project that had not progressed and there were funds allocated which could meet these costs.

9.9        Tolsta Head - it was agreed to organise two sailing trips and a provisional date for the first of these was agreed - 8 June 2005 .

9.10       Walks - Donald, Angus and Donald John would liaise with Susan Rabe of the Western Isles Countryside Access Programme regarding the proposed project and that programme's funding towards it.  

9.11       Press cuttings - Rhoda would monitor items in the press relating to Tolsta that were of interest.

10 .        Young Historians - no update on this project at the meeting.

11.         AOCB    Old computer - we would need to agree on what to do with the old computer; most of the local voluntary bodies had their own computers.    

12.         Date of Next meeting

No date was set for the next meeting.