Cover letter February 1987

Taigh Moran Chat

RR 2, Northside Road

Wading River, NY 11792

21 April, 1987

Unto the members of the College of Arms and any others who may read this missive, greetings from Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane, Laurel Queen of Arms!

The enclosed letter contains the results of the February meeting, which was held on Saturday, 28 February. At that time were processed the following letters: Ansteorra (10/31), Atenveldt (11/1), Caid (11/2), Middle (11/4,11/5,11/6 and 11/7), West (11/12), East (11/18) and Atlantia (11/22). Of 377 submission elements included in this letter of acceptance and return, 284 are acceptances, 89 are returns and 4 are items pended for an acceptance rate of 75%.

The March meeting was held on Sunday, 29 March. At that time the following letters were considered: Outlands (11/15), Atenveldt (12/1), Ansteorra (12/3), Caid (12/14), West (12/17), Atlantia (12/22), Ansteorra (12/30) and East (12/31). Now that the large "catch up" letters from several kingdoms have been processed, I hope to have the results of this meeting out to you in good time.

The April Laurel meeting will be held on Saturday, 25 April. At that time we will consider the following letters: Aten (1/1), West (1/9), Caid (1/18), Atlantia (1/27) and Middle (1/31). After conversation with the Lymphad Herald of Trimaris, the undated Trimarian letter of intent for their Orders has been indefinitely postponed.

The May meeting has been postponed, due to mundane circumstances, to the Memorial Day weekend and will be held on Sunday, 24 May. At that time will be considered: Aten (2/1), An Tir (2/5), West (2/8), Atlantia (2/18) and East (2/18). If the paperwork for the Calontir letter of intent of February 1 is received in time to be processed prior to the meeting, that letter will also be considered at that meeting.

After lengthy consideration I have decided to restore Morimoto Koryu to the College of Arms commenting list as Monsho Herald. Written pleas for this action have come from no less than eight Kingdoms whilst from only two Kingdoms have come requests that I confirm Master Baldwin's action (and one of those was not willing to put that request in writing). I would adjure Monsho to attempt to preserve the amenities of courtesy in his commenting, as I do the other members of the College who from time to time may lapse into heated converse or withering irony, but ask that you resume sending him your letters of intent for comment. (The mundane name and address are Anthony Ferrucci, 12506 NE 142nd Lane, Apt. #C-103, Kirkland, WA 98034.)

Aten informs me that there is (again) a new Solar Herald: Edric the Unsteady (Gene Bennett, 4645 N. 12th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85013). Also an error in the address changes last month: as most of you no doubt guessed, the Regional Herald for Artemisia lives in Green River WY not Green River NY!

Andreas of Green Village, Gold Falcon Herald, informs me that he has appointed Aelfric Dromundr to the position of Saker Herald, with responsibility for processing all heraldic submissions from Calontir. Address all correspondence to Allen Curtis, 934 S. Broadway, Leavenworth, KS 66048 (telephone: 913-682-0648).

Minowara Kiritsubo, Ibis Herald, has moved to a new home. Her address is now P.O. Box 1867, Prince Frederick, MD 20678. The new address for the Lymphad Herald is 3427 N.W. 54th Terrace, Gainesville, FL 32606.

More information on the Known World Heraldic Symposium is now available. The cost of the Symposium itself will be $5.00 (note that this doesn't include Symposium Proceedings). The Saturday night feast will be $8.00 ($10.00 after 15 June if available). The Proceedings will be published after the event in order to include summaries of the discussions there and the cost is not yet determined.

For those needing to plan their travel plans, Registration and an Open House will be held at "Herald Square" on Friday, 26 June, from 3 P.M. on. (For those who are friends of Kraken and Batonvert, their wedding is also planned for that evening and members of the College attending the Symposium are cordially invited to attend.) Classes, discussions, etc. will be held on Saturday on the UC Berkeley campus from 8:30 A.M. to 5 P.M. The feast will begin at 6 P.M. at a nearby site and a revel/post-revel will follow until interest in revelry is exhausted. A Laurel meeting will be held at 9 A.M. on Sunday (the precise letter[s] to be considered will be announced in the next month or so). From 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. there will be a "bull session" and formal discussion of the direction of the heraldry in the Society. The Symposium officially ends at 5 P.M., but informal discussions will no doubt continue that evening for those whose travel plans involve their staying over until Monday morning.

Limited crash space is available (contact the autocrats for information) and accommodation may also be requested at the University guesthouse. The cost of these rooms is $25.00 per night for a single room or $30.00 per night for a double if two people are travelling together (the University will not "match" roommates). Rooms may be requested for the period immediately preceding and following the Symposium for those wishing to stay in the area for a period longer than the weekend. To get University housing it is necessary to request a housing form by letter or phone and return it by May 26 to Michelle Downs, Marketing and Conference Services, 2601 Warring Street, Berkeley, CA 94720 (telephone: 9 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. PDT).

