Submission Herald Checklist

(How to Help The Laurel Sovereign's Office Process Your Submissions)

Every month OSCAR shows Laurel a new set of submissions from each kingdom. Each of those submissions needs a packet of documentation with it. There can be over 200 submissions from all 21 kingdoms in a single month, and each submission's packet needs to be checked through by Laurel's clerk, Ragged Staff. If you are sending in a submission to your kingdom, whether it's via electronic mail or by regular mailing (with stamps and everything) there are some things you should check over before submitting to help Laurel process these submissions.

Forms

• Each form, whether for a name or device or badge, needs to have the submitter's legal name and one way of contacting on the form - email is preferred, then phone, then address.
• If the submitter worked with a herald, that information should also be on the form - the herald's name and email address.
• Note that the submitter's birthdate and gender SHOULD NOT BE FILLED IN. This PII is extraneous. Please do not fill it in.
• Make sure that the boxes at the top of the form are filled out to indicate what it is - a new or a resubmission, and from what level and at what date. If an old registration is being retained or released, that needs to be marked as well. A Request for Reconsideration (a name got registered with notes that another form of the name would be either more what the submitter wanted or a better fit for the submitter's preferences) is an Other and needs to be marked as such on the form.
• For name forms only - preferences for the submission are under the header area. While leaving these unfilled is okay, filling them out helps the Laurel office give the submitter the name they want.
• For devices and badges, two copies of the form need to be scanned or sent in. One should be a line drawing of the device or badge (it's okay if small areas of black are colored in, but other colors should not be), one should be colored in with appropriate markers or with online color. We're not picky about the exact color, but they should be clearly heraldic tinctures.
• Color copies of armory forms should match the blazon as proposed – check for blazons that reverse the colors or have a different tincture. Don't worry about the details; we can fix those. If the item has problems with the colors, it may be pended or returned.
• Remember that a kingdom resub is not a resub at the Laurel level and needs to be paid for and that Laurel resubs are always free.

Other Documentation

• Petitions for a group name or device should conform to Admin Handbook requirements. You do not need a petition for other branch submissions. These petitions are a requirement for new groups so please remember to have these filled out and dated. In OSCAR, each element can have a copy of the petition with it.
• Documentation for a name does not need to be a ton of paper. If the form mentions sources not from Appendix H then, yes, please include copies of the relevant pages only. Many sources are now in Appendix H of the Admin Handbook, so only need the name URL for the source mentioned on the form.
• For a person who wants to use part of their legal name in a submission, a copy of the person's driver's license, birth certificate, or passport showing that legal name needs to be included in the packet. This can be folded up in such a way as to hide that PII from all except the person who needs to see it at kingdom and at Laurel. Alternately, the other information can be blacked out.

Other

• Check that all forms are the correct ones for the type of submission. Branch submissions should be done on branch submission forms (for names and devices). Badges for a branch should indicate so on the form.
• OSCAR can handle lots of pages of documentation, but is it really necessary? Make sure that only the relevant pages get sent to kingdom to be uploaded into OSCAR.
• Kingdoms should check scanners when the weather gets humid or bitingly cold. Scanners can skew pages or rip them if the conditions are wrong.
• Pages should be scanned at 300dpi; this is the full size that OSCAR can handle and will show up correctly.
• Pages that arrive skewed and unreadable should not even be scanned. A call or email back to the submitter to see if the sheets can be fixed is the best option.

Okay, let's get those submissions ready and send them in!