June 19, 1984 A.S. XIX

TO: The Members of the College of Arms

FROM: Master Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Laurel King of Arms

Greetings:

Enclosed is this month's LOA&R, with 123 acceptances and 33 returns, for a total of 156, a 79% pass rate. By July 14, 1984, I will need all LoCs on the following 8 LoIs (which will be processed at my July 22, 1984 meeting): Ansteorra (3/23), Calontir (4/1), Calontir (4/7), West (4/8), Ansteorra (4/16), Caid (4/17), Middle (4/19), and East (4/26), totalling 156 submissions.

By August 4, 1984, 1 will need all LoCs on the following 8 LoIs (which will be processed at my August 12, 1984 meeting): Ansteorra (5/7), Atlantia (5/7), Meridies (5/10), West (5/14), Middle (5/19), Middle (5/21), Caid (5/23), and East (5/24), totalling 203 submissions. By August 12, 1984, I will need all LoCs on the Atenveldt (4/29) LoI and the Ansteorra (5/25) LoI, which will be processed at the August 26, 1984 College of Arms meeting at the Heraldic Symposium in Loch Salann by Master Baldwin of Erebor. These two total 41 submissions.

I would like to remind everyone on the Mailing List that they are supposed to be sending copies of all correspondence to Master Baldwin. The Atenveldt (5/17) LoI and any LoIs sent out in June will presumably be processed by Master Baldwin in September. Not knowing his precise schedule, I would advise that all commentors get their LoCs on those LoIs in to him by September 1st.

As usual, there are changes to the Mailing List. Please add to it the Asterisk Herald: Clare Rosmuire St. John (N. D. Wederstrandt, 8313 Burrell, Austin, TX 78758). Please note that Mistress Rhonwen's new mundane surname is West. I am dropping the Greenwood Herald and Dolphin Herald from the list, as they have not sent out LoCs since February. Virgule, Kraken, and Lanner have not sent out LoCs (that I have received) since March, and need to get one to me by my July meeting or else tell me why they cannot. Silver Quill, Treble Rose and Third Shield Heralds have not sent an LoC out since April. Please try to get one out soon. I enclose an up-to-date copy of the Mailing List suitable for copying onto labels. Next month I will send out an updated roster.

Speaking of not sending out LoCs, I note that it has been two months since the Board of Directors decided to choose Master Baldwin to be the next Laurel King of Arms and directed him to become an active commenting member of the College immediately. Other than the usual introductory note one would expect from his having been chosen, Master Baldwin has not sent out any LoCs. Now, I did not and do not approve of or agree with the Board's decision or reasoning in their choice to, against the expressed wish of the College, invoke the principle of geographically rotating corporate offices by moving the office from northern California to southern California. I do, however, accept the fact that the Board has made its decision, and I am implementing their directive to me to prepare the office for transfer. I hope that Master Baldwin will also choose to implement the Board's directive to him and begin commenting.

On May 24th I had a long phone conversation with Master Baldwin and Duke Siegfried von Höflichkeit. I dislike speaking for others, but in the absence of communication from Master Baldwin, I will report on what was said in order that the College may be informed. The following paragraphs summarize the main points of the conversation:

1. Master Baldwin told me that he plans to make no major changes in his initial six-month probationary period. (All new corporate officers are given an initial six-month probationary warrant and, after a six-month review, are then given an eighteen-month warrant.)

2. Master Baldwin will probably process submissions at a monthly meeting, with semi-monthly work sessions to deal with paperwork and pre-processing LoIs and LoCs. He will want to receive all LoCs two weeks before his meetings, which means that generally he will want LoCs to arrive by the first of the month, assuming a mid-month meeting date. I plan to send the files for the two LoIs to be processed at the Symposium and for all LoIs received in June to Master Baldwin in the first week of July, so please try to get all June LoIs out to me before the end of June. This will give Master Baldwin enough time to prepare to process the submissions at the Symposium and in September, so there should, presumably, be no interruption in the processing of submissions. I will send the forms for all LoIs received in July to Master Baldwin in the first week of August. The current plan to transfer the files themselves is to have somebody going from the Bay Area to the WorldCon drive them down in a rented truck or trailer. (Duke Siegfried stated that the Board would be willing to pay the costs of moving the files.) Master Baldwin should therefore receive the files by the end of August.

