Society for Creative Anachronism

College of Arms

16308 SE 165th St

Renton, WA 98058-8221

+1-425-277-0763

herald@sca.org

For the September 2006 meetings, printed December 15, 2006

To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Elisabeth Laurel, Jeanne Marie Wreath, and Margaret Pelican, greetings.

For information about future scheduling, please review the status table located on the Web at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/status.html.

The September Laurel decisions were made at the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, September 17, 2006 and the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, September 24, 2006. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: Middle (11 May 2006), East (22 May 2006), Ansteorra (24 May 2006), Artemisia (24 May 2006), Caid (24 May 2006), Drachenwald (24 May 2006), West (24 May 2006), Atlantia (25 May 2006), Æthelmearc (25 May 2006), Meridies (25 May 2006), Ealdormere (26 May 2006), Outlands (27 May 2006), Lochac (28 May 2006), Calontir (30 May 2006), An Tir (31 May 2006), Atenveldt (31 May 2006), Laurel LoPaD (31 May 2006), and Trimaris (31 May 2006).

The October Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, October 7, 2006 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, October 15, 2006. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: Gleann Abhann (12 Jun 2006), Middle (12 Jun 2006), Ansteorra (21 Jun 2006), Drachenwald (21 Jun 2006), West (21 Jun 2006), Atlantia (22 Jun 2006), East (24 Jun 2006), Meridies (26 Jun 2006), Siren LoItUP (26 Jun 2006), [Lochac (27 Jun 2006)], Outlands (27 Jun 2006), Palimpsest (27 Jun 2006), Atenveldt (28 Jun 2006), and An Tir (30 Jun 2006).

The November Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, November 11, 2006 and the Wreath meeting held on Saturday, November 4, 2006. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: Laurel (8 Jul 2006), Middle (12 Jul 2006), Artemisia (15 Jul 2006), Ansteorra (19 Jul 2006), Atlantia (20 Jul 2006), [Æthelmearc (20 Jul 2006)], East (20 Jul 2006), Drachenwald (23 Jul 2006), Gleann Abhann (26 Jul 2006), Caid (26 Jul 2006), West (26 Jul 2006), Northshield (27 Jul 2006), Outlands (27 Jul 2006), [An Tir (28 Jul 2006)], [Ealdormere (28 Jul 2006)], Palimpsest LoItUP (29 Jul 2006), Atenveldt (30 Jul 2006), Meridies (30 Jul 2006), and Trimaris (31 Jul 2006). Original commentary on these letters should have been in the College's hands no later than September 30, 2006. Responses and rebuttals to commentary should have been in the College's hands no later than October 31, 2006.

The December Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, December 9, 2006, and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday December 10, 2006. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: Laurel LoPaD (12 Aug 2006), [Artemisia (22 Aug 2006)], Drachenwald (22 Aug 2006), Gleann Abhann (22 Aug 2006), [Caid (23 Aug 2006)], [Ansteorra (25 Aug 2006)], Atenveldt (25 Aug 2006), Outlands (27 Aug 2006), East (28 Aug 2006), Meridies (28 Aug 2006), [An Tir (29 Aug 2006)], East (29 Aug 2006), and [Atlantia (30 Aug 2006)]. Original commentary on these letters should have been in the College's hands no later than October 31, 2006. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than November 30, 2006.

The January Laurel decisions will be made at the Wreath meeting held January 21, 2007 and the Pelican meeting Sunday, January 28, 2007. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: [Middle (11 Sep 2006)], [Lochac (12 Sep 2006)], East (18 Sep 2006), [Drachenwald (19 Sep 2006)], [Artemisia (20 Sep 2006)], [Caid (20 Sep 2006)], West (20 Sep 2006), [Æthelmearc (21 Sep 2006)], [Ansteorra (21 Sep 2006)], Loyall (21 Sep 2006), Trimaris (23 Sep 2006), [An Tir (27 Sep 2006)], [Outlands (27 Sep 2006)], Atlantia (28 Sep 2006), [Atenveldt (30 Sep 2006)], Palimpsest (30 Sep 2006), Siren (30 Sep 2006). Original commentary on these letters must be in the College's hands no later than November 30, 2006. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than December 31, 2006.

