Taigh Moran Chat
RR 2, Northside Road
Wading River, NY 11792
March 15, 1989

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!

My apologies to you all for the undue length of time which has elapsed before the appearance of this letter. The mundane world has pressed hard upon many members of the College of Arms over the past few months and the Laurel Office has not been exempt. The Cold has afflicted members of the College from coast to coast and most kingdoms in between on and off for the past three months and this has affected the completion of a number of projects (delegation is not much use when the staff to whom tasks have been delegated during a period of illness/mundane pressure fall ill themselves!). Other mundane occurrences, including heavier than usual administrative concerns, have also contributed to the delay. All the immediate Laurel staff is currently off codeine, however, so the situation should be resolved in short order.

The December meeting was held on Saturday, December 24. The letters considered at that meeting included Atenveldt (9/1), Middle (9/5), East (9/10), Trimaris (9/10), Caid (9/11), Ansteorra (9/22), West (9/22), Calontir (9/25), Meridies (9/26) and Outlands (9/26).

The January meeting was held on Sunday, January 15. Considered at this meeting were the letters from Atenveldt (10/1), Caid (10/2), Ansteorra (10/14), Middle (10/18), West (10/18), Calontir (10/29), Atlantia (10/30) and Meridies (10/31).

The February meeting was held on Sunday, February 26. The letters considered at that meeting included East (10/31), Atenveldt (11/1), Calontir (11/5), Caid (11/6), Ansteorra (11/15), Outlands (11/19), Trimaris (11/20), West (11/20) and Meridies (11/27).

The March meeting is currently scheduled for Saturday, March 25. At that time we will consider the letter from An Tir dated August, 1988, as well as Atenveldt (12/1), Middle (12/9), Caid (12/11), Meridies (12/14), Atlantia (12/15), West (12/20), Calontir (12/23), Outlands (12/24) and Middle (12/30).

The April meeting should be on April 30. The letters scheduled for consideration at that meeting include East (12/30), East (1/1), Calontir (1/10), Caid (1/15), Ansteorra (1/20), Trimaris (1/20), Meridies (1/23), Outlands (1/23) and West (1/24).

The May meeting is currently very tentative because of the uncertainties of mundane travel requi9rements, but is currently scheduled for May 14. That meeting will consider the letters from Calontir (2/1), Caid (2/12), Atenveldt (2/13), Calontir (2/14), Ansteorra (2/16), East (2/25), Meridies (2/26) and East (2/28).

ROSTER CHANGES

Over the last few months no less than 25% of the kingdoms have new Principal Heralds and a significant number of others on the roster have moved or changed. Please examine the attached roster carefully for changes (indicated by bolded italics) and emend your own rosters accordingly. In particular, note those who have been added and removed from the mailing list, since there have been a number of changes to those who should be receiving letters of intent.

A FORTHCOMING ROSTER CHANGE

As some of you already know, one of the mundane circumstances referred to above was the decision of Laurel's mundane employer to relocate its corporate headquarters to Charleston, South Carolina. As a result, the Laurel Office will be moving to Atlantia this summer. At this time, one visit has been paid to the area where the local folk were most hospitable and were even lining up to offer to do filing (it must be in the water!). Due to some uncertainties as to the sale of the current Laurel Office abode and the precise location of the offices in the Charleston area, it may be a couple of months before a firm street address is available. However, we are taking steps to ensure uninterrupted mail service during the move and, hopefully, a Post Office box number should be available by mid-April.

A RENEWED PLEA FOR CONSISTENT COMMENTARY

As noted above, illness and mundane concerns have hit the College of Arms very hard this winter. At a number of meetings, commentary on one or more letters has been very thin. At all recent meetings, commentary which had arrived at the time of the meeting was distinctly lacking in depth in some areas, depending on the individuals who had been able to comment in full on all letters and to consider all submissions on the letters they covered.

I have mentioned to you before the difficulties which this entails for the Laurel staff and you should be aware that this problem does have a direct impact on the amount of time that is required to process and produce the letters of acceptance and return. The current Laurel was known to criticize her predecessor for making an excessive number of decisions after the actual meeting, thus requiring extra time for completion of the letters of acceptance and return. It is extremely distressing for Laurel and her staff to find them in the same position, not because of an indecisiveness or hesitancy to make a decision, but because of the inadequacy of comment.

This is particularly acute in view of the large number of "novice" Principal Heralds and submissions heralds who have been producing letters of intent over the past year or so. Everyone is learning and most are learning quickly, but inevitably the level of research and documentation behind each letter of intent varies widely. Laurel personally feels it is extremely unfair to the submittor to return a submission which may have been six or eight months in the pipeline purely for lack of documentation, particularly name documentation, when Laurel herself can provide it in five or ten minutes even though no member of the College who commented for that meeting has had the time or expertise to provide the necessary documentation. Unfortunately, as commentary has gotten slimmer (see Vesper's recent letter of report on submissions and commentary levels), the cumulative time required by the "ten minute gaps" for each meeting has become greater and greater, delaying letters of acceptance and return and stealing time from other projects.

There are two solutions. The first, which has been recommended to me by at least one former Laurel, is to be totally hard-hearted and make decisions only on the letter of intent and commentary, forgoing any research by Laurel and her immediate staff and returning any submission that has not been submitted with adequate documentation. This would, of course, significantly raise the overall rate of returns, penalize submittors from kingdoms with weaker library resources and favour those kingdoms which already have a much higher "success rate" because of the size and diversity of their heraldic staffs.

