600 Cedar Street, NW
Washington, DC 20012
(202) 7264396
herald@sca.org
http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel
July 24, 1997
Unto the members of the College of Arms
and all others who may read this missive do Mistress Jaelle of
Armida, Laurel Queen of Arms, and Mistress Sionyn Muirgen ní
Dhomnall, Pelican Queen of Arms, send Greetings!
The July 1997 Laurel meeting was held
on Saturday, July 12, 1997 with a roadshow meeting in Oertha,
on July 19, 1997 and considered the following letters of intent:
Outlands (February 23), Atenveldt (March 1), Atenveldt (dated
Feb 22, postmarked March 3, redated by Laurel to March 3), An
Tir (dated February 27, postmarked March 3, redated by Laurel
to March 3), Drachenwald (March 7), Atlantia (March 9), East (March
11), Lochac (dated February 28, redated by Laurel to March 12),
An Tir (March 22), Meridies (March 23), Ansteorra (March 24),
East (March 30), and Middle (March 30).
The August 1997 Laurel meeting is scheduled
for Saturday August 23, with a roadshow at Pennsic, and will consider
the following letters of intent: Calontir (March 31, postmarked
April 3, redated by Laurel to April 3), Drachenwald (April 11),
Atlantia (April 13), Lochac (April 16), Caid (April 18) Caid (April
19), West (dated March 30 postmarked April 21, redated by Laurel
to April 21), An Tir (April 25), Meridies (April 28), Middle (April
29) and East (April 29). Original commentary on these LoIs
must be in the College's hands no later than June 30, 1997. Responses
and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no
later than July 31, 1997.
The September Laurel meeting is scheduled
for Saturday, September 6, and will consider the following letters
of intent: Atenveldt (dated April 25, postmarked May 3, redated
by Laurel to May 3), Artemisia (no date on the letter, dated by
Laurel to May 6 based on postmark), Atlantia (May 4), Caid (May
4), Lochac (May 7), Drachenwald (May 7), Caid (May 19), Trimaris
(May 25), AEthelmark (May 29), East (May 29), West (May 29), Meridies
(May 29), Laurel (May 30), An Tir (May 30), and Ansteorra (May
31). Original commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's
hands no later than July 31, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to
commentary must be in the College's hands no later than August
31, 1997.
The October Laurel meeting is scheduled
for Saturday, October 18, with a road show in Calontir and will
consider the following letters of intent: Calontir (June 1), Drachenwald
(June 7), Atlantia (June 8), Lochac (June 17), West (June 18),
An Tir (June 27), Meridies (June 27), Ansteorra (June 28), Middle
(June 30) and Trimaris (June 30). Original commentary on
these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than August
31, 1997. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the
College's hands no later than September 30, 1997.
The November Laurel meeting is tentatively
scheduled for Saturday, November 8, 1997.
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. Additionally, not all Letters of Intent received have
been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt
of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, etc.) have
not yet been met.
Note: if your letter of intent is not
listed, it could be because Laurel hasn't gotten some or all the
paperwork, and you should contact Laurel.
Website Update
More and more information is going up
on the official Laurel website, including old LoARs and precedents.
At this time, every LoAR which we have in electronic format,
and every set of precedents have been sent out for htmling. However,
this work is being done by volunteers. As they finish the job,
the files are put up. So, there is no rhyme nor reason for the
order in which they are put up, except for the order that the
kind volunteers got the job done. If there is anything that you
think should be up there, or anything that is up there that you
have any questions about, please let us know.
Email Address Correction
The email address we had in last
month's cover letter for Dame Brenna (who keeps the roster and
produces the labels) was incorrect. Her correct email address
is: rwinberry@aol.com. We left out an "r". Note: the
email address in the roster was correct.
Quarterly Reports
This is a reminder to all Principal
Heralds that they must report quarterly. Required information
and due dates for the reports are in the administrative handbook.
Lozenges
You will notice that with the draft
forms is one for lozenges. We included this because we receive
submissions on lozenges. However, they are certainly optional,
and if a kingdom doesn't want to distribute them, they don't have
to. Does the College want the form eliminated all together? We
require people to submit on a standardized form, but don't care
what they display it on. Please let us know your thoughts on
this as soon as possible.
Books of note
Our Italian Surnames,
by Joseph G. Fucilla is available again in a 1996 Genealogical
Publishing Co. reprint of the 1949 book. It's the only decent
one we've seen in English; and though it lacks explicitly period
forms and dates, it's a good survey. Fucilla was a professor
of Romance linguistics, and he doesn't overstate his evidence:
he often gives multiple possible etymologies and doesn't pretend
to know all of the answers.
The price on the dust jacket is $28.50.
Gorging
The issue of our policy on giving a CD for gorging when the item being gorged is the head of a beat or monster and not the full creature was raised with a submission from Drachenwald which needed the CD for gorging to clear conflict. The precedent dates from Baron Bruce as Laurel with the acceptance of a badge for the Crown Principality of Avacal and states:
When considering a full beast or monster gorged, the gorging is usually treated as an artistic detail, worth no difference. When consider the same creature's head gorged, however, the gorging is much more prominent in proportion and treated as a tertiary charge. This therefore does not conflict with the arms of Marie Simone de Barjavel la Fildena (SCA), Ermine, a griffin's head erased gules armed sable, gorged of a ducal coronet, grasping in the beak an arrow bendwise Or. There's a CD for the field, and a CD for the gorging.
Please send us comments on this issue,
based on period evidence, if possible, by the end of November,
1997.
New Forms Revisited or Why
New Forms
There seems to be some misunderstanding
in the college as to why we are standardizing the forms. Here
are some of the reasons, in no particular order.
