Greetings Clansmen All,

As I write this it is early March and I have already attended two Burns Dinners and two Highland Games, and the 2007 games season has only just begun.

While it is a little late for this year, I want to encourage you all to make an effort, next January, to attend your local Burns Dinner. What a great opportunity for you to get together as a Clan MacAlister District group and reserve a table or two to break bread, socialize and share a Haggis together. At the San Diego Burns Club Dinner, Dr. Bob McAllister had his two daughters and their families at one table and Burns Club President, Archie McAllister, had his family at another table. Clan MacAlister was well represented.

At the St. Andrews Society Burns Dinner, your President was given the honor of presenting the “Toast to the Lassies”. But the most important part of the Burns Supper is an opportunity to meet and socialize with family and neighbors while being exposed to your great highland heritage, tradition, culture and customs. The Burns poetry and the Haggis are good too. So start planning now for next year…

We are happy to announce that the new CMS web site is up and working. www.clanmacalistersociety.org. CMS Web Master, Rob Saunders, has done a great job of putting it together for us. Rob is a professional web site developer and teaches computer sciences at a college in New York. Be sure and visit his web site if you’re interested in having someone build or manage a web site for your business.

While the site is still a work in progress we expect to have new features and pages added from time to time. Web sites have a life of their own these days and ours will continually evolve to meet our needs. However, you can go there now and after you register, you can post your comments and news items into the forum. You can contact any of the officers or District Commissioners and visit your District Commissioner page for up-to-the-minute news, games schedules and events. Try it, bookmark it, and visit it often. You will like it.

I want to thank Eric Saunders, CMS Past Chairman, for his work in putting together and maintaining the old web site. It served us well for the last eight years or so.

Regarding the newly incorporated CMS, we are in the final steps of completing the process of filing for our Federal 501, (c), (3) tax exempt status and expect to have it approved in the next few months. We have completed the State of California tax-exempt filing and are waiting for our State Franchise Tax Board approval. We are anxious to complete the process so we can offer you the benefits that go along with tax-exempt status.

Remember to visit the new web site, register and post your message… Then let me know what you think of the new site.

Hope to see you at a game somewhere this year…

Slainte,
Dennis I. McAllister, OLG