Box 522
Mount Pleasant, SC 29465
15 June, 1990

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!

For those who wondered, the "Laurel curse" continues unabated. Through a terminal weirdness of office politics, Laurel's boss has arranged things so that she has spent the last week covering a department budgeted for three people by herself. With absolutely exquisite timing, this situation will continue until the day after the Symposium. Plus ça change, plus ça reste le même. . .

The April Laurel meeting on Sunday, April 29, considered submissions on letters from Atlantia (1/1), Caid (1/21), Meridies (1/24), Ansteorra (1/25), Trimaris (1/25) East (1/28), East (1/29) and Calontir (1/31).

The May meeting was held on Sunday, May 27, and Monday, May 28 under conditions of some warmth. (The air conditioning was broken. . .) Considered at that time were the letters from the West (1/27), Outlands (2/15), East (2/25), Meridies (2/27), Calontir (2/28), Atlantia (2/28 dated 1/27) and An Tir (2/??).

The June Laurel meeting is scheduled for Sunday, June 17. The letters to be considered at that time include those from the West (2/28), Caid, (3/12), Meridies (3/21) East (3/25), West (3/30) and Calontir (3/31). At the Laurel meeting at the Symposium in Ansteorra we will consider Ansteorra (3/7) and Trimaris (3/15).

Master Da'ud's first Laurel meeting is still scheduled for Saturday, July 28. At that time the new Laurel and his staff will consider the letter dates in April, including those from Caid (1/1), Atlantia (4/4), Caid (4/6), West (4/16), Meridies (4/23), East (4/25), Ansteorra (4/27) and Calontir (4/30). Please co-operate with his requests for timely commentary and submissions packets for that meeting. (The first one is always hard enough!)

Further meeting dates and letters for consideration will be announced as Master Da'ud schedules them.

ROSTER CHANGES

It is with great regret that we announce that the press of mundane and Society commitments have compelled Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Treble Clef Herald Extraordinary, to withdraw from commentary in the College of Arms.

For more than a decade and a half, Master Wilhelm has served the cause of Society heraldry as Vesper, as Laurel and as a Laurel staff commentor.

The older members of the College of Arms need no reminder of his contributions, but for those who have come to the College in the last few year it may be useful to review them (without being elegiac!).

After a successful career as Vesper Herald of the West, Master Wilhelm succeeded to the Laurel Office when the College of Arms was in extreme disarray and heraldry itself was in bad odour in many areas of the Society. Indeed, his accession to office was itself marked by the Great Heraldicon of 1979, held to catch up on the considerable backlog of submissions that had built up over the preceding years.

Within a relatively short period of time, Master Wilhelm restored the national administration of heraldry to an even keel, in the process publishing detailed rules for submission, creating a system of periodic Symposia as a forum for heraldic discussion, and by, broadening the commentary base and scope of commentary, quite literally shaping the College of Arms as we know it today.

All this he performed in the course of dealing with the normal administrivia of the Laurel Office. Indeed, one of his most shining achievements, perhaps only truly appreciated by other who have held the Laurel Office, is the fact that he in the only Laurel Sovereign of Arms to have never had a backlog: with the aid of his lady wife, every letter of acceptance and return of his tenure was in the hands of the College prior to the following meeting, many letters appearing within a week of the meeting date.

Since his retirement from the Laurel Office, Master Wilhelm has continued to offer his experience and sense of perspective to the College, not only with regard to submissions but also with respect to issues and discussions of policy. The perspective and sense of continuity which he has offered to the College will be sorely missed.

ON THE RESULTS OF THE APRIL MEETING

The April meeting was very interesting in a number of respects. As two of the letters considered contained submissions specifically submitted as "test cases" to determine the current boundaries of the new rules, the proportion of armorial submissions which would pass under the old rules and not the new for the first (and only) time in the test period the number of armorial submissions which would pass only under the old rules exceeded the number of armorial submissions that would pass only under the new rules.

Had the grace period not been in the effect, the positive actions would have totalled 228 from 265 non-administrative actions (i.e., not including holding names, releases, and administrative pends). This equates to a success rate of 86%. For the second month in succession, two kingdoms had no returns from the meeting: Caid and Calontir.

ON THE EXPIRATION OF THE "GRACE PERIOD"

As previously announced in the special letter of acceptance and returns issued after the January Board meeting, the April meeting was the last one held under the provisions of the "grace period".