Send cheques for reservations (made out to "College of Heralds" and with some indication that it is for a Symposium reservation written on the cheque) to the Brachet Herald, Alison von Markheim (Alison Douglas, Box 3266, Berkeley, CA 94703, Telephone 415-420-1860 from 9 A.M. 11 P.M. PDT). For further information, crash space, airport pickups, or general travel advice or Symposium information, etc. contact Brachet or Latimer (Eilis O'Boirne, c/o Lee Forgue, 2322 Russell Street, Berkeley, CA 94705, telephone 415-486-0633).

On the October letter, in discussion of the submission of William of Ravenwood, it was proposed for discussion that fields and charges multiply divided of two colours (e.g., chequy, compony, paly, etc.) be permitted on a case by case basis providing the contrast was adequate, contrast in this case being defined as a combination of gules with sable, vert or azure. Although a decision on this issue was scheduled for the January meeting, it was postponed to allow collation of late commentary.

The issue does not seem to have aroused heated interest in the College of Arms and such opinions as I have received have been so divided as to make it doubtful whether a consensus exists to support any change at this time. Therefore, no change to rule or precedent on this issue is made at this time.

Commentary was also solicited on the proposal from the Middle that the names of dissolved groups should be permitted to new groups forming in the same geographical area. Many members of the College commented on this issue and there was substantial feeling on the part of some that a blanket prohibition was too limiting. However, virtually all seemed to feel as well that significant limitations should be placed on the circumstances in which such reuse should be permitted and there was very little agreement on the protections which should be allowed. Some felt this was something that should be directly decreed, on a case by case basis, by the Board. Others that it was something that should be decided by the College alone, but with input from appropriate Kingdom officers. Still others felt that the Kingdom Seneschal, the Crown, a committee of Kingdom officers, or a combination of all three, should be required to decide and attest that it is their decision that the name should be reused. Most seemed to be concerned that only the names of groups which were "honourably dissolved" should be permitted for reuse, while one or two felt that the circumstances of dissolution should be ignored (the spectre of "political" dissolutions was raised by at least one commentor) .

All this being so, I felt that there was really no clearcut opinion in the College which could be presented to the Board for their action. This being so, it seems best to follow the conservative path and continue with the traditional prohibition on the "revival" of group names and armoury. However, this is clearly a matter which could be discussed with profit at the Symposium and the herald's meetings at Pennsic in an effort to develop a coherent "sense of the College".

As those who carefully follow the course of commentary in the College are well aware, research resources are by no means equally divided between the Kingdoms. Some Kingdoms have access to major university libraries with considerable collections, including many out of print volumes, on heraldry and nomenclature. In other Kingdoms the heraldic establishment is woefully short on access to such volumes and has to rely on the expertise of other Kingdoms for documentation (i.e., screening that should be done in-Kingdom must be done at the College of Arms level). This is a disadvantage both to the Kingdoms affected and to the College of Arms at large.

I would like to propose that the pre-existing mechanisms of the College of Arms would serve excellently as a path for "information exchange". If those Colleges which own or have library access to standard texts on nomenclature were willing to Xerox some of these for the Kingdoms which are no so well-endowed, the general level of research and education in the College could be greatly improved. As it happens, a majority of the most useful texts for heraldic and name research are out of copyright and so can be Xeroxed without penalty. Others volumes, many of them small and inexpensive, are readily available in New York or California, but may be very difficult to acquire in the farther reaches of the Society. If heralds in areas which have access to good bookstores could agree to purchase texts for those who have not that advantage, Kingdom libraries could again be expanded.

All too often the quality of a Kingdom's library depends directly on the composition of the staff of that College at the time. It is the exception, rather than the rule, that the College of Heralds has a considerable library; usually, a majority of the more arcane books belong to the individuals and do not pass on with the office. I would like to declare A.S. XXII as the Year of the Book for the College of Arms: a major goal of every College of Heralds and of the College of Arms as a whole should be to establish and or expand its "institutional", as opposed to personal, library as much as finances of the College will permit. I do not except the Laurel Office from this project since, quite frankly, the gaps in some areas of the Laurel library are appalling.

To this end, I request that each College consider its resources and come up with a "wish list" of books that it would like to buy or receive in Xeroxed form, if possible. At the same time, each College should devise a listing of those books which it would be willing to Xerox and mail at cost for another Kingdom or which could be readily bought in its area (together with the approximate cost). Ideally such lists would be available before the Symposium/Pennsic. I realise that this project will no doubt put something of a burden on some "more fortunate" Kingdoms, but the effort will profit all in the long run.

Your servant,

Alisoun