June 1, 2005- The Collar of S’s

Since the very early days of heraldry the badges and symbols of a herald and the rank that herald holds have evolved and changed. Tabards and other clothing denoting the rank or position held have been ever evolving and even today modern heralds wear various types of tabards to denote their ranks. However one item of regalia has since the middle ages been used to denote the rank of a Herald among the different ranks of officers of arms.

The collar of S’s forms a sort of chain of office to denote a person who is holding the rank of Herald in a college of Arms and as such I have made the following a matter of sumptuary custom and precedence in Ealdormere’s College of Heralds. .

The Trillium Herald is included in any or all of the above precedence and is forbidden from the wearing or display of a Gold Collar of S’s unless they also hold a title of Herald Extraordinary and also must follow the above proscriptions regarding a Silver Collar of S’s unless they are entitled to its use as a ranked (H) Herald. Unless otherwise promoted prior to or during their tenure in office the Trillium Herald will revert to the Rank of Pursuivant upon their step down.

June 1, 2005- Structure of the College of Heralds Changes and Proposals

As many of you will have already noted I have made a few changes to the way the college is structured. Most of these are minor changes and have little impact on the day to day running of things. The first thing I do want to point out is that regardless of the place or position held in this new structure we are all a team and working towards a common goal. That goal is and will remain the use, promotion and education of all aspects of heraldry within the Kingdom of Ealdormere. As Trillium I hope to make heraldry as user friendly and open to the populace as possible. To do this I will strive towards reducing as much as possible the mystery and secrecy we have all grown to be labeled with and break down the barriers as much as possible.

To begin this task I have restructured several areas of the college and am working on changes to others. As you can see on the attached flow chart the entire organization is very different from the past. As a part of the team aspect I am applying to the college I see us all as a structure that must work to support each other in every way so we can achieve our common goals. For that reason I see the structure of the college as a sort of wheel. Each team forms a Spoke radiating out from the Hub that holds it all together. Our hub as you can see is the Trillium Herald who forms the center point everything else revolves around. Now from that central hub you will see the lines radiate out to all of the major offices and teams that form the College of Heralds. The next thing you will notice is that the arrows on these spokes all flow both ways. This hopefully will make it clear and obvious to everyone that while there may be several positions that are above or below another position they are all still a part of the team and the information must flow out to the spokes and back in towards the hub.

Next I have made a minor name change in what used to be the top level formerly called “Trillium Senior Staff”. The new name simple drops the word Senior out of this name and becomes “Trillium Staff”. This removes the stigma of this level of the college somehow being better or higher up than the rest. Within the Trillium Staff each team has been given a name reflecting its Primary function. Within these teams specific positions assigned as part of a team will continue to function and be responsible for their areas of expertise. For instance Afon Fawr, our Names Herald assigned to the “Education Team” will work with this team on names education, but also maintain assisting Green Mantle’s Submissions Team as well as Trillium and Pentland to develop new heraldic names and so forth. Each office will enjoy a similar relationship to all other levels of the college.

It is hoped this “Team” approach will accomplish a couple of goals allowing growth potential without the whole thing becoming too large and unwieldy. Each team can function with a great degree of flexibility without a lot of direct supervision. Teams can support each other from within so that no one member gets bogged down to the point of being unable to work. Someone seeing problems develop can help pick up the slack themselves or involve the rest of the team in a solution before a critical failure becomes an issue. Teams or individuals can help other teams or cross the team lines as required. If someone sees a need for help from a specific office they can reach for it as needed. I hope this will break down some of the walls between the various levels of the CoH and the kingdom in general and make it a more friendly and team like atmosphere.

The next area of change you will notice is in titles assigned to some positions. A few positions that have recently titled Herald may now be called Pursuivant and vise a versa. This is to reflect not so much their place in any ranking system but rather to differentiate status in terms of accountability and reporting. Generally speaking on Trillium Staff a position titled as Herald will report directly to Trillium while Pursuivants will report to a Herald who reports to Trillium. At the Groups level all positions are titled Pursuivants. It should be noted however that a person who is a capitol “H” Herald (been awarded the permanent title of Herald) may hold a position that is usually titled as Pursuivant and in this case the office will be titled as Herald while that person is in office and reverts to a Pursuivant when held by a pursuivant. (Quintain and Afon Fawr are such offices). The titles shown on the roster and flow chart are the default titles assigned to these positions.

Next at the Administrative Team level are a couple of new positions. One for a Youth herald, the name and title are still being worked on and will need to be registered once chosen. I had thought of using Cornet (no not a spelling error, Coronet is a crown like metal hat, Cornet is a small horn like a trumpet). This term has been used in the SCA for some time to represent a beginner level student of heraldic arts. However this ranking has no historic link in heraldry, it was used in some cases to signify a military rank assigned to a banner bearer and this could be how it crossed into SCA usage. Some terms from Scottish Heraldry for junior level heralds were Macer and Messenger and we will continue to play with these alternatives as well as a name as this project moves along. This position is intended for a youth (under 16 years old) who is interested in heraldry and will have several functions within the college.

