When I was talking with Linda (Street-Ely, Vice President of the Society) a few weeks back, the subject of the history of the Society came up. As we began to talk about the founding and early members of the Society, I started thinking about my accomplishments during my decade plus with the Society.
So I made a list. I thought I’d share it here – not so much to toot my own horn. Rather, I’d like to use this to demonstrate a pattern of activities and goal achievement that will help the members of Clan Logan determine if I should be supported as the Commander of Clan Logan in the April 2025 Convention.
Kevin’s first-ever Highland Games with a great massed band of pipes & drums
2015…First-ever Highland Festival & Games
Lisa and I first attended the St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit’s (SASD) Highland Games together in 2015. That’s us in all of our youthful splendor in the photos above. Seeing that first massed band competition left a huge impression on my soul. I don’t believe I’d ever heard so many bagpipes live before, and the sound deeply touched me. Lisa found the ‘elephant ears’ stand for me – what’s a festival in the USA if you don’t have a little deep-fried dough? I was saddened however by the fact that Clan Logan wasn’t represented anywhere along Clan Row.
2016…Regional Representative and Hospitality Tent Host
The singular disappointment I found in 2015’s Highland Games in Detroit not having Clan Logan represented led me to spend the next year doing web searches and phone calls to understand how to fix this. In that year I had many phone calls with Vernon Logan, then-president of Clan Logan Society International. I learned a lot in the year between 2015 and 2016 from Vernon about the history of the Society, what his expectations for a Regional Representative were, and of the big plans for the Society that he had. This was the first I learned of the Chief Restoration Project as well.
I would be remiss if I didn’t take a minute here to also mention Father Steve Nesbitt, the Clan Coordinator for the St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit. I could not have asked for a better person to help me get my tent, chairs and tables together. Father Nesbitt really helped this newbie to the Scottish ancestry social scene in Detroit find his way. I wish I could find a picture of him to share here.
The Clan Logan hospitality tent and energy of the Detroit festival in 2017 was wonderful
2017…Adding another role – Webmaster
The tent and displays were really taking shape as I prepared for the Highland Festival season in Michigan. In the downtime between 2016 and 2017, I spoke more often with Vernon and had my first phone call with then-vice president James C. Logan. I explained to both of them that I had some minor skills with website development and they both welcomed me to give a try at redoing and modernizing the Society’s official website. This is a role I held the longest with the organization – and probably still protect it just a little too much (sorry Jamie!). Due to continuous efforts on my part, our website went from barely registering on search engines to being second listed in most Google searches. I’m still salty that we haven’t beat wikipedia’s entry for Clan Logan. 2017 was a fabulous year at the Highland Games, particularly in Detroit as Lisa really helped brighten the tent with new displays (and her smile), and two of my sons joined us for the ceilidh that year. We even got snazzy new t-shirts so people could find Clan Logan easier. This was also the year that I learned that Las Vegas stole one of the ceilidh’s traditions – “what happens at the ceilidh stays at the ceilidh.”
President Vernon Logan, and his wife Deloris (Dee)
2018…Many Changes
I had such success in redoing the website in 2017, towards the end of that year I asked James if I could take over the role of newsletter editor as well. James was not only the vice president, he had been the newsletter editor for many years. My plan was to coordinate our website and newsletter to have a “brand” look – so that it was easy to recognize the Society at a glance. These and many other plans were put aside as James and I began to deal with the sudden loss of Vernon. Vernon had been in ill health for some time but his passing was truly unexpected.
I don’t know if either James or I really appreciated what took place in 2018. There was a major shift in everything about the Society and the way it was run. Per the bylaws at the time, James assumed the role of President (with Board approval and support of course). Late in the year, James asked me to be his vice president. My first thought, honest to goodness, was, “but who will we get to run the website and hospitality tent in my region?” Yeah, the answer came almost as quick as the question formed in my mind – me! The role of VP was IN ADDITION TO my other roles. Haha! Isn’t life grand?!
James and I set about making many changes in the organization including updating the Society’s bylaws to help guide anyone else caught in a situation like James and I found ourselves in with Vernon’s passing. We set Randy Horne up as our registered agent in North Carolina, where the Society is chartered. He and I performed an audit of the funds on hand. And then – more unexpected news broke. John Marjoribanks had found a living heir to the title, Chief of Name and Arms of Logan.
Or had he?
I hate to do this, Dear Reader, but I need to break this into two posts apparently. I promised myself when I started blogging that I’d keep my posts to under 5 minutes of read time. WordPress’s handy little AI assistant tells me that if you’ve made it this far we’re at 5+ minutes on this stroll down memory lane. “But Kevin,” you say – “what about the living heir?”
I love a good cliffhanger.
Kevin Logan 