The better solution would be to have all commentors comment more fully on submissions. At this point, some on the mailing list do not even attempt to check all submissions for Society conflict, much less test for mundane conflicts and provide additional name documentation. Additionally, it may be necessary to expand the Laurel staff positions to bring in specialist commentors who for one reason or another are not in a position to perform heraldic duties within their kingdom and so have not been listed as a commentor by their kingdom. We would solicit and entertain nominations for specialist commentors, particularly in the area of names, although we would insist that they make a serious commitment to commenting on all submissions, not merely a handful of items of arcane interest, before they were added to the mailing list.

CORPORA REVISION

As many of you are award, the Board is in the process of a drastic revision of Corpora. While many areas of this new revision may be of interest to the members of the College of Arms and other interested heralds, the following passages on the Laurel Office and College of Arms and the use of titles, taken together with the listing of titles in "Appendix C", which appears at the end of this letter, may be of particular interest.

IV. C. LAUREL SOVEREIGN OF ARMS AND THE COLLEGE OF ARMS [Revised to reflect current operations of the office.]

1. Laurel Sovereign of Arms. The Laurel Sovereign of Arms is the heraldic officer of the Society, and is responsible for fostering the study and practice of heraldry, and for establishing rules and making determinations regarding name and armory, royal and noble titles, and geographical designations to be approved for use in the Society. (See Appendix C.)

2. College of Arms. The College of Arms of the Society consists of the Principal Heralds of the kingdom and such other persons as the Laurel Sovereign of Arms may deem to be of assistance. It aids Laurel in developing heraldic rules and in reviewing individual items prior to their registration for use in the Society.

3. Heraldic Administration

a. Standards of difference and other rules. Laurel shall define standards suitable to the type of item to be registered, and apply them uniformly to all submission. These standards shall be designed to support the historical re-creations of the Society and to provide sufficient difference from names and armory registered within the Society to avoid confusion, and to provide sufficient difference historical or fictional personages to prevent due to obvious usurpation of identity or armory. Names compatible with the period ambience of the Society may be registered even though they were derived from literature or invented for use in the Society. [Note - the last concept was introduced by the Board in 1987, to implement its perception that the heraldic rules ought to be required to include some leeway for inoffensive non-historical names. The current Board would consider removing it, if there is a general feeling among the membership that the matter ought to be left to Laurel and College of Arms. Your comment on this is specifically invited.]

b. To promote stability, an item once registered shall stay on the Society's rolls unless the owner requests its release, and shall be accepted in the Society for the person for whom it was registered without regard to changes in the rules and standards applied to future submissions, or to the membership status of the owner.

c. The standards and rules employed by Laurel and the College of Arms shall be published so that participants in Society activities can obtain copies for their own reference. The catalog of registered names and armory shall also be made available to the membership.

d. Laurel shall ensure that fees for the Society's heraldic publications (as defined in IV.C.3.c) and for its services in registering names and armory are sufficient to cover the cost of such services, both at the corporate level and within the kingdoms.

VII. C. TITLES

1. Prohibition of Landed Titles. "Landedness" in the Society is an attribute of the Crown, the Coronet, and the territorial Barons and Baronesses. Other titles within the Society do not confer land, and no form of any title shall be taken or used which states or implies ownership or control of any geographic, demographic or sociographic area within or external to the Society in any sense, medieval or otherwise.

2. Reservation of Titles. The Board reserves unto itself the right to define the circumstances for which new titles of rank may be granted and to coin any such titles either for general use or for specific individuals. A specific title granted by the Board upon just petition is unique to each case and does not make that title valid for any other use or person within the Society.

3. Standard and Alternate Titles. The titles referred to in Appendix C are considered standard and may be used by those who have achieved the appropriate rank or award within the Society. [Eliminates possibility of claiming precedence from titles achieved outside the SCA.] The Society recognizes that equivalent titles from other cultures may be more appropriate for individual members. Such alternate titles may be used by those entitled to the rank or award associated with them, provided the College of Arms has ruled that the title in question is an equivalent for the rank or award in question., OR the Board has specifically granted permission for an alternate usage which has not been ruled an equivalent by the College of Arms. Board rulings apply only to the situations for which they were made, and do not provide a precedent for related alternate titles. (See IV. C.)

4. Styles and Unrecognized Titles. Names and terms that imply relationships between Society members (such as apprentice, page, squire, etc.) or that carry vocational connotations (religious, military, scholarly, etc.) may be used in the Society on an informal basis, subject to the following restrictions:

a. They must not assert or imply noble rank or territorial jurisdiction.

b. They must not be offensive in themselves or in the context in which they are used.

c. They may carry no precedence and must not be used in any manner which would suggest that they do so.

If you have commentary of any sort on these portions of Corpora (or any others), please take the time ot put this commentary in written forms and get it to the Board in time for their meetings. (Corpora revision is on the agenda for both the Spring and Summer meetings, but at this time the precise material to be covered at each meeting is not certain. Therefore, to be certain that your comments will be considered by the Board when they consider such issues as "made-up names", alternate titles, etc., you should try to meet the deadline for the April meeting.

If you have any thoughts on these proposed wordings, please take the time to send those thoughts to the Board. Remember that, if you do not comment on these proposed changes, you cannot complain if the changes take a form you do not like.

A NOTE ON THE NEW TYPE STYLE

After initial confusion (the first five responses on desired type style each chose a different option!), commentary settled to a distinct preference for sample # 4. For those of you who are "type junkies", this is Palatino, set in 10 point size. Palatino is a modern German type face designed by the famous type designer Hermann Zapf. It is not surprising that this would find favour with a Society audience, apart from its legibility, since it was specifically designed to combine the Renaissance calligraphic tradition with the technical demands of the twentieth-century typesetter. We hope you all enjoy the "new look"!

Your servant,

[Alisoun]