Taigh Moran Chat
RR 2, Northside Road
Wading River, NY 11792
17 March, 1988

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 November letter from Caid was considered at a special Sunday morning session at Estrella War, attended by four principal heralds and members of the College from seven kingdoms. The remaining submissions were examined at the regular session held on 21 February and included Atenveldt (11/1), An Tir (11/11), Middle (11/21), West (11/18), Outlands (11/23) and Atlantia (11/25). Of 230 actions, 184 were favourable, 45 negative with one device pended for an overall acceptance rate of 80%.

The March meeting is scheduled for 19 March and will consider An Tir (12/6), Caid (12/6), Atlantia (12/7), West (12/16), Ansteorra (12/17), and East (12/23). Due to its delayed receipt by the bulk of the commenting heralds and some paperwork problems, the letter from Trimaris has been postponed to the April meeting.

Due to a shift in the scheduled time of East Kingdom Coronation, the April meeting has been moved to 23 April. At that time we will consider Trimaris (11/30), Outlands (12/30), Atenveldt (1/10), Caid (1/10), West (1/13), East (1/25), East (1/26), Outlands (1/28), Ansteorra (1/29) and Meridies (1/29). Both letters from Calontir dated 1 January have been moved to the May meeting since a significant number of the commenting heralds did not receive them until late February.

The May meeting is tentatively scheduled for 14 May. On that weekend we shall consider Calontir (1/1A), Calontir (1/1B), Atenveldt (2/1), Caid (2/7), West (2/10), Middle (2/14), East (2/20), Meridies (2/20), Atlantia (2/21), Outlands (2/28), Atlantia (2/27) and Calontir (2/28). Due to the exceedingly large number of letters (13!), we have taken the unusual step of scheduling a "flood date" of 22 May in the event that consideration of the submissions cannot be completed on the previous weekend.

There are (or soon shall be) two new Principal Heralds. Lance Nystrom replaces Erik Loren Elcara as Triskele Principal Herald for Trimaris. He may be contacted c/o Lewis Newstrom, Box 61478, Palm Bay, FL 32906 (305-724-8729). As of 1 April Adelicia Alienora of Gilwell will be succeeded as Star Principal Herald of Ansteorra by Da'ud ibn Auda, presently Obelisk Herald. His address remains the same: David Appleton, 9025 Boundbrook, Dallas, TX 75243 (214-341-9305).

A simple clerical error caused us to ignore the change in the office of Stellanordica Herald for Oertha, although Vesper informed us of it prior to the previous roster: Berengaria de Montfort of Carcassonne has been replaced by Morgana of the Icy Wastes: Sharron Albert, Box 80925, Fairbanks, AK 99708 (907-452-5597). She will not be commenting at this time.

There is also a new Lambent Herald in Meridies, Uilleam MacUilleam: Kevin Gage, 4041 Berkshire Avenue, Memphis, TN 36108 (901-386-7359). He has already started commenting and should be added to your mailing lists.

At the same time, Ælflæd of Duckford, Gimlet Pursuivant of the Outlands has informed us that mundane commitments will engage too much of her time to permit her to comment actively in the College of Arms and has requested you to delete her from your mailing lists. Brenainn O'Murchadha de Ros Comain, Bucker Herald of the Middle, also finds his mundane commitments too great to allow time for commentary and asks to be dropped from the mailing list.

Several recent comments by Principal Heralds or commentors lead me to believe that correspondence in the College is not flowing as freely as it should be in all areas. It has been quite a while since the requirements for the circulation of letters of intent and letters of comment have been reiterated and, given the significant turnover in the membership of the College in the interval, perhaps it is appropriate to do so now.

Letters of intent must be sent by Principal Heralds or their designated deputies to all rostered members of the College who do not have the notation "not on mailing list" next to their names. If a commenting herald does not receive a letter, he or she cannot comment on it and the College of Arms loses the benefit of that person's expertise. Moreover, heralds responsible for submissions processing often find it useful to see the documentation for a submission from another kingdom or to be aware that a submission that is being considered internally is in conflict with one already in process at the Laurel level.