3. Master Baldwin intends to continue the subscriptions to the LoA&Rs. He will make less use of questionnaires, as he feels they tend to lead members of the College into thinking that issues are voted on, but he will probably make use of them occasionally when there are a number of issues to be discussed at once and a large sampling of opinions from the College is desired. (The return rate on the questionnaires is 70-80%, much better than LoCs.)

4. Duke Siegfried assured us that the Board will take no final action on the proposed amendment to Corpora on changing the basis of the College's rules on names without first sending the matter back to the College for discussion. The Board sent the question out in the last issue of T.I. to see if there was a sizeable number of people really upset about the current name rules. To date there have been very few responses to that proposal, mostly from members of the College. It therefore looks likely that there will be no major change in that section of Corpora, unless there is a sudden flood of letters before the deadline.

5. We went over current projects. Clarion will continue to maintain the Ordinary & Armorial for the time being. I will continue the preparation for publication of the Authentic Medieval European Names book and the Herald's Handbook after leaving office and will remain a commentor. Mistress Rebecca will continue to work on the SCA OP. Master Baldwin will complete his volumes of precedents and then plans to work on the project of integrating and updating them to form a compilation of rulings that are still in force. He will handle the decision on the 1986 Heraldic Symposium. The East and the Middle Colleges of Heralds will continue their joint heraldic publishing venture.

6. I reminded Master Baldwin that he needed to send out LoCs. He said he didn't want to seem over-eager or come on too strong while I was still Laurel. I said that it was true that he shouldn't jump in heavy-handed, but that it was vital he comment regularly and well, and that he inform the College of his intent and plans. After all, he had been away from heraldry and the College for two years, and over half of the College membership had joined the College during that absence. These newer members had not seen his correspondence. The older members needed to be reassured that Master Baldwin still had sufficient skill in correspondence and analyzing submissions. They all needed to see that he was indeed current in his understanding of the current rules and procedures, and that he had the time to be Laurel. (After all, if you don't have the time to comment, you certainly don't have the time to be Laurel.) He needed to become acquainted with the members of the College and the members of the College needed to become acquainted with him, his style, and his views. (Since Crescent had been giving him copies of all correspondence, there was no reason why he could not being commenting immediately.) He indicated to me that he would do so.

Enclosed is a copy of the article on the SCA I wrote for The Coat of Arms, the quarterly journal of the English Heraldry Society. It is in the Autumn 1983 issue, which just came out (they're behind schedule).

Mistress Rebecca informs me that she had some storage and programming problems with the SCA OP but that there is now progress. She should be sending the Principal Heralds a mailing with a sample of the OP and their kingdom's portion of it to proofread soon.

I am compiling a new edition of the Rules for Heraldic Submissions, which I will send out with next month's mailing. It will contain the old rules, the Supplement, and all changes made to date. Clarion and I have decided that 4-month updates are the way to go on the Ordinary & Armorial. Three a year is a good compromise between being current and having too many volumes to deal with. The first update will cover March 1984 through June 1984, inclusive, and will be finished in time for use at my July meeting. I will send copies to the Principal Heralds.

Dragon will print up copies of the update with the same printer (probably) who did the O&A, and then they can be sold from the same location as the O&A itself. I hope copies of the update can be ready and present at Pennsic. Final plans, along with page counts and price, will be in next month's letter. The O&A is now in the hands of most of those who sent in advance orders. It looks good. I am sure there are some errors in it, given the size. If you find any, send a list to Clarion and me, so we can correct them and compile an errata list that can be ordered by those who buy the O&A. I would like to thank Lady Graidhne and her crew for handling the processing and distribution of armorials. (Please note Lady Graidhne's correct title. We erroneously used the title Mistress, for which we apologize, and we hope that the day will come that this error will become fact.)

I would like to ask all commentors, when commenting on a specific person's submissions in my LoA&Rs, to note the kingdom the person's submission was listed under and whether it was in the Accepted or Returned section, so that I and other members of the College can more easily find the entry to see what you are talking about.

Pray believe, my Lords and my Ladies, that I remain,

Your servant,

Master Wilhelm von Schlüssel
Laurel King of Arms

WvS:CFCvS
Enclosures: Mailing List
Coat of Arms article