P.O. Box 1646
Dallas, TX 75221-1646
August 7, 1990

Unto the members of the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive does Da'ud ibn Auda, Laurel King of Arms, send Greetings!

The attached Letter of Acceptances and Returns covers the Letters of Intent considered at the Sunday Laurel meeting held on July 28. Considered were the letters of intent dated in April: Caid (4/1), Atlantia (4/4), Caid (4/6), West (4/16), Meridies (4/23), An Tir (4/24), East (4/25), Ansteorra (4/27), and Calontir (4/30).

The August Laurel meeting is scheduled for August 25, and will consider the following letters of intent: West (5/8), Trimaris (5/15), East (5/25), Atlantia (5/29), Meridies (5/29), and Calontir (5/31).

The September Laurel meeting is currently scheduled for September 29, and will consider letters of intent dated in June: Ansteorra (6/1), Caid (6/4), West (6/12), Ansteorra (6/15), Ansteorra (6/20), East (6/25), Meridies (6/25), Atlantia (6/29), and Calontir (6/30).

The October Laurel meeting is currently scheduled for October 27, to consider letters of intent dated in July.

ROSTER CHANGES

Katya Leonovna Belokoneva, Palmer Herald, has moved. Her new address is: c/o Catherine Collins, 2850 Woodland Hills Drive, Apt. #207, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80918.

Lady Aten asks that you add (or retain, if you have not taken him off yet) to the mailing list Twin Palm Pursuivant, Lord Raymond Carder the Searover (Charles Carder), 2409 W. Orangewood, Apt. G, Phoenix, Arizona 85025.

Brenainn O'Murchadha, Trillium Herald, has moved. His new address is: c/o Jason F. Murphy, 222 Brunswick Street, Stratford, Ontario N5A 3M4, CANADA. (519) 271-7415. He will not be commenting at this time.

Lady Pennon asks that you add to the roster Lady Brenna Lowri o Ruthin (Ruth Ann Winberry), 4208 Reed, Memphis, Tennessee 38108, (901) 682-2596. She will not be commenting at the present time.

ERRORS (or, "Oops! Part I")

This is a correction regarding a submission both "registered" and returned in the LoAR from the Laurel meeting held at the Symposium. Some of you have noticed that the badge for the Trimaris Kingdom Historian was both registered (in a metal on metal version!) and returned for conflict with Yale University. The entry under "Approvals" was in error, and the badge was actually returned for the conflict cited in "Returns". [Mistress Alisoun did call to offer her thanks for making all of her typos look so good by comparison.] While errors may creep into the LoARs in the future, I will try to keep them from being quite so blatant. My apologies for any confusion this entry may have caused you.

RULES FOR SUBMISSION

By the time you read this, the Rules for Submission and Administrative Handbook will be in the mail. This unprecedented mailout to every local group has required a lot of coordination, the help of a number of people, and has had to overcome a host of problems - computer incompatibility, formatting problems, lost envelopes in the mail. But they're on their way now. For those kingdom heralds who me labels for their College of Heralds, the mailout is being sent directly to all local and staff heralds. Those being sent to the remaining kingdoms will go to the local seneschals, who should pass them along to the local heralds. Please make sure that your local heralds know to expect this mailing, and to contact their respective seneschals if they are not receiving them directly. Extra copies are being sent to the principal heralds in the "seneschal mailout" kingdoms for distribution to staff heralds and pursuivants-at-large. Additional copies will be available from the Stock Clerk almost immediately, or I can supply a limited number if necessary. The Rules and Handbook have been predrilled for placing in three-ring binders, in the hopes that this will encourage their use, and also to make updating them easier, in that we can send out a sheet to be inserted at the appropriate place.

MISCELLANEOUS

I thought I would repeat here some of the items I covered in my address to the College at the Symposium for the benefit of those who were not there and those who were there but took less than complete notes. [You did all take complete notes, didn't you? I remember saying that there would be a test on this next period.]

