Taigh Moran Chat

RR 2, Northside Road

Wading River, NY 11792

5 August, 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 deals with the submissions processed at the Laurel meeting of 26 July. Considered at that session were letters from the Middle (3/39), Middle (3/31), Atenveldt, (4/1), Caid (4/5), Meridies (4/7), Ansteorra (4/9), West (4/15) and Atlantia (4/28). Of 221 actions for July, 175 were positive, 43 were negative and 3 were pended actions for an overall success rate of 79%.

The August meeting to be held at Pennsic will examine Atenveldt (5/1), An Tir (5/5), Caid (5/10), East (5/20), West (5/20), Atlantia (5/27) Middle (5/27) and Middle (5/28). The September Laurel meeting is scheduled for Sunday, 13 September. That meeting should consider the June Laurel letter of intent as well as letters from Atenveldt (6/1), Calontir (6/3), Caid (6/7), West (6/10) and Outlands (6/18).

Due to uncertainty as to the dates of Coronation in the East and Middle, the October Laurel meeting cannot be firmly settled. I would, however, ask that any comments reach me by October 15 since we would like to hold the meeting on October 17, if possible. At that meeting will be considered Ansteorra (6/26), Atenveldt (7/1), Caid (7/12), West (7/15) and Calontir (7/26)/

Tentative dates for the November and December Laurel meetings are November 21 and December 12.

Dawyd z Gury having retired as Brigantia Principal Herald, Arval Bencoeur (formerly Treblerose Herald) takes on the Brigantia post. His address remains unchanged (Joshua Mittleman, 74 George Street, Harrington Park, NJ 07641; 201-768-6534).

Please add to your roster the Aurochs Pursuivant of Drachenwald, Andreannna Innes (Kim Ann Innes, c/o John Adams, ASAEDE, Attention EUDIM-SMO, APO NU 09757-5301). Traditionally, Aurochs was retained on the mailing list to increase the probability that a copy of each letter of intent would reach the Drachenwald commenting group with its access to the heraldic libraries of Europe. Aurochs was dropped a couple of rosters ago, but recurring problems with mail to Drachenwald indicate that it would be advisable to return to this custom.

Gold Falcon requests that you add to your rosters as Lanner Herald Andreas of Green Village (John Kreipe, 3925 Kenwood, Apt. 2W, Kansas City, MO 64110). Also, there is a new Saker Herald: William of Carrington (Dennis Young, 11303 Bristol Terrace, Kansas City, MO 64134; telephon: 816-763-1178). Neither will be commenting at this time.

After some discussion, it has been determined that a Caidan group led by Crescent feels that it will have the time, after all, to complete a set of precedents for the tenure of Baldwin of Erebor. No firm publication date has been set, but I am hoping to be able to announce that shortly.

I would like to solicit volunteers for two other projects. First, is a person or group willing to undertake the job of doing precedents for my tenure. As we approach the one-year mark, enough material exists to make a good start and I feel this should be done on a rolling basic as we proceed to ensure a timely appearance (if only in photocopied form for the Principal Heralds). Letters in IBM ASCII format are available on diskette from January, 1987, on which should simplify matters.

Another long-standing project, one which I had hoped to do myself before being promoted (???), is a summary of precedents listing for the entire history of the Society. This would allow us to track the changes in direction that Society heraldry has taken and would be invaluable in the periodic discussions on rules which engulf the College. I have samples of the sort of thing I have in mind, if anyone is interested in taking this on.

Feedback on the new format for letters of acceptance and return has been uniformly positive. In response to several queries, we are working on editing fonts to thorns, etc., but have to work out an appropriate standard 'code number' to use for each non-standard character (the ones currently being used are standard to the IBM character set). When these are worked out, we will circulate them to the College.

There are several other matters which deserve attention, but this letter must necessarily be brief since I leave today for Pennsic so as not to delay the letter as a whole by two weeks. A full account of matter pending (none urgent) and matter heraldic discussed at the Pennsic Board meeting will appear with the August letter of acceptance and returns.

Your servant,

Alisoun