[tirrigh-heralds] Some thoughts following September Coronet

[Mark Hood]

Unto the College, Greetings

 From the Other Uilliam. 

Unfortunately, I missed the College's meeting, and only have things that 
were discussed second hand.  Can I inquire what was said about the Tir 
Righ ceremonial? 

The past few years I've moved away from the College, and since taking on 
my current gig, I've had little time to think about it.  But I've always 
been a bit of a protocol herald at heart, and the Ceremonial has always 
been a favourite subject to me. 

Inquiring minds want -  eh.  'would like' to know.

Uilliam
Not the Seagirt One.


Uilliam mac Ailene mhic Seamuis wrote:
> Unto all the heralds here foregathered, plus anyone else who's hanging 
> about, greetings!
>
> Pursuant to the College of Heralds meeting at September Coronet, and 
> having opened my big yap there (like anyone was suprised, right?), I 
> thought I'd kick the post-meeting ball off.
>
> One of the things I want to see put together, and which somehow I'm now 
> supposed to be organizing, is a "Policy and Procedures" manual for the 
> College of Heralds. The way I see it, it should be a compendium of 
> knowledge regarding all kinds of procedures, policies, heraldic customs 
> and so on and so forth, so that anyone who is, or is thinking of 
> becoming a herald can look this stuff up.
>
> So far, I see it comprising the following main areas:
>
> 1)  Definition of the heraldic offices, from Silver Yale Principal 
> Herald on down. We don't have a lot of deputies yet, and I personally 
> don't believe we necessarily need to duplicate every office that Kingdom 
> has, but we do need to examine the heraldic functions and determine 
> whether we want to carry those out, and whether the size of the 
> principality warrants making a specific deputy, or if some of them can 
> be lumped together. An example: at Kingdom, there is Lowenmahne Herald, 
> a job I used to have, which was the deputy for field and town crier. 
> Since I left the job, the town crier function has been split off to a 
> pursuivant-level because the size of the Lowenmahne job had grown to the 
> point one person just couldn't do it all. That's the sort of thing I 
> mean. At our size, we probably don't need to split it off, but I would 
> say we certainly need both the field herald and town crier functions.
>
> 2) Statement of heraldic policies. This section will probably be 
> prefaced with a statement to the effect of "subject to Their Highnesses' 
> whims", as they may decide for good and sufficient reasons of their own 
> to either promulgatge new policy or change existing ones. I (being the 
> opinionated git that I am) have several very strongly held opinions 
> regarding heraldic policies, mostly to do with voice, ceremony and 
> protocol. I've started compiling these thoughts together, and will put 
> something up in a bit. I would strongly, strongly, *strongly* encourage 
> every other herald in Tir Righ (and those Kingdom heralds who hang out 
> here as well) to offer their thoughts and opinions. I feel we should 
> debate and discuss  these things so we can then come to some agreement, 
> present it to Silver Yale and get his word on it and so he can then 
> present it to TH for their comments. I feel it's also worth pointing out 
> again, as I did at the meeting, that new royalty may well find this sort 
> of thing a "comfort zone" to have accessible, to know how the College's 
> defaults are set up, if you will. That way, if they decide they do want 
> to make changes, they at least know where they're starting from.
>
> 3) Customs goes hand-in-glove with the policies, but I separate it out, 
> as this should be where things relating to heraldic custom and pageantry 
> go. Some of this will be information which may be duplicated elsewhere, 
> and I'm good with that, or else including it by reference; a case in 
> point might be the Order of March for the Coronet Lists. This would also 
> cover things like customs within the College, such as perks of office 
> for various deputies, ceremonies of and involving the college, such as 
> creating a new herald, distinctions of heraldic rank, announcing the 
> College as part of the procession at Crown Lists (we didn't do this, and 
> I didn't think of it until the Invocation of the Lists was underway...)
>
> Anyway, lots of stuff, and a lot of it which will probably 
> cross-reference to the Ceremonial, about which I also have several 
> opinions, but I will defer to Her Excellency Bernadette, as that's her 
> bailiwick. I'd like to close by saying that if anyone has any ideas for 
> stuff in these categories, or categories I've missed completely, I would 
> *love* to hear from you! I would also strongly encourage you to share it 
> here on the list so that everyone can benefit from it.
>
> Yours aye,
> Uilliam
> No office, just opinions - lots of them.
>
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