The February Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting Sunday, February 11, 2007 and the Wreath meeting held Sunday, February 25, 2007. The meetings will consider the following Letters of Intent: [Northshield (6 Oct 2006)], Laurel LoPaD (15 Oct 2006), [Gleann Abhann (16 Oct 2006)], [Lochac (16 Oct 2006)], [Artemisia (22 Oct 2006)], [Drachenwald (22 Oct 2006)], [East (23 Oct 2006)], [Ansteorra (24 Oct 2006)], [West (25 Oct 2006)], [Æthelmearc (26 Oct 2006)], [Caid (26 Oct 2006)], Loyall (26 Oct 2006), [Middle (27 Oct 2006)], [Outlands (27 Oct 2006)], [Atlantia (29 Oct 2006)], [Trimaris (29 Oct 2006)], [An Tir (30 Oct 2006)], [Calontir (30 Oct 2006)], [Meridies (30 Oct 2006)], Palimpsest LoItUP (30 Oct 2006), and [Atenveldt (31 Oct 2006)]. Original commentary on these letters must be in the College's hands no later than December 31, 2006. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than January 31, 2007.

Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of mailing of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain letters of intent. Additionally, some letters of intent received may not have been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, et cetera) have not yet been met.

REMINDER: Until all administrative requirements are met, the letter may not be scheduled.

From the Autocrats: KWHSS

The 2007 Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium (hosted by Caid), is soliciting articles for the Symposium Proceedings. Any articles on armory, onomastics, or heraldry as practiced in the Society, or the scribal arts, is heartily welcome. At the moment, we're accepted articles in .doc and .txt formats; if you have other formats in mind (like .htm), please contact us.

The deadline for articles is 30 April 2007. For more information, please contact the Proceedings editor, Baron Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme, at draconarius@gmail.com....

From Laurel: Scanning Letters of Intent

Baroness Shauna tells me that some kingdoms are sending scans of their Letters of Intent to her, which greatly facilitates her job. I would encourage all kingdoms to follow suit, if and as they are able to do so.

Once again, all external submission heralds are reminded not to staple pages together, and to avoid sending on copies of documentation from sources specified in Appendix H of the Administrative Handbook, the No-Photocopy List.

From Laurel: OSCAR and Changes to the Administrative Handbook

The eventual goal of OSCAR is to phase out paper Letters of Intent and paper commentary. I am often asked when we can expect this to happen. The answer is, soon, but some things remain to be done first.

In order for Letters of Intent to be commented upon via OSCAR, they must be entered into the OSCAR system. (At this writing, all but three Kingdoms have at some point entered an LoI into OSCAR, and the others are working on it.) Furthermore, every Kingdom must have had its Letters of Intent in the OSCAR system long enough for all the paper versions to have gone through their entire commentary cycle, approximately four months.

If a Letter of Intent does not appear in OSCAR, then all commentary on that letter must be done on paper/e-mail. OSCAR has become extremely popular with College of Arms commenters. So, if you were to guess that Letters of Intent posted on OSCAR are getting the most and best commentary, you would be quite correct. Consider this as one more incentive to get your Letters of Intent onto OSCAR. Failing to do so is a disservice to the submitter.

Another task to accomplish before we can stop killing so many trees is to change the Administrative Handbook to reflect the new procedures. It is true that this document badly needs updating anyway, and I fully intend to completely overhaul it by the end of my tenure. To start, I propose the following addition to the Administrative Handbook, VII.D.:

5. When an online commentary forum accessible to all members of the College of Arms is specified by Laurel as a designated entry method for comments, all comments, and comments on comments, must be entered into that forum in an approved manner. Entry of comments into that forum will fulfill the requirement of distributing commentary to Laurel and to members of the College of Arms.