Beginning with the May meeting, any submission which does not meet the stylistic or conflict requirements of the new rules circulated to the College of Arms in October, 1989, and approved by the Board of Directors of the Society in January, 1990, will be returned to the submitter.

We have had a full six months of coded submission processing upon which to base statistical analysis. By the April meeting a majority of those commenting were operating wholly within the framework of the new rules. As the proportion of those checking for conflicts which exist only under the "old rules" continues to drop, the validity of the statistics will also deteriorate more and more. In such circumstances, it seems unreasonable to ask a portion of the College to do twice the work in conflict checking merely for statistical purposes. Based on Laurel's experiences in her own first months in office, it will definitely be unreasonable to ask her successor to double process submissions as he gets up to speed.

This being the case, subsequent letters shall drop the coding system that had been used during the "parallel processing" period since the November, 1989, Laurel meeting.

A PRECEDENT ON SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE OF CHARGE

Your attention is drawn to the precedent set in the case of the device of Monique Larrivé (Acceptances, Caid).

Under this precedent, Section X.2 of the new rules, which allow for automatic difference when there is a change of primary charge on a simple coat, is interpreted fairly strictly to allow such differences of primary charge to apply when the primary charge(s) are themselves charged, provided the other criteria outlined in that section of the rules are met.

In applying this precedent, please remember that the "visual test" still remains active. If the combination of position, tincture, arrangement, etc., of the identical items in the design creates an overwhelming visual resemblance to a piece of protected armory, "visual conflict" may still be called.

AN ADMINISTRATIVE PROPOSAL

As was inevitable, suggestions for changes to the rules for submission and administrative guidelines are already a staple of discussion in the College. (Laurel herself makes one immediately below!)

Laurel would propose as a rider to the sections on the publications of changes on rules and administrative guidelines that the Laurel Office and College of Arms adopt a policy for change of the rules or administrative guidelines parallel to that used in some Kingdoms for emendations of Kingdom Law:

  1. All proposals are made with specific suggested wordings for discussion and with additions to, deletions from and renumbering of current documents specified for clarity.
  2. After the designated period of discussion and final revision of the modification, it is published in full in the Letter of Acceptance and Return. (This is, after all, the heraldic community's equivalent of a Kingdom Newsletter.)
  3. Whether at the time of publication with a Letter of Acceptances and Returns or by a separate mailing to Principal Heralds for local distribution, all changes to be published in a form suitable for insertion into the looseleaf format of the rules and administrative guidelines. Preferably, sections which would appear in non-sequential portions of the documents should appear on separate sheets. If possible, each change should be dated to facilitate evaluation of "hardship case" and "grace period" appeals below Laurel level.
  4. As is the case with Kingdom Law, the Armorial and Ordinary, etc., unified revisions of the Rules for Submission and Administrative Handbook should be made available to the heraldic community on a regular periodic basis.

Obviously, implementation of these proposals is up to Laurel's successor. However, the experience of the last four years suggests that such procedures would avoid a lot of confusion and stress in the lower levels of the heraldic hierarchy.

A PROPOSAL ON DIFFERENCE FOR DISCUSSION

At the time that the final draft of the Rules was being prepared in September and October of last year, there was a certain amount of discussion between Laurel and Badger on the circumstances under which Section X.2 should apply.

Based on commentary at the time, we decided there was sentiment in the College for applying such automatic difference in cases where the primary charges were considered different in period (i.e., emending complete difference of charge as defined in the old rules to significant difference of charge, thus removing conflicts where the primary charges were dissimilar quadruped or bird, for example). However, there did not seem to be sufficient support for modifying the pre-existing definition of adequately simple cases.

That situation now appears to have changed. Laurel would therefore like to propose to the College for discussion the following revised wording for Section X.2 of the Rules for Submission.

2. Difference of Primary Charges - Armory that consists of one group of charges alone on the field, or accompanied only by a single group of identical charges lying on the field, a chief that may be charged or a bordure that may be charged, does not conflict with similarly protected armory that significantly changes the type of all of the primary charges.

Such a broadening of the current restrictions would not "reward" overly complex heraldry, since you could have a most either a group of identical secondaries or a charged chief or a charged bordure. The visual weight of all three of the types of "accompaniments" are more or less equal from the modern viewer's perspective so it should not materially increase the number of devices which look so much alike that "visual conflict" must be called. Best of all, although there are period cases where an ordinary is modified in a coat consisting of an ordinary or other primary charge accompanied by a single group of identical secondaries in order to show cadency, these are the exceptions rather than the rule.