Next is Silver Wolf Herald, a new position (name is in Submissions process) created for the immediate past Trillium who will remain part of the Trillium staff in an advisory role. This is one of my first steps in a project to try hold onto some of the knowledge and skill we develop then loose as people move on to other things in the SCA. In some cases we loose senior heralds after they step down because they have other goals or needs in life but I can also see it happening through a lack of interest or focus for them. If there is no job waiting for them after they step aside it is too easy to loose interest and fade away. By offering a post like this I hope at least for the short term to hold onto their knowledge and experience gained over their term of office and have a guiding hand for the new guy on the block. I hope to also explore ways to keep other heralds active and involved once they step out of the roles they hold and keep this knowledge available somehow to the college as a whole.

Looking at our over all structure it is apparent that it all starts at the hub and Trillium is that Hub. The coach whose job it is to guide the team as needed to accomplish our goals.

Like all good teams a coach needs assistant coaches and captains. On the flow chart the red lines connect Trillium to their Two Principle advisors. The Silver Wolf as senior (previous Trillium) advisor and Inland Seas as deputy and Liaison herald to their Highness’s. Following around the yellow lines spread to the part of the college termed “Administrative Staff”. These are the officers who directly assist Trillium with the running of the whole team. Exact job descriptions of these positions are contained elsewhere but for a brief overview, Gopher pursuivant is the administrative assistant to Trillium and special projects coordinator. Caleygreyhound is the Order or Precedence herald, Quintain is our web master and electronic communications Pursuivant. Privy Seal, Signet, and the Lymnor role artist all remain little changed from years past for now (stay tuned for more later). I would also like to come up with a name/title for the Lymnor artist. Little else has changed with the exception of some title shuffling. The Pale Blue dotted lines on the right side of this area show the links shared revolving around the maintenance and checking of the Order of Precedence against any scroll requests and the artistic needs of the scribes to incorporate registered heraldry into these scrolls.

The next area on the flow chart with the green lines is Submission processing under a team captain known as Green Mantle Herald. You will notice the arrows within this team flow in a circular motion. This is indicative of the fact that while Green Mantle is the captain this is a team and the information must be shared at all times. Each player is responsible for their area but also helps the rest of the team. For the most part this is how the job functioned all along but someone must be in charge and responsible for the reporting of this team. New to this team is the Commentary Pursuivant who will also have a team of heralds assisting with commentary on heraldic submissions.

Education, the orange lines is next and here again the arrows flow in a circle as well as back and forth between each and every member of the team. This is the biggest change to the overall structure of the CoH, reflecting my commitment to improve the education not only of the CoH but the populace in general. By placing Stave, Pentland and Afon Fawr on a team captained by Bucina I hope to better focus their efforts in this direction. As a team they can identify weak areas and then work up plans and execute them to solve these issues. Also of note is the added responsibility of the Pentland Pursuivant for all matters of protocol and ceremony. This position is one I hope to examine further down the road with the potential of splitting these roles into two heralds with one looking after field and list heraldry while the other focuses on court and protocol.

At the bottom of the page not simply by geographics and in no way indicative of a lower status of any sort are the groups and shires teams with a dark blue line. I placed these teams here because I also look at them as the foundation of the college. The base that everything else builds upon in many ways and the area closest in most cases to the people who are the Kingdom we serve. The only changes of note here is the addition of the position of Shires Pursuivant (currently under review, yet another project for Gopher). This is intended to fill a gap in the report process and information sharing between the shires and Trillium filling a spot similar in scope to the baronial pursuivants. This spot will be filled by someone from the shires with knowledge of the unique status of shire heraldic politics. At both the Baronial and Shires positions it is also hoped we can work towards filling the gaps in local group heralds so that the entire population can have easy access to a herald for advise and submission assistance.

Finally but in no way the last or least our pool of fine and talented At Large herald and pursuivants are shown with a purple line. This group is also the largest team and remains relatively constant in size and make up. The At Large heralds are a valued asset and pool of individuals most of whom have held prior posts in the CoH and provide an ongoing source of information, assistance and advice.

Generally speaking it is my hope that these changes will promote better communications throughout the college and the kingdom and focus our efforts in areas identified as needing attention. Remember to make this work as a team we all need to work towards that common goal and everyone from the centre out and back in again must communicate and share information, skills and assets as required. Finally keep in mind that none of this is carved in stone and input over time will tell if this has been a success or not. Changes based on input from all involved can direct change to make it even better for the future. Remember one broken spoke and the whole wheel will collapse upon itself.