1. None of the kingdoms are consistently
sending the Laurel office paperwork which is in accordance with
the Administrative Handbook. Some of the forms have massive design
problems and/or the kingdoms are not filling them out correctly.
Some of the design problems include: one kingdom which had no
place for an SCA name on its badge form, another which took us
over five minutes to parse out whether we could form a holding
name, and another which didn't give the submitter the option of
refusing a holding name.
2. At the present time the Laurel office
is processing forms from 16 different locations (14 kingdoms
currently, one principality that will become a kingdom in September
and one principality which has gotten permission to do its own
letters of intent). At the Laurel level processing that many
different forms, with that many different layouts (and believe
me, some of the layouts are very different!) is extremely
difficult. As the number of kingdoms grow, this will make the
job more and more difficult.
3. As I have mentioned in the past,
we are involved in scanning all the registered armory, both to
make backups and to hopefully produce a CD with pictures of all
the registered armory. Depending on what the Board of Directors
says, we may have to mandate some legal wording on the armory
forms. This will mean all the kingdoms will have to at least
modify all their armory forms. Furthermore, having standardized
armory forms, with the emblazon in the same place on every form
will make future scanning projects a lot easier.
4. We have been traveling throughout
the Known World, and one of the most common comments we have received
from people who have moved from one kingdom to another is how
difficult it is to learn how to fill out another set of submission
forms.
We had no intention when first becoming
Laurel of doing this; when Sheik Da'ud was Laurel for the first
time he suggested this at the KWHS in Atlantia and I (Jaelle)
strongly opposed it. I realize, now, that I was wrong. Every
Laurel since Mistress Alisoun has considered standardizing the
forms. If the problem with the forms was not throughout the college,
and we had not started the scanning project, we probably would
have dealt with the situation. But, as it is now, something has
to be done.
You will find enclosed with this the
second draft of the forms. You will see that we have already
listened to a number of your comments and have incorporated them.
We appreciate all the feedback and comments; that's the purpose
of draft forms.
You will find more information about
the forms with the new set of forms.
Special Thanks
Speaking of the new forms, we want to
thank everyone who has already commented on the forms, but especially
Brachet. Even though His Grace had doubts and problems with the
whole concept, after explaining these to us, he went ahead and
gave us many constructive and useful comments on how to improve
the forms, many of which we have already incorporated. We find
this the height of courtesy and collegiality to help fix something
that you don't like, and we appreciate his help.
Other Thanks
There are many, many people who help
make the Laurel office run. Even though these thanks are traditionally
done when stepping down, I, Jaelle, feel that these people should
be acknowledged now, as it is hard to thank people too much.
First, I wish to thank all the submission heralds who are doing
their best to do a demanding job. Second all the commenters who
provide me with the necessary information to make my decisions.
Third, my local staff who come over to help file, stamp forms,
file, answer correspondence, file, process submissions and file.
Fourth, all the members of Laurel staff who work on special assignments
for the Laurel office. Fifth, all the kind volunteers who have
been turning copy into html so it can go on the Laurel website.
Last, but most of all, I want to thank Pelican for all her hard
work. I am not sure I could get the job done if I didn't have
her help!
Courtesy
We wish to remind the College that we
are all colleagues, and we will treat each other with respect
and courtesy. It is perfectly fine to disagree with someone.
It is perfectly fine to explain why you disagree with
them. It is not acceptable to be rude.
Forms on the Web Site
While we urge the kingdoms to put their
submission forms on their kingdom website, and allow Laurel to
put theirs up on the Laurel website we will not require
this. Owning a computer or having access to the internet is not
a requirement to be a member of the College of Arms.
Roster on the Web Site IMPORTANT
PLEASE READ
This is your last warning that we are
putting the roster of the College of Arms on the Laurel website.
Anyone who does not want their phone number and/or mailing address
on the website roster should contact us by the end of August.
We are extending this deadline until the end of August since the
first announcement of this had a typo in it, so people might not
have understood what we meant.
Change to Submission Rates
REMINDER
Effective January 1, 1998, Laurel is
raising the submission fee from $3.00 to $4.00. This is to pay
for the proposed postage increase and the assorted costs involved
with scanning the files. For the scanning project, among other
costs, will be the cost of purchasing one or more color printers
(hopefully ink jets) and printing out approximately 17,000 emblazons.
The last time Laurel changed the submission rate was five years
ago.
LoAR Subscriptions and Roster changes:
Send roster changes, additions, subtractions,
subscriptions to the LoAR and address changes in a separate letter,
not in the body of a LoI or LoC to: Mistress Sionyn Muirgen ní
Dhomnall, Pelican Queen of Arms, Jackie Watkins, 3532 Winding
Wind Cove, Bartlett, TN, 381353044. Please make all checks
or money orders payable to "SCA Inc. College of Arms".
The cost is currently $25.00 a year.
Also, remember all administrative
issues (requests for warrants, quarterly reports, etc.) need to
be sent to Pelican.
Certified mail.
I cannot accept certified mail at home.
If you need to send me mail return receipt requested, contact
me privately, and I will send you my work address.
Miscellany:
In the Letters Patent of Privileges, 1549, it was declared that officers of arms in all countries had from time out of mind enjoyed the following privileges, namely:
1. Exemption from taxation.
2. Exemption from tolls and other charges in markets and other places.
3. Exemption from watch and ward in cities, towns, castles, boroughs, and villages; and
4. Exemption from election and appointment to the office of mayor, sheriff, or churchwarden, or other public office in cities, towns, castles, boroughs, and villages.
No new privilege was created by the
letters patent of 1549 the privileges were stated to have
existed "from tyme out of man's memorie" and were merely
confirmed.
Until next month, pray believe that
I am, and remain,
Your faithful servant,
Jaelle of Armida
Laurel Queen of Arms