To allow adequate discussion of this issue in a summer which bids fair to be rather hectic for the members of the College and somewhat tumultuous for the Laurel Office, we ask that commentary on this issue be returned to Master Da'ud in time for him to consider and rule on this issue at his September meeting.

A PROPOSAL ON RESTRICTED CHARGES FOR DISCUSSION

Brigantia has proposed that we drop current restrictions which limit the use of certain charges (e.g., the Caduceus) to those with medical qualifications.

Brigantia argues that the restriction has no basis in period heraldry and serves no useful function in the Society since we now have Chirurgeon's badges to indicate to members where to find the "First Aid" function. He feels that the probability of a member's seeking medical assistance from someone simply because his armoury bears a caduceus is so low that we need not guard against this remnant of the "Dark Ages of SCA heraldry", as he phrases it.

It is possible that Brigantia has modified position somewhat in light of the problem with the Chirurgeon's badge outlined below. However, the arguments originally raised merit a fuller discussion in the College. We would therefore like to request commentary on the following proposal to be received by the incoming Laurel in time for him to rule on it at his September meeting:

Proposed: That no charge be restricted from use in armoury of individuals or groups in the Society only because it is associated with rank, status or professional qualifications outside the Society.

Please note that this would still allow charges which may be problematic on other counts (e.g., offensiveness, identifiability, etc.) to be restricted.

ON A PROBLEM WITH THE CHIRURGEON'S BADGE

Brigantia has informed the Laurel Office of a problem encountered with the Chirurgeon's badge. While it is being dealt with through the appropriate channels in the Chirurgeonate, you should all be aware of it.

Older members of the College will remember that the current version of the Chirurgeonate badge was registered in early fall, 1986, at the current Laurel's very first meeting. (It replaced a previous badge which was too reminiscent of KKK insignia.)

At that time, some members of the College, to include Laurel herself, were uncomfortable about the possibility that the new badge could be considered to be a display of the Red Cross insignia on a goutte. However, this was immediately after the Board of Directors had issued its "Independent Heraldic Jurisdiction" directive and most of the College felt that the point was moot.

Unfortunately, that may not have been the case. Recently, a senior member of the Chirurgeonate in Drachenwald wore her Chirurgeon's insignia instead of the more usual non-Society insignia when attending a Red Cross function in Drachenwald. She was immediately informed rather strongly that the display of the badge not infringed the Red Cross insignia, but such infringement was specifically banned by a Federal law that had been on the books since before the First World War. (Not copyright or trademark law, each of which has its own limits: this is a Red Cross specific statute which grants broad protection to the "Swiss Cross" in red on a white field - or its counterchange!)

Subsequent investigation into material provided by the Red Cross indicates that this infringement could be a very real problem for us. As a result, the Chirurgeonate is considering its options for a change of badge.

In the meantime, it is advisable that we try and show a "good faith effort" to avoid continuing any actions which might be considered as infringement now that we have been informed of the problem. At the very least you should alert the appropriate individuals that major sewing projects involving the Chirurgeonate baldrics should be put on hold for the time being!

TRAVEL PLANS FOR THE SYMPOSIUM

As this is written, Laurel will be arriving in Dallas on Thursday evening after dinner. At the discretion of the autocrat and her successor (schizoid or not, they have different priorities!), she will be more or less available for natter and pesto production on Friday and most of Saturday.

Sunday morning will be devoted to official Laurel Office business (submissions meeting, etc.). Unfortunately, this year the (by that time) ex-Laurel must miss the time-hallowed Sunday night post mortem since the last flight out of Dallas to Charleston on Sunday is at 3:30 p.m., and she must be in the office at 8:30 the next morning. (A result of the office politics alluded to above: two new employees relocated from New York and Atlanta respectively start that day.)

It should not be necessary to say that this planned early departure has nothing to do with the College of Arms or any of it members. It should not be necessary to say that it has Laurel hopping bad. It should not be necessary, but, given the rumors that have already wended their way back to South Carolina, it seems that it is.

Your servant,
Alisoun


Return to the LoAR Index Page

Webbed by Lindorm
Last Updated: $Date: 2006/11/10 01:45:48 $
The arms of the SCA Copyright © 1997 Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.