Click on the image above to open a full size copy of the flow chart in a new window.

November 10 2005 - Privacy Policy

The following will be the basic policy of the Ealdormere College of Heralds on this matter until such times as a full and proper precedence and policy can be established.

Submission Forms and their attached files, documents and information:
No change to the way these are handled, transmitted or stored within the Kingdom or Society is currently needed. As the original submitter freely gives forth the information on these forms for the purposes of attempting to register something within the College of Arms it is implied that permission for this use in any form is given by the submitter sending in these forms.
The sharing, transmitting or use of these forms in any manner for the purposes of this process are considered to be a part of that process and as such are covered by the implied permission granted when the submitter entered the submission process.
Use of or transmission of information from submission forms or other documents held by the College of Heralds:
Except for the above mentioned uses within the submissions process, There shall be no transmission of, sharing or copying of any forms or documents contained or held within the College of Heralds files that contains any personnel information (real name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth or any other personal identification or means of
identification) about the Real/Mundane identity of the person or persons contained on these forms or documents except as follows.
Upon receipt of a written (email is acceptable) letter of permission from the Original Submitter the Green Mantle Herald or other designated officer holding said files may forward, copy or transmit such files as requested to the Original Submitter or a third party they name and designate in their letter of permission.
Use of or transmission of information contained on any forms or documents that pertains solely to a persons SCA Persona, Name, Badges, Devices or Other Heraldic items:
Any person except the original submitter as mentioned above may request information and or documentation on file with the College of Heralds pertaining to SCA Names Badges or Devices etc. as held in the College files.
The information requested will be forwarded or transmitted only after editing to remove, erase or cover any other information contained on these forms or documents that relates to any of the above mentioned Real/Mundane items of identification.This may be achieved by either file editing, blocking out of given areas of information, selective copying or scanning of required information or any other method that ensures that all Mundane personal information is permanently erased or removed from any copies or documents that are to be transmitted for this purpose.
The Ealdormere College of Heralds neither implies nor infers any control or attempt at control of the exchange of information of this or any other nature by agencies, organizations or individuals outside the realm of our control or authority in these matters.

September 20, 2006 - Use of Trillium Badges

As per the Administrative Handbook of the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism Inc. Section II-E "Tinctureless Armory"

Tinctureless Armory - Tinctureless Armory may only be registered as heraldic seals for the use of the Principal Herald/College of Heralds of a Kingdom. Such seals must contain two straight trumpets in saltire, bells to chief.

To wit: The following is registered as indicated.

Heralds' Seals: Trillium Principal Herald
-The following seal associated with this name was registered in January of 2003
(Tinctureless) Two straight trumpets in saltire between four trilliums each with a petal to center.

The following use of badges based upon this seal has been established by precedence of use established under the tenure of Erick of Longacres.

Argent, two straight trumpets in saltire between four trilliums each with a petal to center gules, known as the "white" version of the Trillium Herald's seal may only be worn and/or displayed by the Trillium Principal Herald.

Gules, two straight trumpets in saltire between four trilliums each with a petal to center argent, known as the "red" version of the Trillium Herald's seal may be worn and/or displayed by a Senior staff member of the Ealdormere College of Heralds - this includes the Trillium Herald's Titled staff, Baronial pursuivants and Heralds-At-Large (capital "H" heralds)

Addendum: Under the precedence herein outlined the following additional uses of the above mentioned seal will henceforth be considered legal within the Ealdormere College of Heralds as granted by this precedence.

Item 1:
Per pale argent and gules, two straight trumpets in saltire Or, between four trilliums each with a petal to center counter-changed, to be known as the "counterchanged" version of the Trillium Herald's seal may be worn and/or displayed by any Trillium Emeritus Herald or pursuivant. The title Trillium Emeritus being granted to any individual who has sat a term of office as the Trillium Principal Herald of Ealdormere either as a Kingdom, Principality or Territory.

Item 2:
Vert, two straight trumpets in saltire between four trilliums each with a petal to center Or, to be known as the "green" version of the Trillium Herald's seal may be worn and/or displayed by any herald, pursuivant or macer within the Ealdormere College of Heralds. This includes any and all heralds of any rank as may already have been covered by any of the above mentioned precedence or any precedence for use of a badge based on the Trillium Herald's seal as yet to be determined or outlined.

Item 3:
Sable, two straight trumpets in saltire between four trilliums each with a petal to center argent, to be known as the "black" or "Erick's" version of the Trillium Herald's seal, is by permission of Percival de la Rocque, Trillium principal Herald granted for the personal and exclusive use of Master Erick of Longacres, Black Mantle Herald Extraordinary. This version of the Trillium seal to be his to use and wear/display in a heraldically proper manner as he sees fit as a personal badge and a mark of his esteemed rank and the high honour he is held in by this office.