[ANSTHRLD] Zodiacus weighs in on this week's award discussions

[kobrien at texas.net]

> > On Fri, 10 Sep 2004, Jay Rudin <rudin at ev1.net> wrote:
> > > Alden wrote:
> > > > Any and all awards, be they existing, or made up on the spot, are
> > > > completely within the authority of the Crown to give as they
> > > > please.  Of course it is a good idea for the Crown to consult with
> > > > Their heralds, but I don't think it's a requirement.
> > >
> > > Nobody denies that.
> >
> > I deny it.  Corpora puts a restriction on award names, and since it's
> > present it can't have been intended to be entirely null and void, so
> > that means that there's some intended restriction on kings and queens,
> > even if I can't quite tell the scope (perhaps just limited to not
> > using a returned award name?).
> 
> Does Corpora put the restriction on award names, or the award itself?  To my
> understanding, registering something with the college of heralds is not a
> requirement for the use of that thing.
> 
> ~Alden


Corpora is available at:  http://www.sca.org/docs/govdocs.pdf

It states in section VIII.B.2:

"Kingdoms may establish awards and orders conferring Awards or Grants of Arms, 
and the Crown may award membership in such orders according to the laws and 
customs of the kingdom.  The names and insignia of these awards and orders 
must be ratified by the Laurel Sovereign of Arms. ..."

Similar wording for non-armigerous awards and orders appears in section 
VIII.B.4.

This means that the name must be approved (i.e. registered) by Laurel.  What 
it doesn't address is what to do if something gets created that does not have 
a registerable name.  There are several ways it could be interpreted.  In 
general, groups have not wanted to get into the "what happens if we keep using 
an unregisterable order name?" mess.  So, work goes on until something 
acceptable to all gets registered.

That's why a number of us are interested in working with the <Optio> idea to 
come up with good constructions, from which one can be chosen to be 
registered.  That way, it can have a good name almost from the beginning and 
we can avoid heartache that has ensued with other awards.

By the way, for folks who don't know, Gleann Abhann addressed this whole 
problem by writing it into principality law that all order names must be 
registered before they can be given out.  Something can be created, but it 
just can't be awarded there until a registerable name is passed.  When they 
announced this at KWHS 2003, the room full of heralds (most of which had, at 
one time or another, helped clean up order names) exploded in applause.

Mari