SCA - College of Arms
P.O. Box 742825
Dallas, TX 75374-2825
(214) 276-2129
CompuServe 74107,1446
[email protected]

January 23, 1995

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

The January 1995 Laurel meeting was held on Saturday, January 14, 1995, and considered the following Letters of Intent: Middle (9/12), An Tir (9/14), Atlantia (9/14), Caid (9/19), Outlands (9/20), Calontir (9/24), and West (9/25). Original commentary on these LoIs should have been in the College's hands no later than November 30, 1994. Responses and rebuttals to commentary should have been in the College's hands no later than December 31, 1994.

The February 1995 Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 18, 1995 (please note the new date), to consider the following Letters of Intent: East (10/1), Ansteorra (dated September but mailed 10/7), An Tir (10/13), Atlantia (10/16), Middle (10/16), Outlands (10/20), West (10/26), and Meridies (10/28). The Letter of Intent from Calontir (10/22) will be considered at a "roadshow" meeting to be held in Meridies on February 11. Original commentary on these LoIs should have been in the College's hands no later than December 31, 1994. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than January 31, 1995.

The March 1995 meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 18, 1995 (please note the new date), and will consider the following Letters of Intent: Atenveldt (dated 10/20, but mailed 11/1), Caid (11/7), Atlantia (11/11), West (11/14), An Tir (11/18), East (11/20), Caid (11/21), and Outlands (11/28). Original commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than January 31, 1995. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than February 28, 1995.

The April 1995 meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 15, 1995, and will consider Letters of Intent dated and mailed in December, with perhaps one LoI to be considered at a "roadshow" meeting in Ealdormere on April 22. Original commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than February 28, 1995. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than March 31, 1995.

Not all Letters of Intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this Cover Letter. Date of mailing of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain Letters of Intent.

ROSTER CHANGES AND CORRECTIONS

Colm Dubh has a new title. He is now Caid's Battlement Pursuivant.

Crescent asks that the following be added to the Roster (they will not be commenting at this time, and so should not be added to the mailing list):

Aurum Pursuivant: Madawc Seumus Caradawg (David Pellman), 13101 Amanda Court, Bakersfield, CA 93312; (805) 589-6926 [Not on the Mailing List]

Dolphin Herald: Eirikr Mjoksiglandi Sigurdson (Mark Wroth), 1915 Danube Way, Upland, CA 91784; (909) 920-3919 [Not on the Mailing List]

Scribe Armarius: Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme (Bruce Miller), 1711 10th Street, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266; (310) 379-1321 [Not on the Mailing List]

Silversparre (Drachenwald) has a new address. It is: Frithiof Sigvardsson Skagge (Sven Noren), Gnejsvagen 2K, S-752 42 Uppsala, Sweden.

The new Lion's Blood Herald of An Tir is Zenobia Naphtali (lately Couronne Rouge). David of Moffat, stepping down as Lion's Blood, will remain on the mailing list as an external commenter. He also has a new area code: (360) 943-1021.

Langstrand Herald (East) asks that you make the following changes to the roster and mailing list for the East Kingdom:

Remove Janequin Richardot as Blue Tyger Herald.

The new Sycamore Herald is Michael Langley of Riversmeet (Michael Layne), 4008 Kirby Street, So. Charleston, WV 25309; [Not on the Mailing List]

Mistress Alison MacDermot, currently Badger Herald, is retiring, after a long and dedicated service. The new Badger Herald is Mikhail Reubenovic Kopaczewski (Michael Grapin), P.O. Box 194, Paramus, NJ 07653-1094.

Please remove Langstrand Herald from the mailing list (though not from the roster).

BOARD MEETING RESULTS (At Least Insofar As They Affect the College of Arms)

At its January 14, 1995 meeting, the Board of Directors chose to extend the warrant of the incumbent Laurel, Da'ud ibn Auda, for another year, until the summer of 1996. I believe that I can speak for them when I express my own thanks to Master Thorfinn and Mistress Jaelle for their applications, and I hope to have their input on the directive from the Board to the College (on which more below).

