CALONTIR SAKER HERALD

Welcome to the office of the Saker Herald of Calontir.

The Saker Herald is in charge of submissions process; publishes letters of intent; collects and disburses funds associated with heraldic registration; maintains kingdom archives of submitted and registered names, devices, and badges.

The Saker Herald is part of the Calontir College of Heralds. The Saker Herald is a deputy of the Calontir Principal Herald, the Gold Falcon Herald. The Saker Herald is also a member of the SCA College of Arms and is entitled to submit comments at the Laurel level on heraldry available for comment by the College of Arms.
 

The fee to the submitter is $9.00 per element. An element is defined as any Name Submission, Device Submission, or Badge Submission. The local group-herald's office retains $2.00 per element of the submission fee to cover the cost of photocopies, postage, etc. The remainder ($7.00) will be forwarded with the submission to the Kingdom Submission Herald's office (Saker Herald). When submitting directly to Saker Herald, the Kingdom Office retains the $2.00 normally taken by the local office to cover processing costs.

Announcement

Grüß Gott!

Unto the good gentles of the Calontir College of Heralds, does Gotfrid Saker send warmest greetings.

For nearly a year now since I had stepped into office, a previously increasing and disturbing trend appears to have been mostly curtailed, yet I still receive in a number of recent submissions any of the following issues which will result in delays, if not outright returns:

- Incomplete or missing submission forms - Insufficient documentation summaries on submission forms or a total lack of documentation whatsoever
- Improperly colored armory submission forms (using colored pencils and/or non-heraldic colored markers)

In the past the Saker office has "filled the gap" by making copies in our office and completing them properly, either by re-entering information or coloring forms using proper heraldic colors and media. In many cases an e-mail was also sent to the submitting herald reminding them of the appropriate rules for submission from our Administrative Handbook. However, since we permit submissions directly from the client to the Saker office, it is not always possible for a submitting herald at the group level to catch and correct these mistakes. Thus the Saker and his staff (my very patient wife) have been covering for these errors.

Unfortunately with the demands of my Federal Lord that I frequently hone young warrior's skills ere they embark for battles along the Silk Road, the delays these errors can create are often exacerbated. Therefore, it is with some regret that I must insist on continuing the following policy statement of my predecessor.

To wit:
*****Effective since January 1, 2010 any submissions that are not found to be properly prepared will be returned immediately to the submitter for correction. This includes, but is not limited to the following instances:
1. Improperly colored emblazons on armory submission forms. The proper medium for coloring is a colored marker (Crayola Classic or equivalent) using the following tincture equivalents:
- Argent = White (not grey, silver, or lightly colored pencil) HINT: If it is argent, just don't color in that spot!
- Azure = Blue (not blue-grey)
- Vert = Green (not lime green, light green, or blue/yellow colored pencils marked over each other)
- Gules = Red (not pink, lavender, or rust)
- Sable = Black (not dark grey or dark colored pencil)
- Purpure = Purple (not red/blue colored pencil marked over each other, or lavender)
- Or = Yellow (not gold, harvest gold, yellow-gold, metallic gold, or light brown)

To be direct: colored pencils are NOT appropriate for device submissions. The color does not scan well, is not uniform, and will fade rapidly over time. Laurel has long held to this policy, and for quite some time the Saker Office was able to recolor the forms properly for those who forgot and used colored pencil. The policy above, issued in November of 2009, officially ended that practice.

Crayola Classic Color Markers, Non-Washable, Package of 10 (including all appropriate tinctures for use in our heraldic submissions) are on sale now at your local Wal-Mart for $1. These are PERFECT for coloring the submission forms, and are priced at a level that almost everyone can afford. Not only does the ink wear well in the files, but the colors are consistent from package to package and from user to user. And at this price they are the likely to be the cheapest tool you will purchase for your heraldic toolkit.

When you are consulting with your client please advise them NOT to use colored pencils. If your shire can pick up a few packs of markers and put in your heraldic files, please do so. You will save your clients time and frustration of having to redo forms that were returned at Kingdom for what is a very easily avoided problem.

2. Incomplete name submission forms or missing submission forms. Simply sending documentation with a letter is NOT, repeat NOT a complete submission. A proper submission form MUST accompany a name submission, whether it is a new submission or an appeal/resubmission. That submission form MUST include a summary of the documentation, either in the space provided on the form or on a separate sheet preferably with the header line Documentation summary for [Submitted Name]. The summary MUST list the source for the documentation and a brief encapsulation of the documentation. URLs MUST be included in the summary if the source resides online.

Regarding what comprises proper documentation:
In response to an inquiry regarding the status of name articles at the Academy of St. Gabriel website I received a clarification from Palimpsest as to what material from their website is considered to be on the no-photocopy list. Essentially it boils down to only that material that has "Academy of St. Gabriel Report #XXXX" in the header is considered to be on the no-photocopy list. These are the final reports of the Academy and can be referenced by the URL http://www.s-gabriel.org/XXXX, with the report number taking the place of the Xs.

All name articles found elsewhere on their site are NOT on the no-photocopy list, and therefore must be printed out and sent in with your submission.
The URL to access the no-photocopy portion of the website is listed in Appendix H of the current Administrative Handbook, and is listed below for your convenience: http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/archive.cgi
I will continue to do my best to prevent unnecessary delays to submissions. Even when conducting my Federal Lord's business in other Kingdoms, immediately upon arrival in my mailbox, my sainted wife timestamps your missives and sets them in a binder awaiting my return. Within a reasonable amount of time (usually within the first week of my return), these submissions get processed for the next Letter of Intent. At a minimum, they are scanned and loaded into my laptop to be loaded into OSCAR. These are situations that cannot be avoided, and the Saker office will do whatever can be done to remedy these problems in as pain-free a manner as possible. However, the above mentioned problems can be avoided by following accepted policies and, in many cases, simply reading the forms.

This is also an opportunity for group heralds to continue to educate their group members on submission rules, and I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this time to help potential clients avoid returns. Regional heralds, for those groups that do not have a herald you may need to provide the training and support necessary to avoid these problems. I will be happy to work with you to help educate the populace, and I am certain that Gold Falcon and Habicht also stand ready to assist in any way possible with this education process.
Thank you for your continued patience and assistance in these matters.

Ich dien,

Gotfrid Saker

Mission

Our goal is to provide a central resource for information concerning the heraldic submissions from the populace of the Kingdom of Calontir.

Saker Profile

The current Saker Herald is Herr Gotfrid von Schwaben.
He has served previously as Shire of Dun Ard Pursuivant (Calontir, 1999 - 2006),
Red Hawk external commenting herald (Calontir, Late 2001 - 2005),
Shire of Isenfir Pursuivant (Atlantia, Late 2006 - 2007) and VA Regional Herald (Atlantia, 2007).
Additionally during his time in foreign lands, he was able to do free lance consultation for clients in various Kingdoms of the Known World, including Calontir's commentary process.
He has furthermore had the pleasure of working along side numerous Senior Heralds at both Pennsic and Estrella Herald's point.
After an extended absence following his Federal Lord's banner to the Silk Road, he has returned to his native lands and eagerly assumed duties as submissions herald

Background Image

It is the official seal of the Gold Falcon Principal Herald office. The heraldic websites of the kingdom heralds use it with the express permission of the current Gold Falcon, and each tenure we ask for permission again to use it. If you want to use this image, please get in touch with Gold Falcon for permission.