Our 2002 Great Lakes Region highland games season is now upon us. We open on May 18^th in Springfield, Illinois and then continue as follows: Alma, Michigan - May 24, 25, 26; Fort Wayne, IN – June 7, 8; Chicago, IL – June 15; Oberlin, OH – June 22; South Bend, IN – July 20; Detroit, MI – August 3, 4 and finally, Kalamazoo, MI – August 24. Mark your calendars accordingly and plan to attend the games in your area. You will notice that we are attending the South Bend Games this year for the first time and will pass on the Columbus, Indiana Games. Columbus was poorly attended in 2001 so we will attend South Bend in July and evaluate that location.

The next big announcement for our region is our new informative and attractive website www.macleodgreatlakes.org. After much time and a strong effort, William G. MacLeod, our webmaster, has developed this new site exceeding all initial expectations. Every Great Lakes Region clan member should be proud of this site. Bill has a convenient comment section for suggestions to improve the site. Send him your ideas as soon as possible. Regarding our seasonal games above, you can easily locate all game information which Bill has linked to our site. We will have a tent at all these games managed by one of our commissioners and directions to the games can be found at each linked web site.

From our Great Lakes page, you can connect to other regions plus our Clan MacLeod USA and Associated Clan MacLeod Societies (ACMS) sites. Bill G. has linked them all together and you will notice that all current Great Lakes Region Commissioners and Coordinators with either their telephone numbers or emails are listed to improve communications in our large region. Feel free to contact any of us with any clan related questions. We want to keep our membership informed so if you have email, please let us know. If you do not have email our commissioners are Bernie McLeod in Michigan – 616-561-5153, John MacLeod in Illinois – 630-420-8733, and Ted Jones in Ohio – 216-351-9998. For everyone in Michigan, Bernie McLeod will resign his post this summer due to a medical problem with his foot. If anyone in Michigan is interested in this position, please let me know. Bernie has done a super job as commissioner and you all can wish him the best as he takes a break and follows doctor’s orders. Last year, we stated our two main objectives were to improve communications and get organized in each state. If you have the time and want to get more involved, please let us know.

At the ACMS page linked to our site, you will find registration information plus the agenda for the 2002 Parliament Meeting in Dunvegan, Scotland from August 3 to 10 this summer. Parliament is a special gathering held every four years in Dunvegan bringing MacLeod’s from around the world back to Skye. The ACMS and Chief John will be our host in Dunvegan and we strongly encourage clan membership to attend this meeting. Get your reservations in early so ACMS can plan accordingly. All application and Parliament Agenda information was contained in the last Clan MacLeod Magazine plus the Autumn USA Clan MacLeod Newsletter by Harry Boyes.

We are often asked about other societies around the world. In general, we have about 3300 memberships throughout the world with approximate breakdown as follows: USA – 1900, Canada – 525, Australia – 300, New Zealand – 250, England – 150, Scotland – 135, France – 50, South Africa – 15 and we will soon have a new small society in Germany. For your information, we have approximately 200 memberships in our Great Lakes Region. All societies are independently managed in each country but are connected through the ACMS. Our Clan MacLeod USA Society president is Donald B. MacLeod from Rochester, NY and the ACMS president is Dr. Alexander C. McLeod of Nashville, TN.

This regional and Clan MacLeod USA Newsletter belongs to you. Please supply us with any personal Clan MacLeod information regarding your family that you wish to share. We always want to publicize information on recently deceased members so please help us in this area.

You noticed that Harry Boyes’ Autumn 2001 Clan MacLeod USA Newsletter was ‘thinner’ than usual. Harry was not feeling well so he had to omit our Great Lakes Region notes and photos along with the same from a few other regions. Harry was trying to get out key information surrounding the events of September 11, 2001 along with 2002 Parliament and the death of Dr. Norman William MacLeod of New York. Dr. MacLeod, was a respected and past president of Clan MacLeod USA. He was a life member and serve dutifully in the 60’s as the clan began to expand into all fifty states.

Keep your eye open for Harry’s next Newsletter where he will explain a genetic study conducted by the University College London. That university is looking for MacLeod males to volunteer and participate in a research project which intends to scientifically link our MacLeod roots back to the Vikings. That newsletter will explain which MacLeod’s can participate and how to volunteer.

Finally, we want to remind everyone that our region plans to host the 2004 Global Clan Gathering in Chicago. This will be the 50^th Anniversary of Clan MacLeod USA and we have reserved the dates of July 1-5 so mark those dates. We will be communicating more about this event on our web site later this year and will be soliciting help from regional people.

We hope to see you at our games this season. Bring some relatives and friends to join and share our family tradition and history.

"Hold Fast and We Shall Hold a Light."

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