As you know, my request for an extension to my warrant was unusual in that it was a two-person bid; this summer, Baron Talan Gwynek, Palimpsest Herald, will become the Pelican King of Arms and will be making the registration decisions on names submissions, while I will retain the overall administrative oversight of the College and will process all of the armory submissions. We do not expect that there will be much external to the current Laurel office that will change; most of the changes in procedures, etc. envisioned will be within the office. As we work together to "shake down" this system, we will try to keep you informed and to solicit your ideas and suggestions as to ways in which we can improve not only the running of the office at the Laurel level, but to improve the services of the office to the College and to our clients, the submitters. None of the procedures currently envisioned are written in stone, and we expect some modifications will be made as we discover what works and what doesn't. This arrangement of the office is going to be somewhat of a radical departure for the College, but we hope to have your support and active assistance as we try to situate it in such a way that (1) more people can feel that they can participate in the office because it will not demand so much time and work of them, and (2) we stop burning out some of our top heralds in this office.

The Board of Directors would like the College over the course of the next year to take a look at the way it is organized and to see how it might be reorganized for greater workload and/or cost savings. For example, Master Thorfinn's application as Laurel presented a number of interesting ideas which bear study; a thumbnail summary of a number of them appeared in the cover letter with the November LoAR. We need to start looking at ways in which we can perhaps profitably use the technology which is increasingly becoming commonly available. (Without making access to such technology a prerequisite to participation, which would be manifestly unfair to some of our participants.) Your thoughts and ideas on this are solicited.

JOB OPENING (or, You, Too, Can Be a "Recycled" Herald!)

Because Baron Talan Gwynek, currently Palimpsest Herald, will soon be changing his position in the College of Arms, we have need for someone to take over the Rules review and discussions which he has been in charge of for the past several years. There is not a lot "on the front burner" regarding the Rules review at this time; the main item under discussion currently is "field-primary armory". This office will also be involved in making corrections to the Modest Proposal initial implementation list. If you are interested in applying for this Laurel Staff position, please send a letter of application to me, along with any ideas you might have for future directions for the office. I would like to receive all applications for this position no later than March 31, 1995, in order to assure selection of a successor in sufficient time to allow a smooth turnover of that office while Talan assumes his new duties as Pelican King of Arms.

DEFAULT POSTURES AND YOU

There is a principle underlying the use of various postures for animate charges which I think needs to be discussed and disseminated. Most animate heraldic charges have a default posture. They do so for a very good reason; in each case, the default posture places the charge in its most recognizable aspect. For example, a wolf's head is shown in profile; a bull's head, which in profile might be very similar to a wolf, is shown affronty, where the horns (as opposed to the nose) are its most recognizable (differentiating) feature. Now think about the other default postures: lions rampant, wyverns statant, sea monsters erect, birds (except eagles) close, owls close guardant, squirrels sejant erect, lizards and amphibians and insects tergiant, humans statant affronty. The list can go on and on. In each case, the default posture places the charge in its most recognizable aspect. While the SCA allows, and will no doubt in many cases continue to allow, animate charges to be placed in other than their default posture, this should be considered a discouraged practice, because it reduces their identifiability by placing them in less than their most recognizable aspect. Such practice is in contravention of the spirit if not the letter of Rules for Submission VIII.3., Armorial Identifiability. Please encourage your submitters and those you consult with to use the default postures of animate charges, because it will make those charges more easily identifiable, which will in turn improve the quality of their armory and bring it more closely in line with the underlying principles of period style heraldry, which is, after all, what we are supposed to be working for here.

LoI PACKET REQUIREMENTS

There have been an increasing number of instances recently where the packet for an LoI was incomplete when received. While I am going to discuss some of the specific issues that have occurred lately, I strongly recommend that principal heralds and submissions heralds review carefully the relevant sections of the Administrative Handbook, if only to verify that all of the requirements are being met. The necessary elements of a submissions packet are described fully in the Administrative Handbook under "Kingdom Processing of Submissions", Section C, and include the following:

1. Letter of Intent - Two copies of the complete letter of intent, including miniature emblazons, must be provided to the Laurel Office with the packet. Preparers are encouraged but not required to make one of these a single-sided copy.

One hard copy and one copy on diskette also fulfills this requirement. A copy on diskette only does not.

2. Full Paperwork - A complete set of paperwork must be included for each submission, including any resubmission, appeal, change or release of a protected item, etc. Such paperwork must meet the requirements for Content of Forms noted above as well as other requirements outlined under Procedures for Submission. Originals or photocopies of all supporting documentation should be firmly attached to the forms for each submission.

This means one copy of all name submission forms and accompanying documentation, and two color copies of all armory submission forms (along with one copy of supporting documentation, if any). It is very frustrating to look at a form and see the words "see attached documentation" and have no documentation attached. "Documenting evidence must be included for any non-standard name or armorial items or practices. Whenever possible, such documentation should include photocopies of appropriate sources and references to specific pages in source material." Commonly available sources, such as Withycombe, Geirr Bassi, etc. need not be copied. Nor is documentation required for common name elements and armorial practices. If you are not certain that a source is commonly available or that an element or practice is common, it is better to include the documentation in the packet than to leave it out.

