[Ansteorra] Black Star Late?

[HE Kainin Tepesa]

Greetings Ansteorra,

I have already contacted HL Darcy off list, but I
wanted to address the late Black Star issue with all
of you.

SCA Corporate policy for Kingdom Chroniclers requires
that I have the Black Star in the mail no later than
the 20th of the month prior to the issue date (ie: the
October issue will mail by the 20th of this month).
That should be plenty of time to reach even the most
isolated areas of the Kingdom by the first week of the
month.

I hereby make a promise to all of you. If the
unthinkable were to happen and I ever was late on a
mailing date, my first contact would be to the
Corporate Chronicler (my boss) and my second would be
to this list with my sincerest apologies. Barring
seeing that, you can feel certain that the publication
was in the mail by the 20th of the month prior.

Now, the only sure way to get your Black Star at the
first of the month is to upgrade your mailing to First
Class postage. It is the $10.00 up-charge that you can
elect on your membership renewal. The reason is
because of how the Post Office deals with Presorted
Standard mail (what used to be called Bulk Rate). They
offer a discount on that postage because it does not
get the same priority treatment that the regular First
Class stuff does. If a lot of mail hits your local
Post Office all on the same day they prioritize it
with the First Class stuff getting processed first and
then the Presorted Standard stuff being dealt with on
a case by case basis. They will deal with dated
material first and work their way down the line. That
is why I added the blurb on the mailing side that says
"Time Sensitive Material - Requested Delivery by...".
This helps but The Black Star is still going to get
bumped by any large national sales piece with dated
material on it. At the end of the day, whatever is
left in the Presorted Standard section gets held for
the following day and the process starts over with
whatever comes in the next morning. This happens all
down the line, and so this is one of the reasons why
some places get their Black Stars later than intended.

Now, if your Black Star does not arrive at all, there
could be a couple of things going on. As Lord Brian
suggested, it could be that your membership lapsed in
the middle of an address pulling cycle and you missed
getting on the list with your renewal. Your issue
could simply have gotten lost in the mail or delivered
to the wrong address (think how many times you get
your neighbors mail by mistake).

If at the end of a month, you ever find yourself
without your Black Star and you know that it is not a
renewal timing issue, please contact me at
chronicler at ansteorra.org with your modern name and
address (as it would appear on your mailing label) and
I can verify if your address was on that month's list
and was correct. Then, if all was in order, I can
forward you on to the Registrar's office to make sure
that your Black Star was not returned to them (where
it goes if the address is incorrect and undeliverable)
for some reason.

I hope this helps.

In service,
Baron Kainin
Kingdom Chronicler


       
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