Once we are there lets show the people of Las Vegas that the Celtic Bhoys and Ghirls know how to enjoy themselves without offending others.

I would like to remind every club that to vote at the A.G.M. the clubs must have next years membership paid, so if you have not already please make sure that you are paid up to date in time for the meetings in Vegas.

Hail Hail Bhoys and Ghirls. It's NAFCSC Convention time and once again Houston Bobby Lennox CSC are pleased to hold a Grand Raffle. The prize is four seats in the Directors Box at Parkhead next season at a game to be arranged. These seats have been donated to our Club by Renfrewshire Electronics Ltd.

At the last convention Ottawa CSC were the proud winners. We were able to arrange the tickets for a game when their members were in Scotland and by all accounts a good time was had by one and all.

The conditions are: Winner takes all 4 seats, $10 per ticket, 6 for $50, 12 for $100. The draw will be made on stage in Las Vegas by Bobby Lennox on June 10th after the AGM.

As per the last raffle we will donate 20% of the proceeds to Charity, the remainder will be retained to boost Club funds. Some of you will recall that following the success of the last raffle, we were in a position to voluntarily increase our per game contribution to the Federation by 50%. Tickets can be purchased in Las Vegas or via mail to: Houston CSC, 3607 Valleyfield Drive, Houston, Texas 77080, USA.

Checks should be made payable to Houston CSC. I will send you your tickets numbers by e-mail and actual ticket stubs by return mail if required. Include a return address please. If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at mcaloon@ev1.net.

The response to the 2000 NAFCSC convention has been overwhelming and it is a complete sell out, with 1700 dinner dance tickets sold and a waiting list of close to 200.

Once again entertainment will be provided on the Thurday and Friday evenings by MC Hugo (Mr Las Vegas) Straney who will be joined by Celtic vocalist Patricia Ferns and Glasgow Irish Folk band Crooked Reel.

The list of guests attending, who all wore the hoops with great pride, is as follows:
Ronnie Simpson, Jim Craig, Tommy Gemmell, Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeil, John Clark, Steve Chalmers, Bobby Lennox, Bertie Auld, John Fallon, Willie O'Neill, Joe McBride, Sean Fallon, Dixie Deans, Frank McAvennie, Pat McCluskey, George McCluskey, Danny McGrain and Tommy Callaghan.

Representing Celtic FC will be two present day players (unknown at this time), Allan MacDonald, Kenny Dalglish, David Low and Matt McGlone, who will also be doing a roadshow and question and answer session on the Saturday after the AGM.

The final itinerary for the week is as follows:

Monday evening: Welcome gathering
Tuesday: Do as you please
Wednesday morning: Golf at the Las Vegas golf club (a few places still open at $65 per person)
Thursday evening: Hospitality and singsong with our hosts the Los Angeles C.S.C.
Friday morning: Presidents meeting (discussion of satellite coverage etc, 3 exec per club)
Friday evening: Dinner dance with entertainment by MC Hugo Straney, vocalist Patricia Ferns and Glasgow Irish folk band Crooked Reel
Saturday morning: 11:00 am Federation AGM, followed by a question and answer session with Allan MacDonald, Kenny Dalglish, David Low and Matt McGlone

The committee are looking forward to seeing you all in Las Vegas for another fun filled week.

Also, if you are in town, Anthony and Maria would like to invite you to join them at their wedding at the Guardian Angel Cathedral, Las Vegas on Friday, 9th June. Click Here for all the information.

Things are now beginning to fall into place for the Convention, with guests committing to attending the function.

I will know within the next month or so the full guest list and can tell you at this time that Allan MacDonald and Kenny Dalglish will be attending, along with two present day players. They will be joined by Billy McNeil, Bertie Auld, Bobby Lennox, Tommy Gemmell, Joe McBride, Bobby Murdoch, Jim Craig, Steve Chalmers, John Clark and Ronnie Simpson from the Lisbon Lions squad.

Also committed to attending are Danny McGrain and Frank McAvenie, and we are waiting to hear from Paul McStay, Tommy Burns, Peter Grant and Craig Burley which will make it a very formidable guest list.

The itinerary for the weeks events will run close to the following:

Monday evening: Welcome gathering
Tuesday: Do as you please
Wednesday morning: Golf at the Las Vegas golf club
Thursday evening: Hospitality and sing song with our hosts the Los Angeles C.S.C.
Friday morning: Presidents meeting
Friday evening: Dinner Dance with entertainment by Hugo (Mr Las Vegas) Straney and vocalist Patricia Ferns
Saturday morning: 11.00 am — Federation A.G.M.
followed by a question and answer session with Allan MacDonald and Kenny Dalglish

As usual we will update this info as needed over the next few months

The golf has been booked at the Las Vegas Golf Club for Wednesday, 7th June. It will be a 7am tee off with a shotgun start the cost is $65 US and this includes cart and lunch. Clubs can be rented at a cost of $12 per set, please have your club inform us ASAP if you wish to play as there will be an over demand for this event.

At the present date we have heard from just over 50% of the member clubs and have already close to 1000 tickets booked for the dinner dance, so make sure your club is on the ball and you don't miss out. Because of the demand we have spoken to the New Frontier about accommodating this amount of people and more. If the numbers keep climbing we may have to move outside to the pool area and have an open air affair, the hotel does not see a problem with this as the have had functions there before to accommodate 1500.

The NAFCSC Convention will be held in Las Vegas from Sunday, 4th June 4th until Sunday, 11th June, 2000 at the New Frontier Hotel on the Strip. The reason for the move to this hotel is because the Imperial Palace cannot hold the numbers that we expect this year (1200 people).

The Frontier Hotel has a new banquet center that can accommodate this amount of people, also the hotel knows what to expect as the hospitality director worked at the Imperial the last time we were there. Packages (flight and hotel included) to the New frontier from Canada are available from Sunquest and Signature tours, and from Britain they are available through U.K. Air Tours. I am not sure if packages are available from the USA, but anyone from Canada, the USA, Britain or Ireland who books flight only can reserve rooms at a special rate for people attending the convention of $40 US Monday to Thursday and $60 US Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The phone number to contact at the hotel for these rates is 1-800-634-6966 and remember to mention that you are with the NAFCSC.

Any clubs who are interested in sponsoring a guest should let the executive know by November 7th. If your club wishes to bring, or help in bringing a guest, please submit the players name and also two alternate names so that we can contact them to see if they will be available.

The dinner dance tickets must be paid by the first week in March, the cost will be about $40 to $45 US per person.

Also a convention programme will be printed and any clubs who want to place an ad should contact Gary Hughes or myself, Gary's email is mhughes@attcanada.net . The cost of the ads are $125 US for a half page and $200 US for a full page.

Although it seems far off just now we need each club to let its members know these details, as a lot of work has to be done to make next years convention as successful as those in the past. Each club will contacted over the next month to find out the initial response from the membership.

A schedule of events will be posted as things fall into place.