If three heralds from a given kingdom are on the mailing list, it is the responsibility of the submitting kingdom to provide copies of the letter of intent directly to each commentor. Reports have reached me of only one copy of a letter of intent being sent to a kingdom with multiple commentors, with or without a specific request for the distribution of that letter. This is not acceptable: even if all commentors from a kingdom live within a four block radius of one another, they must each receive separate letters.

The requirements for distribution of letters of comment are somewhat more complex. Laurel staff must send copies of their commentary to all members of the College on the mailing list. The current administrative rules require all commentors to send copies of their comments to all submissions heralds whose letters of intent have been commented on. Recent comments from several kingdoms questioning why a submission was returned "when noone made a single negative comment on it" suggests that this practice is not being followed: in several of these cases, three or four commentors had called conflict or indicated stylistic problems.

Ideally, all commenting heralds should circulate their comments to all members of the College who are on the mailing list. If this is not done, it makes it difficult in the extreme for those who do not receive all comments to follow the line of discussions in the College and often to understand the basis of decisions made by the Laurel Office.

The current rules do not demand this, but I would like to request all commenting heralds that, if they do not feel able to send comments to all those on the mailing list, they send them to all heralds responsible for submissions processing and, when this herald is not the Principal Herald, to the Principal Herald as well, unless the Principal Herald has specifically requested that this not be done. On several occasions Principal Heralds of kingdoms where submissions processing is a delegated function have indicated that they had no idea that they performance of a submissions herald was below the quality expected by the College because they had no feedback from outside the Kingdom. A Principal Herald who receives letters of comment can derive some sort of sense of the quality of submissions which are leaving his Kingdom and the sort of support that his subordinates are giving to the submissions they receive.

A related topic is the timeliness of commentary. A number of submissions heralds have complained to me that they cannot adequately respond to comments on submissions from their kingdom because, while they do receive the comments, they do not do so until after the Laurel meeting. The problem does not stop there. You may note that this letter is rather later in reaching you than you might have wished. This is due partly to the fact that several significant letters of comment arrived after the actual Laurel meeting, when the process of writing the letter of acceptance and return was already well-advanced. All of these included new information which tended to support submissions which were less than adequately documented on the original letter of intent.

We could have taken the strictly legalistic stance that materials arriving after the Laurel meeting proper are irrelevant and will not be considered. However, since it is our fixed policy that equity to submittors requires us to take advantage of all possible sources to support a submission, we felt morally bound to carefully read and consider these comments. In fact, in several cases, they resulted in a change of the original decision. In other cases, they merely duplicated extra research that had been done at or after the meeting by laurel staff, work which would not have had to be done if the comments had arrived in a timely manner.

No group of people could be more aware than the current Laurel staff of the constraints of mundane life which must occasionally delay fulfillment of Society commitments. If a choice may be made between receiving comments a few days late or not receiving them at all, we would prefer to receive them. However, please try to make a effort to send out your comments to the College at the same time you send them to the Laurel Office. Even more importantly, try to make sure that the Laurel Office receives all your comments at least a week before the scheduled meeting date. With the large number of "backlog" submissions coming up at the March, April and May meetings, there is a very real possibility of undue delay, if the Laurel staff has to "fill in the cracks" of research normally performed by the commentors in the College.

Charles Stewart O'Connor indicates that planning for the Symposium are moving on apace and a general informational mailing should be out by the time you receive this letter.

Those planning their transport may want to consider that the proposed museum tour Friday morning is now definitely scheduled. Those flying into Kansas City and desiring transport to and from the site should let the autocrat know their travel plans as soon as they are definite to avoid last minute confusion.

Symposium Proceedings will be published after the actual Symposium weekend to allow adequate time for redaction and the inclusion of topical items, as was done last year. It is planned to publish the Proceedings in time for Pennsic and an official call for papers will be forthcoming shortly.

Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme indicates that, if all goes well, a draft version of the long-awaited Precedents for the tenure of Baldwin of Erebor may be available at the Calontir Symposium.

The first volume of the precedents for the incumbent Laurel has been brought to galley proof stage by Da'ud ibn Auda and should be available for purchase in April. Contact Da'ud at the address given above under Roster Changes for information on price and availability.

Bran de Tintreak has written to indicate that he has been put in charge of planning heraldry for the "Argent Anniversary". He requests any heralds who are willing to make a commitment to long-term planning for this event contact him: James Langley, 1405 Tulane, Houston, TX 77008.

As most of you are well aware, several outstanding issues compelled the Laurel Office to put a question of policy to the Board of Directors at its August meeting: when the actions of the Crown contravene the rules and procedures of the College of Arms and, in particular, pre-existing Laurel decisions, which takes priority --- the word of the Crown or the word of the College.

At that time the issue was tabled and eventually was not considered until the January meeting. At that time the Board of Directors essentially supported the College of Arms an reiterated the status quo ante, saying that the College of Arms could not be compelled to register any item which contravened its rules.

This resolves the basic constitutional issue contained in occurrences such as the award by the crown of a specific augmentation which contravenes accepted heraldic policies (for an example, see the return of the augmentation for Caellyn y'Vearn Fitzhugh on this letter). In other words, it addresses the de iure issue of who has the right to approve names, titles, armoury, etc.

Unfortunately, it does not resolve the difficult question of de facto assumption by the Crown of the right to act in contravention of the policies of the College of Arms. If the Crown creates an award with a name that conflicts with that of an order in another kingdom and an "illegal" badge and does not submit it to the College ("that way they cannot return it") or insists that it still be used after it has been returned by the College, the issue of its registry begins to appear irrelevant, if not ridiculous. IF the Crown grants a reserved title to one person or a class of people, the College's de iure jurisdiction is again somewhat irrelevant: the College may have rights over the titles, but the Crown has their use.

All that can be done in a situation like this is to try courtesy and reason with the Crown, as with others. In some cases, pointing out the duty of the peerage in general and the Crown in particular to set a good example for the populace may have some effect: try and get the Crown to see that their actions foster a general disregard for the rules of heraldry as much as it would foster a disregard for the Rules of the List, if they fought at a War with patently illegal armour or persistently "rhinohided" (note: only use this approach if the Crown does not use illegal armour or fail to take blows!).

In any case, it is the responsibility of each Principal Herald and each member of their staff to use their best efforts to persuade the Crown, the Curia and any other entities in their Kingdom who may have jurisdiction over the use of heraldic to "play by the rules" in matters heraldic as well as other areas.

In the best of all worlds, heralds would be consulted before the Crown or Curia acts in matters heraldic and their opinions and cautions would always be heeded. We all know this does not always happen. This can lead to official submissions which are in some manner unacceptable and are returned. In some cases, you personally may not agree with the decision ("but nobody in this Kingdom sees anything out-of-period with the Order of the Purple Skate Key"). If there is a good argument that can be made to change the decision, make it, but in the meantime do all that you can to prevent the decision being generally ignored. (You might tell the Crown the story of the award in Caid whose insignia was returned after a number of medallions had been awarded: Crescent tells me that they "recalled" the old medallions from all members of the Order and presented them with new ones!)

At the same time, it is your responsibility to persuade all concerned that "official" entities should be official, i.e., registered. Point out that nothing is protected from use elsewhere, if it is not registered. If this does not work, that unregistered (and unregisterable) names or badges may cause problems for those who receive the awards if they go to another kingdom.

We do not expect that persuasions by heralds (or anyone else) will resolve all cases where the Crown acts in contravention of our heraldic rules. However, with adequate explanation to the Crown and populace of the rationale behind those rules and the decisions made based on them, the number of "flagrant examples" can be reduced to a minimum and, hopefully, the general damage done to the period ambience of the Society by those examples can be mitigated. Remember that you are not expected to succeed, but you are expected to try!

Your servant,

[Alisoun]