Cover Letter April 1987

Taigh Moran Chat

RR 2, Northside Road

Wading River, NY 11792

11 June, 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 includes the submissions processed at the April meeting, which was held on Sunday, 26 April. The meeting considered the following letters: Aten (1/1), West (1/9), Caid (1/18), Atlantia (1/27) and Middle (1/31). Of 150 items included on this letter 122 were accepted, 27 were returned and one was pended for an overall success rate of just over 81%.

The May meeting was held on Sunday, 24 May. At that time the following letters were considered: Aten (2/1), Calontir (2/1), An Tir (2/5), West (2/8), Atlantia (2/18) and East (2/18).

The primary Laurel meeting for June is scheduled for Sunday, 14 June and will consider Caid (3/8), West (3/12), Ansteorra (3/25) and Atlantia (3/27). The Atenveldt letter of March 1 will be considered at the Symposium to be held in the West on the last weekend of the month. As I have been informed by several members of the College that the two letters from the Middle dated in March actually did not reach most until late in April, thus allowing slim time for comment, those letters have been postponed to the July meeting.

The July meeting is scheduled for Sunday, 26 July and will consider Middle (3/30), Middle (3/31), Caid (4/5), Ansteorra (4/9), and West (4/15). If the paperwork for the Meridies letter of April 7 arrives before the end of this month, that will also be considered.

The War Herald having given his approval, the "rolling Laurel meeting" mentioned previously will in fact be held at the Pennsic War. Letters to be considered at those sessions include An Tir (5/5), Caid (5/10), West (5/20), Middle (5/27) and Middle (5/28).

From time to time I have been asked with varying degrees of curiosity or insistence why I had not made any new "appointments" to the Laurel staff (one individual who felt that the roster of the College was incomplete without Clarion wrote me more or less demanding his appointment to that post!). It is quite true that I have not created any titled heralds, although I certainly have had a competent staff, some inherited from my predecessors, some recruited by myself. Many causes have led to a reluctance on my part to do so, but two were particularly strong. There was a distinct concern, possibly unfounded but based on public and private statements of some members of the College, that significant additions to the Laurel staff from geographic areas previously unrepresented might trigger latent fears of an "Easternization" of the Laurel Office. Equally importantly, all of the members of my "advisory staff" already held heraldic titles in their own Kingdoms and felt no need of a title from the Laurel Office in order to serve the College and the Society.

For a variety of reasons, however, this seems to be the appropriate time to recognize the services to the College of a number of heralds who have been quietly labouring to improve the state of heraldry in the Society. Their names should be familiar to all.

By now everyone who receives these letters should be aware of the significant services rendered by Vasili iz Naitemneshoi Dollina in reproducing and mailing the letters of acceptance and return, maintaining the subscription database and performing a host of other "scutwork" jobs for the Laurel Office. The time and difficulties involved in the position are often invisible to the outsider, but Vasili has consistently demonstrated that he is willing to serve the College, even at a cost to himself, even to the point of devoting the time that he might have spent in the "fun" task of commenting to the uninspiring task of duplicating the words of others. After discussion with Master Wilhelm, I have decided that Vasili is the perfect person to rehabilitate the title of Codex Herald, which has fallen into disuse since an unfortunate episode early in Master Wilhelm's tenure.

Graidhne ni Ruaidh, who has served the Middle Kingdom and the College of Arms as Oaken, Pale and Dragon Herald, is named Holus Herald. She will be serving as "Special Projects Co-ordinator" in addition to her long-standing functions as special researcher, wise advisor and ground wire for Laurel's temper when the static electricity charge in the College gets too great.

For some years Gawaine of Miskbridge, formerly Gold Falcon Herald of Calontir, has, whatever the mundane pressures, consistently served the College with regular commentary, specialized research and calm advice. As a representative of the centre of the Society, not only geographically but also philosophically, he has all too often served as the College's anchor to the common sense that often deserts some of us when we start to consider heraldic theory. He is hereby named Green Anchor Herald.

At the same time, the Laurel Office is losing, hopefully only temporarily, one of its most senior advisors. Alfgar the Sententious, Virgule Herald, has requested a leave of absence from commenting due to mundane pressures. I am bound to honour his request, but wish to make it clear that I consider him to be in spirit yet a member of the College and, in view of his considerable contributions to the College for well over a decade, await only his request to restore him to full commenting status.

Appended to this letter is a new roster of the College as of the beginning of June. As the changes from last autumn's roster have been considerable, you are strongly advised to examine it carefully and emend your mailing lists accordingly. While it would be wasteful of space to reduplicate all the address changes that I have received in the last month or the names which have disappeared from the roster, a few major changes of position should be noted.

Charles Stewart O'Connor, formerly Schwarzdrachen Herald of Drachenwald, Morgenstern Herald of the East and Dragon Herald of the Middle has continued his inexorable westward progression by becoming Gold Falcon Principal Herald of Calontir.

Erasimierz Waspanieski has become White Stag Principal Herald of the Outlands on the retirement of Keridwen of Montrose. I am informed that he is endowed with an awesome variety of languages. As he intends to be an active commentor, the College may look forward to an educational experience!

In Atenveldt, Marcus le Silex has become Solar Herald for the Principality of the Sun. Meridies has a new Pennon Herald, Geoffrey FitzAlain, who has already sent out his first Letter of Intent. In the Middle Kingdom, there is a new Fenris Herald: Johannes von Brandenberg.

Your servant,

Alisoun