3. Agreement of Paperwork - The letter of intent and all associated paperwork must agree in their arrangement and contents. Paperwork should be alphabetized in the packet in the same manner in which it was arranged in the letter of intent with all paperwork involving a single numbered item firmly fastened together in the packet. Any names or blazons on the forms should precisely match those shown on the letter of intent. Submissions for name elements only should not show any armory on the accompanying forms.

If the name is changed or modified at the kingdom level, the changes should be made on all the submissions forms, not simply noted in the LoI or only on the name submission form but not the accompanying armory forms.

4. Payment of Laurel Office Fees - Each packet must include a cheque or money order covering the processing fees for each submission element presented to the Laurel Office which requires a fee (see the section on Payment of Fees above). Checks should be made out to the SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM - COLLEGE OF ARMS. (Note: this fee is currently three dollars per element for all submissions, including official submissions at kingdom level and below.)

As noted in B.2.c. of this section of the Administrative Handbook, "Submission status shall be determined solely by the existence of prior actions at Laurel level: even if a submission has been considered on several occasions within a kingdom, it is a new submission if it has not previously been considered by the College of Arms." In other words, even if an item is a resubmission at the kingdom level, if it has not been considered before at the Laurel level it is a new submission, and requires the appropriate fee.

Finally, "Submission packets containing appropriate paperwork for all items included on a letter of intent must be forwarded to the Laurel Office in a timely manner." (emphasis added) Ideally, packets will be mailed out at the same time as the LoI is sent to the rest of the College. Certainly there should be no reason for a delay of more than a week or two.

SOURCES AND RESOURCES

Morsulus has announced that the Fifteenth Update to the Armorial and Ordinary is now available. This Update covers the July through December 1994 LoARs plust the Modest Proposal Initial Implementation List. The 15th Update is available for US$6.00 from SCA Inc. - Free Trumpet Press West, c./o Stephen Goldschmidt, 877 San Lucas Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043.

SOURCES (But Not Resources)

A new names book to watch out for (in the negative sense) is Julia Cresswell's Bloomsbury Dictionary of First Names. I saw a copy in one of the local half-price bookstores just a few days before the Laurel meeting, thumbed through it, found several errors and immediately put it down. Then in processing the submissions at the January 1995 Laurel meeting, one of the submissions quoted it to support Llewellyn (the submitted name was changed at kingdom to the more usual Welsh spelling). Ms. Cresswell's book appears to be one that SCA heralds and submitters would do well to avoid.

MYTHS (or, Things We Know That Just Aren't So)

I caught the following question and response on the net a while back, and asked the author for permission to copy it here because I felt that he said something that needed to be kept in mind as we, as heralds, deal with submitters and each other. So this is reprinted for you with thanks to its author, Dmitrii Volkovich.

Q. On that subject, why is a Native American persona allowed only to Native Americans?

R. Blast. I hate that this type of error gets spread.... I was asked very recently by a friend of mine why he was only allowed to have a Middle-Eastern persona. (This friend is Black.)

When you are told something that doesn't make sense -- challenge it! If someone says "{Such-and-such} isn't allowed to be {whatever}." and you don't think it sounds right, ask where this rule is written down. You will either be given some vague reference to Corpora (then look in Corpora), or be told something like "Well, that's just the way it is."

There are a good many customs in the SCA. Some Kingdoms have some, others don't have any. Some areas of Kingdoms may have customs not followed by all the Kingdom. In any case, almost all these customs are at least referenced somewhere. The Known World Handbook is a good place to find such references. If you can't be directed to a solid source for answers, then start thinking that maybe the person is wrong.

Another example: There are far too many people I have encountered who think that only Seneschals can make award recommendations. Baloney. That's like saying that only Heralds can speak to the Crown. It'd be a very cool privilege were it true, and would certainly give either group status above that of others around them - but neither is true.

Curse those who feel the need to come off as intelligent by making up prohibitions.

And to Dmitrii's examples I would add: "You can't register [X] in the College of Arms anymore", especially where [X] is swords, unicorns, dragons, roses, or even simple armory.

MISCELLANY

"We don't seem to have much to do. The meeting is called to order, God help it."

From the meeting minutes of the SCA Imperial College of Arms, July 11, 1971

Until next month, I remain, as ever,

Your faithful servant,

Da'ud ibn Auda

Laurel King of Arms