Box 522
Mount Pleasant SC 29465
31 July, 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!

Frankly, good people, I find this letter the most difficult of my entire career as a herald in the Society.

It has been clear for some time now that certain members of the College of Arms were having difficulties with the direction which revision of the rules and discussion of that revision have been taking. As those of you who were at the Symposium know, some of the conflict "blew" at the Symposium with less than productive results.

Those who may have wondered about the strength of the my reactions to certain statements and actions on the part of a minority of members of the College should be aware that Laurel was not suffering from PMS (someone actually said that to me!) nor was she "blowing up at the first hint of criticism". The events at the Symposium were simply the culmination of a series of increasingly fraught discussions over the past months, which included accusations of suppression of commentary, invention of favourable commentary, refusal to even read commentary from certain commentors/Kingdoms/points of view, demands for detailed written explanation of failure to include verbiage from certain commentors (presumably as a proof that the verbiage had been read and seriously considered).

That none of the accusations had any foundation in truth is irrelevant. That many of those who made such accusations in the heat of the moment later apologized is also irrelevant. That most of those who were losing their sense of proportion and sense of humour with others (not just Laurel) in the discussions are normally charming, intelligent, and reasonable folk is most of all irrelevant.

The final "straws" came at the Symposium when the paranoia on discussion of the rules reached such a state that, when Laurel and her roommate overslept on Saturday morning and did not hear their wake-up calls, a number of senior members of the College actually accused Laurel and her roommate of trying to block rules discussion (despite the fact that the roommate in question was the Latimer Herald of the West who certainly does not agree with Laurel's positions on most of the rules!). More seriously, over the course of that weekend, several senior members of the College put Laurel on notice that, if they did not feel their input was properly included in the rules, they would repeat the "reduction ad absurdam" process familiar to the College from the discussion on household names and effectively fight out the rules discussion over individual submissions from the next year or so.

I will not allow the submittors whom we are supposed to be serving to be held hostage in this manner. If, as it seems, personalities and confidence are the issues here, then it is clear that the correct response is to remove the "personality" that has engendered some of the conflict.

I am therefore delegating the primary responsibility for editing the rules for submission which govern the content and style of submissions to Marten Bröker, Badger Herald of the East. Marten has a long experience of heraldry in the Middle, Calontir and the East and is one of the authors of the Creative Anachronist pamphlet on Heraldic Style. Marten is truly a "gentleman and a scholar" and it has been said of him that conflict and controversy vanish in his presence and voices magically calm and become quiet. I certainly hope that this will be the case with the rules discussion!

Marten will be issuing a penultimate draft of the rules, hopefully with an index and glossary, prior to leaving for Pennsic and plans to hold discussions on the rules at Pennsic. Meanwhile, I will be continuing with a draft of the (hopefully) less controversial administrative rules which will cover much of the material from the old rules which does not deal with style and content of submissions, as well as a considerable new body of material on heraldic administration and requirements at the national and kingdom level.

I urge those who have found themselves unwilling/unable to compromise in the past, I urge you to keep an open mind regarding Marten's efforts and give a good faith effort at compromise over the next couple of months. I assure those who supported the direction in which Laurel was moving and who may feel betrayed by her "stepping away" from this task that I have the utmost confidence in Marten's competence and equity and feel certain that your concerns will not be ignored.

We have to change the rules. We have to make heraldry simpler for the "subject in the street" to understand and register. The Board has said this and, I understand, reaffirmed this at the last Board meeting.

If you all lend your expertise, intelligence and ability to compromise to Marten's efforts, the College of Arms can yet produce a set of rules that fulfill our mandate and that everyone can "live with". If you do not, you will not hurt Laurel nor Marten (though he may be vulned a bit more than is strictly necessary), but you will hurt the populace and, in the long run, yourselves.

Please do not do that.

As ever, your servant,

[Alisoun]