PERSONAL STATEMENT
PERSONAL STATEMENT
ALEX MAXWELL FINDLATER
standing for
Chairman of the Heraldry Society of Scotland
Proposer: Mark Dennis
Seconder: Romilly Squire
Ladies and gentlemen -
This is my personal manifesto. It explains who I am, and how and why our Society
can be taken forward. I look forward to the confidence of your vote.
WHO AM I?
I am in my early sixties, a retired wine merchant, who trained as a chartered accountant, with two daughters (heraldic heiresses, as is my wife!). Heraldry apart, I am particularly interested in history, historic buildings and music. My writing output covers more than 40 articles, papers, lectures and presentations on heraldry, plus two books published by the Society: Aspilogia Scoticana, and Lord Crawford’s Armorial. At the moment I am editing The Armorial of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (ca 1532x4), a joint publication with the National Library of Scotland and available by 2016.
ROLE of CHAIRMAN
Clearly the Chairman has to Chair meetings, but one of the most important roles of the Chairman is to draw the members together and to give a sense of direction to the Society. The other major role is to provide leadership and stability. I look to the re-creation of the Society embracing new technology, without giving up the old world of books and meetings. This requires committed and enthusiastic leadership coupled with good judgement.
EXPERIENCE
I founded and ran the Somerset Heraldry Society 12 years ago. It thrived then; after my return home to Scotland, it thrives still. I bring to our Society the knowledge and experience of proven leadership, management and ideas. I have been on the Committee since 2005. I assisted at the 2006 St Andrews International Congress, both as an Usher and in the organising, and I conceived and ran the five day Heraldic Tour which followed it.
MY THEME
My view of heraldry is that it needs to be seen in the whole mix of what goes on in its period, not exclusively as a separate independent science. If elected Chairman, I would encourage us to look at heraldry this way, hopefully creating a forum for cross-disciplinary studies.
FINANCIAL
From the books of Stuart Emerson, I prepare the accounts each year, and so I have a clear idea of our finances. I believe we should have a budget for each year, as well as a five- or ten-year plan of where we are going, with the target that each year is self-balancing. I have already led this, in having our mailings stuffed by ourselves – and this, in conjunction with the proposed overseas postage supplement, should go a long way to stabilising our affairs. If elected, I will strive to have the costs of all our activities examined on a regular basis.
MANAGEMENT
I aim to make a return to the system where senior officers of the Society remain in post for no more than one term of office, or at least for a maximum fixed period. It seems to me particularly important that Chairman and President should not remain in office for a long period. The role of President should be used creatively to honour not only members of good and long standing, but perhaps non-members too, from other societies or disciplines, who might bring a new perspective to our Society.
MEMBERSHIP
We have lost touch with members, particularly over the last decade, and membership has fallen away. Numbers are now slowly growing again however, thanks particularly to the efforts of Liam Devlin. So I want to foster membership growth at home and abroad through what I term ‘servicing the membership’. We need to make it easier to pay the sub – electronically, and through standing orders with Gift Aid for UK members. I would hope to keep in touch with members through occasional email news bulletins, to bring news to members wherever they are, fresh and without having to wait for an issue of Tak Tent.
MARKETING
We need to publicise our Society, giving heraldry, and us, a higher profile locally and internationally. Our museum collection could be part of this, but we also need to show heraldry in the context of contemporary culture, whether in the time of James V or of our next monarch.
EXHIBITION and MUSEUM
Heraldry is nothing if not visual. We need a public face of heraldry and of the Society. We have a collection of heraldic artefacts which have been donated mainly by members. A central aim of my chairmanship would be to find a permanent arrangement with an existing small museum, so that some of our items might be exhibited in context, perhaps on a rotating basis. Our 40th anniversary occurs in 2017: what better way to mark such an important birthday?
EVENTS, FIELD-TRIPS and TOURS 
My suggestion is a fuller programme of events, held across Scotland where possible. Traditionally we have had a one-day visit each year, although the trip proposed for London in 2015 by Edward Mallinson is for longer. My suggestion is a three or four day Society Tour in the summer, that would attract members, partners and friends; I enjoyed the 2006 Tour which I organised and I think others did too, and we were a group of over 20 people, which suggests a latent demand. I think here particularly of our overseas members, for whom such tours would be very attractive, and special tours for them might be crafted. Organisation of such events might well create involvement for members outside the Committee, who because of distance or other commitments, can neither regularly attend meetings nor stand for the Committee.
MINI-CONFERENCE
We have yet to hold a one-day conference. This is now a proven and popular way of considering a particular aspect of a subject, and we could do this on an inter-disciplinary basis, so drawing on a wider canvas, and inviting speakers from other disciplines, thus placing heraldry in its context. Heraldry is only half itself out of context.
WEBSITE
We already have a large corpus of articles and graphics, fleshing out the whole subject of Scottish Heraldry, including many galleries. Our existing website deserves modernisation. It can be considerably improved through – for example – digitising back numbers of Double Tressure and Tak Tent, thus ensuring that the distilled wisdom of each is retained in permanent circulation. The website needs and deserves to become a tool, a source and mine of information, a first stop for any heraldic enthusiast and scholar alike, and an opening for the appreciation of heraldry, especially in schools.
By introducing a Members' Area, there is the opportunity to open up activities of the Society currently hidden from view – in other words, more transparency. Minutes, reports of meetings, talks and events, and current projects, real and planned, all represent considerable meat and drink.
The matter of the website Forum is a particular issue, and my target would be a reformatting of the Forum, so that non-heraldic matter would be transferred to a Forum in the Members' Only Area. Thus the outside world can look at heraldry generally through the website, but members have a private area where Society matters can be considered.
SOCIAL and OTHER MATTERS
We currently enjoy a healthy social side but this is limited to before and after talks, and the St Andrew’s Dinner which has become such a success. I would like to see us enjoying each others’ company at lunch or supper, as part of a day’s heraldic fun. Convivial eating and drinking adds another dimension to our enjoyment from the Society. It is probably too late to organise a special event to celebrate the Homecoming 2014, but we have our 40th anniversary in 2017 – and we need to plan now for a grand celebration, enjoyable for members and interesting for the public.
OUR FUTURE
We look to the future by building on our successes. My ideas – not necessarily linked to each other – build on what we are already doing.
Alex Maxwell Findlater
27 April 2014
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