As per the Administrative Handbook VIII.B.8, "Any changes in administrative rules or procedures must be published in a cover letter to the letter of acceptances and returns." Therefore, as of publication of this letter, commentary entered into the OSCAR system will be considered distributed to Laurel, the mailing list and the College at large. However recall that if you are commenting on a paper LoI not in the OSCAR system, you must still comment on paper or e-mail as before.

Note well that this also requires that all Principal Heralds, external submissions heralds and commenting heralds, as well as Laurel, Pelican and Wreath, have OSCAR accounts. Anyone may, but these individuals must, and immediately.

Be advised that my next step will be the announcement of the date by which paper Letters of Intent will no longer be accepted. I would advise all those who are having difficulties using OSCAR, or any questions at all, to contact me or Istvan Blue Tyger as appropriate, without delay.

I apologize sincerely for any and all confusion that has resulted thus far from getting OSCAR-related commentary properly distributed. This has been a hair-raisingly complex process, and I thank the many astute and insightful persons who have been helping me wind my way through it.

From Wreath: Concerning Chevrons and Per Chevron Fields

We've had a number of submissions recently, using either a chevron or a per chevron field, with three charges in the area above the chevron line. Sometimes these three charges have been one and two; sometimes they've been in fess. The question has naturally arisen as to which of these is the default placement for three charges in that sort of design.

The fact is that neither placement is particularly good heraldic style. Neither of them fills the space available for the charges. The area above a chevron line is best suited for two charges, with the space below the line for a third charge. Two and one is the default placement for three charges for good reason: that placement best fills the heater shape that is the standard medium for heraldic display. Anything else, almost by definition, is sub-optimal.

It's true that there are rare period examples (very rare) of three charges above a chevron line: e.g., the arms of Robert Pakington (Collins' Roll, c.1295), Per chevron sable and argent, in chief three pierced mullets argent (Anglo-Norman Armory II, p.498). In those cases, the charges are arranged in fess, not one and two. That will be considered the SCA default for three charges above a chevron line. But it remains likewise true that such a design is poor style by period standards: its rarity, its difficulty in blazoning, and the fact that it does not efficiently use the space available for the charges, are all evidence of this.

Whether or not there's a CD for arranging three charges in fess or in chevron above a chevron or the upper portion of a Per chevron field will be worked out over time, as the cases come before us. In many instances, e.g. using long charges, this difference is nearly impossible to discern and thus not worth a CD.

Send What to Whom

For all Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera, send one paper copy directly to each of the Sovereigns of Arms, Laurel, Pelican and Wreath at their mailing addresses as shown on the College of Arms Roster.

Send Laurel office copies of all submissions-related paper, including

-	Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera (note: such paper copies are in addition to the personal copies for Laurel, Pelican and Wreath mentioned above)

-	Submission packets (one copy of each name form plus documentation, including petitions; two colored copies of each armory form plus two copies of any associated documentation, including petitions)

to the SCA College of Arms, PO Box 31755, Billings, MT 59107-1755.

Send the required electronic copies of all submissions-related files to submissions@sca.org. This applies to all LoIs, LoCs, LoRs, et cetera.

Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to be sent directly to the CoA Chancellor of the Exchequer, at Laurel Chancellor of Exchequer, 4N400 Church Rd, Bensenville, IL 60106-2928.

Send roster changes and corrections to Laurel. College of Arms members may also request a copy of the current roster from Laurel.

For a paper copy of a LoAR, please contact Laurel, at the address above. The cost for one LoAR is $3. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms". For subscriptions to the electronic copy of the LoAR, please contact Laurel at herald@sca.org. The electronic copy is available free of charge.

For all administrative matters, or for questions about whom to send to, please contact Laurel.

Pray know that I remain,

In service,

Elisabeth de Rossignol

Laurel Principal Queen of Arms