President's Message
May 2008

Hello all! It has been two months since I have updated this message. First of all, thank you to those members who attended the meeting in February and re-elected me as your President. I will try to do my best to carry out the mission of our Society.

Secondly, I want to thank everyone who helped and/or attended our April events: the second single malt tasting on April 19 and the AVID (Authors Visiting In Des Moines) lecture by Alexander McCall Smith on April 21.

I have heard of people who have "life lists", most often bird-watchers. It occurred to me that if we have single malt tastings only once every other year, this could lead to very long lives as it would take forever at that rate, to taste all malts!! My preference is for more frequent tastings.

The Society provided ushers for the AVID lecture, who looked fabulous in kilts and tartan sashes. Five of us played pipes on the stage of Hoyt Sherman place for a prelude and were joined by Lydia (one of Karen Forrester's students) who danced the Highland Fling and the Sean Truibhas. Dr. Smith, who was a delightfully witty speaker, entered in grand style: piped in by all five of us playing Scotland the Brave. He delivered his lecture and answered questions attired in kilt, jacket and hose. Karen Palm, Society piper, presented him with our lapel pin at a fund-raising tea held the day prior to the lecture. In preparation for Dr. Smith's talk, I went to the library and checked out all of his books that were on the shelf. While reading them, I found the following quote, which tied our two events together perfectly: "There was a whisky nosing, and she could sample the whisky - if she had the stomach for it. ...Isabel knew very little about whisky, and rarely drank it. But she knew that it had much the same apparatus of sampling as did wine, even if the language was very different. Whisky nosers, as they called themselves, eschewed what they saw as the pretentiousness of wine vocabulary. While oenophiles resorted to recondite adjectives, whisky nosers spoke the language of everyday life, detecting hints of stale seaweed, or even diesel fuel. Isabel saw the merit in this. The Island malts, which she could barely bring herself to sample - in spite of the father's enthusiasm for them - reminded her of antiseptic and the smell of the school swimming pool; and as for taste, "diesel fuel" seem to express it perfectly." from: The Sunday Philosophy Club (if I could figure out how to underline on my computer, I would do so!!)

I'm really looking forward to our next event: a Scottish film festival on Sunday, June 15. We have rented one of the screens at the Fleur 4 Theaters. Please look on the coming events page of the web site for details. I can't claim credit for this terrific idea, but think it is a tremendous way to stimulate interest in Scottish culture. Yes, this IS Father's Day - invite a Dad!!

For those of you who will be fortunate enough to be vacationing in Scotland, please remember our photo contest! We have revised it so that there are now two categories. I received the first entries today.

Finally, none of this can happen without your involvement. I hope to see you all at the film festival.

Sue

ISPAD NEWS

Iowa Scottish will be competing for the first time this season at the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington, Minnesota on the afternoon of May 17th. The band has been officially regraded to Grade V (the beginning level of competition) for the season and will be competing in the Quick March Medley contest for that grade. Since the Minnesota Scottish Fair and Highland Games are not sanctioned by the MWPBA we also will have the opportunity to "play up" and enter the Grade IV contest with the same selection. We would appreciate the support of any and all that want to venture north and cheer on the band.

The Minnesota Games committee has kindly offered to have Tom Mulvehill's obituary read at the closing massed bands ceremony and to have Amazing Grace dedicated to his memory. The band is most appreciative of their thoughtful gesture of sympathy.

Our drum corps recently participated in a drumming workshop conducted by Andrew Hoinacki, former lead drummer for the Grade I L. A. Scots and a certified drumming judge. ISPAD has two new snare drummers this season--Jeff Rowat, a former U of IA Hawkeye Marching Band drummer, and David Ryan, a former percussion major and former drum and bugle corps drummer. They along with Grade V lead drummer Stuart Walker and bass drummer David Eastman have been making great strides as a corps.

The performances scheduled at this time for this summer include: a parade and concert at the Waterloo Irish Festival on Friday, August 1st and a parade and concert in Maxwell, Iowa, on Saturday, August 2nd. The band is also planning to compete at the Celtic Highland Games in the Quad Cities on Saturday, August 23rd. Please check www.iowascottish.com under Appearances/Schedule for other performances as they are added..

WAUKEE WARRIOR PIPES AND DRUMS NEWS

The Waukee Warrior Pipes and Drums will be graduating one senior this year. Taryn Giese has played with the band for three years and has become an accomplished player who has competed with Iowa Scottish. Her brother Sean is carrying on the piping tradition even though Taryn is graduating. He and three other 9th graders have been working on practice chanters since October and just recently started on the bagpipes. Another sibling of a former WP&D piper, Molly McGraw, is completing 8th grade this year and along with piping is learning Highland dancing from dance instructor Karen Forrester. A third piper, Ben McClurg, will return as a senior next year, as will bass drummer David Eastman. WP&D is now considered a club at WHS, so lessons are held after school for any WHS student interested in learning bagpipes.

Some of the former members of WP&D also plan to participate with Iowa Scottish this summer. Trevor McGraw, an Iowa State student; Ben Dallman, a student at the Kansas City Art Institute; Chase Taggart, a UNI student; and Savanna Rowe, a student at Kirkwood Community College will all play pipes with ISPAD as their summer schedules allow. Another former WP&D piper, Langen Goldstien, has joined the Twin Cities Metro pipe band. Adam Smith, a U of IA student, may also play tenor or bass drum with ISPAD if he is employed in the area.

It is very encouraging that so many of the WP&D students have chosen to purchase their own pipes and to continue playing, and to see the enthusiasm of the newest group of pipers for continuing the tradition.