2013 AGM

Welcome to the House of Gordon USA 2013 AGM!

Minutes of the Annual General Membership Meeting 2013 (AGM)– Read the minutes

Treasurer’s Report — Read the Report

Membership Report — There were 354 memberships eligible for voting in this year’s AGM.

Communications Committee Report — We are averaging 6107 visits per month to our website with an average of 10,133 page views. Our website is getting good exposure, but could stand a bit of promotion and tweaking to drive more traffic to it from the various search engines. Direct traffic to the site makes up 77% of the traffic, which means our members know where to go for information, and our pamphlets handed out at the games are generating traffic to the website for follow-up information from prospective members. Referring domains (external links from other websites) make up 16% of the traffic and search engines only represent 6%. Read More…

Scholarship Report —This year we were blessed with an abundance of talented applicants making it difficult to choose just two recipients. After careful review, the board decided to award the following:

– A $250.00 Scholarship to Maria Taylor of Farmington, Michigan. Maria has spent twelve years dancing the Highland dance. She co-founded the Alma College Scottish Arts Society for which she served as Vice-President, and performed with the Kiltie Dancers, the college’s Highland dance troupe. Maria has passed the Associate’s, Member’s, and Fellow’s exams with the British Association of Teachers of Dancing. And she assisted in teaching young dancers under the guidance of nationally –acclaimed Highland dance instructor, Christie Freestone. Currently, she is studying for the rigorous Judges exam.

– A $250.00 Scholarship to Maren Seul of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Maren is a 13 year-old Highland dancer who has represented the Eastern Region in the United States Inter-Regional Championships for the past three years. Maren shows determination and dedication to improving her skills as a Highland dancer.

– The standing award of a $250.00 scholarship for the Grade 4 Junior Piper of the Day at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games was awarded to Jacob Abbott of Montgomery Village, MD.

I would like to make note that several of our members made special donations with their recent renewal to the Scholarship fund! Thank you so much for your support of this important endeavor and we hope to be able to increase our awards next year.

Lois Todd
Scholarship Chair

DNA Project & Fund Report — The DNA Project is constantly growing, this year we are currently up to 510 members, up from 437 at the same time last year, representing a 116.7% increase in participation over last year. As we grow in participation we are able to also grow in our understanding of the clan’s make-up and history. By collecting the genealogies and documentation of our ancestors and matching up those with close DNA matches we are able to begin to break down the brick walls many have encountered in their search and connect more closely as a family. As society has become more and more mobile, our family connections have in many cases been lost, and we are reaping the benefits of bringing long lost cousins into touch with each other, and reinforce the family that our Gordon Clan truly is.

As the re-classification and re-identification goes forward following the refinements in haplogroup identification we will have an even better understanding of the origins of our clan and many who were previously listed in the newly discovered and yet to be classified groups on the analysis page will find they belong to the Jock & Tam or the Sir William groupings! As new developments in the science of genetic genealogy come about and understanding of the data grows we will gain even more insight into our ancestry.

A tester from Australia has their family history back to Sir Adam. We have yet to see their documentation, but their DNA does confirm a genetic tie to the J&T Gordons.

We are also making good progress on the Sutherland Gordons, who are related to the Dukes of Gordon and Seton-Gordons. The organizer of this sub-group is hoping to submit an article for our December newsletter. We have gained about five Sutherland-Gordons in the last few months.

Jim Gordon, Tei Gordon & Lois Todd
DNA Project Administrators and DNA/HoG Liaison