Laurel Meetings

I will hold Laurel meetings near the end of each month. The exact weekend will vary depending upon what events are being held locally. Most of these meetings will be held on a Saturday, in order to allow my staff and myself to begin work on the LoAR the next day. Commentary arriving within a couple of days before the meeting, or, worse, after the meeting, will hinder, rather than help, the processing procedure. As a consequence, timeliness of commentary is extremely important to "keeping the trains running on time."

Commentary

Here it is in writing: I am not omniscient. I am not an "expert" in languages, naming practices, or SCA or real-world heraldry. I am, at best, an avid amateur in these areas. I will, however, make the very best decisions I can based on the comments and advice that you give me. I rely on your help and your integrity. Please be careful in your commentary to be sure that the information therein is accurate to the best of your knowledge. I need the very best information I can get to make the day-to-day decisions of this office, and I cannot do it all myself - I have neither the knowledge nor the time to do so. So I rely on what you tell me. Please make certain that it's accurate.

About Me

I will make every attempt to be consistent, fair, and impartial. I will also make mistakes (see "Errors", above), and sometimes appear inconsistent, unfair, and biased. I do not, however, believe that just because I say it that I am necessarily "right", and it is, I believe, part of your job to help me correct the errors and omissions that will occur. Let's keep it civil, however; I will probably kick myself harder for my mistakes than you ever could.

I will try to be accessible to you, to kingdom and local heralds, and to submittors. As a general rules, writing will be more effective than telephoning. I try to answer all correspondence within a week of its receipt, and usually get an answer out within a couple of days. If you do call, please remember that I do not get home from work until 7:00 p.m. Central time, and I start getting surly at calls after 10:00.

Some Personal Policies

Some of the things I do while in office will be to maintain my own sanity. I do have other activities in the SCA, and I will continue to do them. I fight; I have a number of arts projects in various stages of completion; I do my own costuming; I write a monthly movie review column. I will not be available at times simply because I am off doing one or another of these activities.

Additionally, as a general rule (it does get moved sometimes), I don't answer the phone on Thursday evenings. Within the house are: a corporate office, a kingdom office, and a kingdom deputy office (these last two are not mine. Some may doubt my sanity for taking on this job; I'm not so crazy as to try to do more than this one). We need one night a week where we have time to ourselves and don't have to answer the phone. The answering machine will be on, however, so please feel free to leave a message. If it's important, I will try to get back with you the next day.

Education

Education is a function of the College of Arms and of the office of the Laurel Sovereign. I am going to try to place some emphasis on heraldic education. As a part of this, I (or a guest editor) will be writing a regular column to be published in Tournaments Illuminated. These columns will be on heraldic topics of fairly general interest to the populace at large. The first column will be on Holding Names, and will discuss what holding names are, how they are used and why they are formed. If you have any ideas for future columns, or know of a heraldic topic of general interest which it would be useful to cover, please let me know. I'd appreciate your input on this.

MISCELLANY

"How difficult a thing it is to produce form, out of things shapeless and deformed, and to prescribe limits to things confused, there is none but may easily perceive, if he shall take but a sleight view of the chaos-like contemperation of things not only diverse but repugnant in nature, hitherto concentrated in the generous profession of heraldry." Sounds like a comment from the Rules discussion, doesn't it? (Or perhaps a comment on some of the monthly submissions.) It is the opening sentence from the introduction of John Guillim's Display of Heraldrie ("Manifesting a more easie accesse to the knowledge thereof than hath beene hitherto published by any, through the benefit of method, whereinto it is not reduced by the study and industry of John Guillim, late Pursuivant at Armes"). [Which also sounds like rules commentary.] See? Heraldric discussion hasn't really changed for hundreds of years. I sometimes wonder if they knew any more about it than we do.

I remain, as ever,
Your servant,
[Da'ud]


Return to the LoAR Index Page

Webbed by Lindorm
Last Updated: $Date: 2006/11/10 01:45:49 $
The arms of the SCA Copyright © 1997 Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.