Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
1194 Firwood Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15243
412-306-0416
herald@sca.org

4 August, 1999

Unto the members of the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive does Dame Elsbeth Anne Roth, Laurel Queen of Arms, send greetings.

The July Laurel meeting was held Saturday, July 17, 1999, and considered the following letters of intent: Atenveldt (March 1), Outlands (March 5), East (March 6), Drachenwald (March 9), Middle (March 11), West (March 14) (both letters), Atlantia (March 15), Lochac (March 15), Caid (March 16), An Tir (March 26), Ansteorra (March 30), and Meridies (March 30).

The August Laurel meeting is scheduled for Sunday, August 8, 1999, and will consider the following letters of intent: Scribe Armarius' Letter of Intent to Protect (dated February, mailed with the April Caid letter), Atenveldt (April 1), Drachenwald (April 2), Artemisia (April 5), East (April 11), Caid (April 15), Atlantia (April 19), Lochac (April 19), Æthelmearc (April 25), Ansteorra (April 27), Outlands (April 15), Middle (April 29), and Meridies (April 30).

The September Laurel meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 5, and will consider the following letters of intent: Atenveldt (May 1), Drachenwald (May 1), An Tir (May 5), Calontir (May 8), Middle (May 13), Outlands (May 15), West (May 18), Atlantia (May 19), Artemisia (May 20), Artemisia (May 21), Ansteorra (May 22), An Tir (May 28), and Meridies (May 30). Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than August 31, 1999.

The October Laurel meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 16, (note: this is a date change) and will consider the following letters of intent: Ealdormere (May 27, redated to June 9), Atenveldt (June 1), Drachenwald (June 1), East (June 7), Outlands (June 7), Middle (June 13), West (June 17), Atlantia (June 21), Æthelmearc (June 23), An Tir (June 25), Meridies (June 30), and Ansteorra (June 30). Original commentary on these LoIs must be in the College's hands no later than August 31, 1999. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the College's hands no later than September 30, 1999.

The November Laurel meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, November 14, and will consider the letters of intent from July.

REMINDER: Until the packet containing the paperwork is received, the letter may not be scheduled.

Edelweiss Herald, in the Drachenwald LoI, made the following proposal:

However, it is also true that we distinguish (and are likely to continue to distinguish) between a heraldic and a natural tiger not because they are artistic variants but because they are different charges with similar names. My question: Is the difference between a natural dolphin and a heraldic dolphin closer to the difference between a garden rose and a heraldic rose, or to the difference between a natural tiger and a heraldic tiger? Please send commentary on this by the end of October, 1999.

There are three types of Laurel staff. The first appear on the Roster under Laurel and support Laurel in various and sundry ways. The second do not appear on the Roster and are those who come over to my house once a week to help with the paperwork. The third also do not necessarily appear on the roster, and help me remotely.

For the first, the largest group are the staff commenters: al-Jamal Herald (Da'ud ibn Auda), Argent Snail Herald (Jaelle of Armida), Brenna Lowri o Ruthin, Brickbat Herald (Marta as tu Mika-Mysliwy), Brown Mouse Herald (Cateline de la Mor la souriete), Clarion Herald (Zenobia Naphtali), Mereswin Herald (Sionyn Muirgen ní Dhomnall), Metron Ariston Herald (Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane), and Palimpsest Herald (Rouland Carre). In addition, Argent Snail is in charge of education, Palimpsest is in charge of rule changes, and Clarion is available as a last-minute armory researcher.

Fause Lozenge Herald (Talan Gwynek) is not a staff commenter, but is a resource for historical questions on names. Irene von Schmetterling is a resource for questions on organizing the heraldry for multi-kingdom events (and soon should be a staff commenter). Morsulus Herald maintains the database of submissions. Rory mac Feidhlimidh runs Free Trumpet Press, and Symond Bayard le Gris handles the roster and subscriptions.

The local staff will probably always be in flux, but currently consists of the following: Alaric MacConnal (in charge of finances as well as being spousal support), Allison Poinvillars de Tours, Juliana de Luna, Margaret Makafee, Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon, Richenda du Jardin, and Ts'vee'a bas Tseepora Levi.

