Greetings to the College of Heralds!

This is my first CAMEL, and it’s rather full. But let’s start well, with
warm thanks to my predecessor, Lady Amanda Martel, for all her hard work.
May she enjoy a relaxing break now she has stepped down as Crux, and no
one let her volunteer for anything for at least a month!

The following registrations came back on the latest LoAR:

Agostino Tamburini. Name and device. Per chevron azure and vert, a
triskelion of armoured legs and an orle argent.
Nice 15th century Florentine name!

Aine ben Mael Coluim. Name.

Clifford Ascheburner. Name and device. Per pall inverted argent, sable,
and azure, in chief two ibises respectant counterchanged.

Frances Affrica Ray. Device. Per pale gules and purpure, two chevronels
and in chief a gloved fist and a swallow volant bendwise argent.

Jonathon de Hadleigh. Device change. Or, on a fess gules three hawk’s
bells Or.
The submitter’s previous device, Per pale gules and Or, in dexter in pale
two hawk’s bells argent, is retained as a badge.
Nice device!

Lann scréchóc ingen Briain. Name.
Mýrún katla. Name and device. Sable, a wolf courant argent within a
bordure argent pellety.
Nice 9th-11th century Old Norse name from Iceland!

Susannah Scarlet. Badge for Ravens Rook, Keep Of. Per pale embattled
argent and sable, a raven and a chess rook counterchanged.
Nice cant!

Vyolet Lyllycroppe. Device. Per pale gules and argent, a bouquet of three
lilies slipped and leaved counterchanged.
Nice cant!

Wolfgang Germanicus. Household name Ulfahol.

Congratulations to all involved.

Next, office changeovers. I am pleased to announce two changeovers for
Deputy Heralds: Canon and Quarrel.

Lord Amos Ironbeard is stepping down as Canon Herald, in which role he has
done sterling work. He is succeeded by his deputy, Lady Arabella
d’Aubigny, who I have no doubt will follow in his reliable footsteps.

Quarrel Herald has been held by Master William of Castille for, well,
pretty much since the Rolls of Arms were a thing, given that the Kingdom
Rolls of Arms were his idea and his baby to begin with. The Knowne World
owes him a debt of gratitude for the hard work he has put in, and not just
for Lochac. He is succeeded by Noble Gwyneth ferch Aeddan, who I have no
doubt will more than competently fill William’s Very Large Boots.

Many thanks to William and Amos for all their hard work and service, and
cheers for incoming and outgoing Deputies all.

And speaking of deputies, there are currently a number of positions to be
filled, five to be exact. If you’ve ever thought of becoming a Crux
Deputy, or secretly yearned for a classy Herald title, now is your chance.

From my point of view, the most important is Coffyn Herald, the second in
charge, drop dead deputy to Crux, and with a roving portfolio of Special
Jobs as and when needed. Unfortunately for me, the previous Coffyn went
and became Crux, and as I can’t be my own deputy, I need the role filled.
The work load is light, but you will be working with me on several
projects next year that are currently in the planning stages. (While
Coffyn is an excellent preparatory role, you are not required to put your
hand up for Crux when I step down.)

Second up is Bombarde Herald, deputy for Ceremonies, Protocol and Voice
Heraldry. At the moment, the job is mostly refining the Kingdom Book of
Ceremonies, making changes to the ceremonies based on feedback, which
isn’t much work. What I would also like to see is Bombarde making use of
the various online channels the Kingdom is now using to help teach voice
heraldry to those who may not get many local opportunities to herald
courts. This is a reasonably low-pressure, low-workload job, with a lot of
room to explore if you so desire.

Next is Powderhorn. Due to some confusion of communication, it turns out
we haven’t actually had a Powderhorn Herald for some time, which has
caused some problems hopefully now fixed. Powderhorn is the records
deputy, and works with other Crux staff (mostly Canon) to ensure all data
is stored accurately and properly. If you’ve ever used the “Fix Me”
function on Canon Lore, Powderhorn is the person who does the fixing. You
don’t need to be a programming whiz, just competent with computers.

Then we have Mangonel, the Herald formerly known as Silent. This is a role
with a lot of autonomy, and a lot of room to grow. Essentially, Mangonel
needs to develop a body of sign language for our ceremonies. Proactive
inclusivity is becoming more and more important in the SCA, and this is an
area that we can do a great deal. You would need to develop something that
can work in both Auslan and NZ sign language, and I strongly suggest that
it is best achieved by building a team on both sides of the Ditch.

Lastly is Mortar Herald. Traditionally Mortar Herald is the IT person who
did things like build Canon Lore, but to a great extent, the Kingdom’s
Masonry team has taken all of that over so it’s no longer Mortar’s job.
However, our website is in something of a mess, and while I can fix it,
it’s a job I’d prefer to be done sooner rather than later, and if I have
to do it on my own, it’s not going to be touched for another 8 months at
least. Whoever takes on Mortar will be working with me to reformat the
website to something that’s more functional and easier to navigate, and to
update, expand and improve the information that is there. The Herald pages
are running on Word Press, and you don’t need programming or specialised
IT skills to manage it. There is also room for Mortar to be involved in
helping the College of Heralds make better use of the Kingdom’s Discord,
YouTube and other multi-media channels, if that is an area of interest.

Please consider applying for a Deputy Herald role. They are all much
needed, and most of them are flexible in terms of how much work you choose
to take on. All of these roles have work that needs doing, and I can’t do
it all on my own. It’s a great way to get experience in the running of the
Kingdom, looks great on your SCA resume, and I am happy to accept joint or
team applications. Please send applications, with the Deputy Herald name
in the subject line, to herald(a)lochac.sca.org

Next on my list of Things To Tell People is a sort of generalised warning
that I am doing administrative Spring Cleaning for Crux. There is a lot of
stuff that needs checking, updating, reorganising and generally could be
made easier. This means that in the next three months or so, I’m going to
be doing things like checking emails are still working, poking people for
details of what they are actually doing, and generally chasing stuff down.
So to make things easier for me, could you all please go to the Roster of
Heralds (https://herald.lochac.sca.org/about-the-college/roster/ ) and
check that your name appears there. If not, please use the Herald Roster
Details page (https://herald.lochac.sca.org/forms/roster-details/ ) to
submit your details.

There is more I have a lot planned for the next two years but for the
moment, that’s more than enough.

May your voices stay clear and your cats stay away from your books.

Annys Crux