President Jim Hughes called the meeting to order and welcomed the members and guests.

Past President John Dickson presided over the swearing in of new Board Members Brennan Callan, Eugene Hammer, and Karen Berenberg. Returning board members Judy Keown and new board member Hardin Gregg were unable to attend. Karen Brumley piped in the board and new committee members.

The minutes of the March meeting were accepted as printed.

Vice President Gary Collins, Chair of the Heritage Fund Committee, announced that we are currently taking applications for scholarships. He also mentioned that the Networking table will be back starting in May. Bring your business cards to the May meeting, and contact Gary if you have any questions. Kilt Raffle tickets will be going on sale next month as well.

Secretary Sandy Berenberg announced a project to take SSL documents and make electronic versions of them.

Jack Stuart, Treasurer, presented the Treasurer’s Report, which was accepted as read.

Eugene Hammer, Commissioner of Member Services, introduced himself and advised that he and Hardin Gregg are working on a proposal for collecting the annual membership fee at the same time for all members. When the proposal is completed, it will be presented to the board and the membership.

Judy Keown, Regional Celtic Commissioner, was unable to attend the meeting.

Jim spoke about the Kentucky Scottish Weekend in Carrolton and asked for volunteers to help out at the SSL booth. He also mentioned that the World on the Square event in Corydon (August 9) has invited the Scottish Society to participate again this year. Jim also requested volunteers to help out at the SSL booth at the Glasgow Highland Games.

Brennan Callan, Commissioner of Programs and Education, introduced himself, and thanked Randy for all of his work for the Society. Brennan advised that he will be working with the Webmasters to put up more information. Brennan invited all members to introduce themselves to him, so he can get to know him.

Jim announced that the Kirking at Ascension Lutheran on April 13 was a success with 16 SSL members attending. The Pastor sent his thanks for our participation.

To celebrate National Poetry Month, SSL member Mark Johnson read some poetry for the membership.

After refreshments, Jim introduced our speaker Karen Brumley, who presented a program about Piobaireachd, the classical music of the bagpipes.

Following the program, Mark Johnson shared some more poetry with the group.

Sep 23 — SSL Meeting, Strathmoor Presbyterian Church 7:30 PM
Sep 27-28 — KY Celtic Fest, Eminence KY
Oct 11 — Louisville Genealogical Society’s Family History Seminar
Oct 18-19 — Stone Mountain Highland Games, Stone Mountain GA
Oct 28 — SSL Meeting, Strathmoor Presbyterian Church 7:30 PM
Oct 31-Nov 2 — Central KY Highland Games, Eminence KY

Nov 23 — Our next Kirking will be held at the 10:00 am service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Albany IN

Eugene Hammer has been appointed to fill the vacant Commissioner of Member Services position on the board of the Scottish Society of Louisville.

Despite having the same theme, each Kirking we have is always different and the one at which some sixteen members recently attended at Ascension Lutheran was no exception. A tremendous team effort had been made by the church to make the service very special. This was mainly achieved by the choice of music for the hymns and this was particularly true of the hymn ‘We cannot measure how You heal’ which was sung to the tune of Burns’ Ye Banks and Braes.

The music theme was continued in our April meeting when we had the pleasure of an extremely interesting and informative talk on the piobaireachd which was given by well known piper Karen Brumley. Perhaps the most surprising thing that we learned was that the tunes were handed down from piper to piper on a one to one basis either by the bagpipes or by singing and this practice dates back to the 1500s or earlier. Karen’s playing was, as always, a joy and readily brought home to us the difference between the types of tunes.

To help celebrate April as Poetry month our member Mark Johnson, best known for his rendition of the Ode to the Haggis at our Burns Suppers, recited poems from Shakespeare, Yeats, and Burns.

Having Karen as our guest speaker proved fortuitous as she kindly piped in the current and new Board Members for their swearing-in and the ceremony, which was conducted by our immediate past president John Dickson, again reminded us just how much we are indebted to those who serve the Society in these positions.

I hope to see you at our booth at Carrollton.

Enjoy the sun!

Jim