I also have various people helping more remotely, including Hraefn Jäde vom Schwarzwald as web minister, and a collection of proofreaders (Alanna Volchevo Lesa, Emilia Mazza de Novella, Fridrikr Tomasson av Knusslig Hamn, Giulietta da Venezia, Hrorek Halfdane of Faulconwood, Owen ap Morgan, Richenda du Jardin, and Rouland Carre). Lastly, Eirikr Mjoksiglandi Sigurdson is helping me automate much of the LoAR processing, and Tibor of Rock Valley is continuing to convert the LoARs to HTML.

If I missed anyone, please accept my apologies, and I thank everyone (which includes all of the College for Arms) for making this huge job possible.

Nevertheless, I still need assistance in some areas. First and foremost, I am still looking for someone to compile my precedents. If anyone is interested, please contact me as soon as possible.

Also, Eirikr is doing wonderful work automating many of the Laurel tasks, but we could both use some help making the automation user-friendly. If anyone knows a computer type who might be interested, please let me know.

Lastly, Hraefn just told me she is having attack of life problems (including the lack of a computer), so I am looking for a new web minister.

Please remember whenever possible to comment on a pending submission, even if you say "I found no conflicts." At this meeting, I received no comments on the pended submission (beyond the original commentary). I needed to conflict-check those submissions during the Laurel meeting. I know it is hard to remember them — I had a hard time remembering them when I was a commenter, but please make an effort.

The general procedure I used for processing Laurel files is:

1. I get an LoI or LoC from a College of Arms member.
2. If the LoI or LoC is on paper only, I scan it to convert it to electronic form (and into RTF [Rich Text Format]).
3. I then alter the RTF document by adding some codes to tell the computer how to convert the document to XML (Extensible Markup Language).
4. I convert the document to XML.

Before the meeting, I take all of the converted LoIs for that month and all the LoCs that refer to items on those LoIs (whether as primary or secondary commentary) and merge them together. This merged document is used both to produce comment sheets for each item (I use during the Laurel meeting) and the final document (and eventually other forms).

As you can see, my job is easier and less error-prone when I start with an electronic copy (especially one that has as much of the original formatting as possible). Nearly everyone creates a copy electronically, so, if it is at all possible to send me electronic copy, please do so. I have relatively new software that can read most formats. If you have any questions, let me know.

Because my markup is flexible enough to handle changes, it is no longer necessary for the format of an LoI to match the LoAR as close as possible. I strongly encourage LoIs contain any information that commenters need, such as what gender the submitter wants for the name, whether a submission is new or a resubmission, whether the submitter wants a historical name, etc. My job is much harder when my commenters do not have enough information to adequately advise me.

I will be including a corrected roster with the August LoAR. If you have not already done so, please check the current roster for corrections and send them to my roster deputy, Symond (address below). If you did not get a copy of the roster last month, or just want a more recent copy to check, contact Symond or me.

Until then, please remove the following names from the mailing list: Maryn Grey (former Lion’s Blood, An Tir), Donal O’Dochartaigh (form Star Principal Herald, Ansteorra), Owen ap Morgan (Maple Leaf Herald, Artemisia), Hreodbeorht MacBeath (Drakkar Herald, Atlantia), Cerdic O’Cuilleamhain (form Trillium Herald, Ealdomere), and Sigfried Heydrich (former Triskele Principal Herald, Trimaris).

Also, please place the following names, currently listed on the roster, on the mailing list as well: Francois la Flamme (listed as Solstice Herald, now Star Principal Herald, Ansteorra) and Kiena Munro (Fretty Pursuivant, Outlands).

Also, please add the following names and address to the mailing list.

Send roster changes, corrections, and LoAR subscriptions to Lord Symond Bayard le Gris, Bruce R. Nevins, 2527 E. 3rd St., Tucson, AZ, 85716-4114, (520) 795-6000, (520) 795-0158 (Fax), bnevins@nexiliscom.com. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc. - College of Arms." The cost for an LoAR subscription is $25.00 a year. Send all other administrative requests/payments to Laurel.

Until then, I remain

In service,

Elsbeth Anne Roth
Laurel Queen of Arms

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