POSH MEMBERSHIP POSH is now over one year old. It has been an exciting time during which we have achieved a great deal. For new comers to the list let me remind you of our airms. Preserving Our Sutherland Heritage is a group of people (mainly from this list) who are dedicated to the preservation of the old burial grounds in Sutherland. Many of those are now becoming very old with some stones fallen or broken. Many more have inscriptions which are becoming virtually impossible to read. All money raised by POSH is used to work with local heritage groups in the clearing, tidying and repair of graveyards. We have had great success with Clyne Kirkton and will continue to support them. We will also be moving into a different burial ground in the spring if all goes well. We are currently photographing every gravestone in the county. A huge task which is being carried out by members and willing local volunteers. We anticipate this task being completed by 2004. We will be compiling books on the gravestones, many with further genealogical detail and many, many photographs. The first of these, St. Andrews Churchyard, Golspie, is now available in our POSH SHOP. Our web site www.sutherlandheritage.com <http://www.sutherlandheritage.com/> has become one of the busiest Scottish genealogical sites on the web. Some weeks we are recording up to 800 visitors. Unfortunately this huge number is not resulting in benefits for POSH as most visitors only look at our graveyard inscriptions and then leave. As we have discussed on this list there has to be a benefit to POSH to enable us to continue the good work which we are doing. For this reason, your full committee, both in Britain and overseas, have agreed that from now we will move the inscriptions into our members area. We have now taken the inscriptions down and are busy preparing this new area. There will be many more inscriptions on show when the new area re-opens to members on the 1st January 2003. Our indexes to the inscriptions, POSH SHOP, etc., will remain in the public area. Our web master, Linda Brownridge, is currently working hard preparing everything. I feel sure you will all wish to join me in saying a huge thankyou to Linda who has given up many, many hours to look after our web site. As you all know we have been discussing a subscription rate for future membership of POSH in order that we raise the necessary funds to allow POSH to move forward. At our committee meeting in Edinburgh last weekend the annual rate for 2003 was agreed at £10 Sterling. However, in order to give all our loyal supporters and current members an advantage we also agreed that members of this list can join for the special price of £7.50 Sterling. This price is effective for those who pay before the 31st December 2002 via their local representative. After that date all subscriptions will be £10. So what do you get for your subscription? Membership gives you unlimited access to the graveyard inscription area on our web site, a useful members handbook which will be mailed to you as soon as your cheque is received, 20% discount on all purchases from the POSH SHOP plus the knowledge of knowing that every single penny is used to preserve our heritage. Our handbook contains articles by Malcolm Bangor-Jones, Reverend J Leslie Goskirk, minister of Lairg and Rogart plus many other interesting articles. It has a full list of our members interests plus many tips on researching. A very useful little book which has been financed by advertising from Sutherland companies. Your subscription can be made in your local currency. Please use the link below to convert to your local rate. Please check this on the day you write your cheque. http://www.xe.com/ucc/ <http://www.xe.com/ucc/> Please send your cheque together with your full name and postal address plus your email address to the appropriate person named on our contact sheet at http://www.sutherlandheritage.com/contact.html . If you have any queries please email me on [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> or contact any committee member. For our friends in the USA please note that we now accept US dollar cheques sent to Ron Patrick in Canada. Full details on the contact page. Now a couple of pleasant extras!! At this time of year it is always difficult to know what to buy for Christmas gifts. This year what about a subscription to POSH? All our current members may purchase extra memberships at the same special price - £7.50. Think how happy you could make someone with this gift. If you wish to take up this special offer please say it is a gift when sending in your payment and we will enclose a special card with the members handbook. Sara Thomas has purchased and donated to POSH a CD, Cànan nan Gàidheal (The language of the Gael), sung by Catherine-Ann Macphee, CDTRAX 009. As we allocate membership numbers to those who pay subscription before 31st December we will put a ticket in the draw. The draw will be take place on 31st December and the winner will be informed immediately. Please also note that the current passwords which some of you have for our members area are now out of date. We will issue all those who subscribe a new password with their members handbook. May I suggest that you print this email and keep it handy. We look forward to receiving your subscriptions and assure you that as always every penny will be used to Preserve our Sutherland Heritage. Many thanks Christine Stokes, chairperson, England Iain Sutherland, Treasurer & membership secretary, England Grant Forsyth, Scotland Sheila Mackay, Scotland John Macdonald, Scotland Bill OBrien, Scotland Angi Lamb, Scotland Ann Mackay, New Zealand Ron Patrick, Canada John McKay, Australia Preserving Our Sutherland Heritage www.sutherlandheritage.com <http://www.sutherlandheritage.com/> --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.419 / Virus Database: 235 - Release Date: 13/11/2002