First of all, Submissions is primarily an administrative job. When I stepped up as the Escutcheon Herald, which is Midrealm Internal Submissions, I didn't have that much actual knowledge of book heraldry. But I am well-organized, and that was the critical skill that I needed to keep a handle on the job until I could learn the other rules. So don't feel that you NEED to have deep heraldic knowledge to be a good Submissions Herald!
The process is pretty simple, actually. The Internal Submissions (Escutcheon) Herald receives the name or armory from the submitter. Usually this is sent by mail, but it's usually acceptable to hand it to them personally, or submit at Pennsic. Escutcheon scans the forms, and then enters the data on the forms into OSCAR (Online System for Commentary and Response). We generate a "letter" each month that compiles the submissions for each month, and then it is published for anyone with permission to comment on. Those letters are open for one month, in which time commenters from all over the Known World do things like conflict checks and research, and leave messages on each submission.
After the month is up, the EXTERNAL Submissions Herald (Rouge Scarpe, that's me right now), goes over the commentary and decides on which submissions can be forwarded up to the Laurel Staff for a final decision, and which ones should be returned for more work by the submitter.
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| Decision making was a lot harder before the Internet |
To make these decisions, I look at the commentary, and decide if any conflicts that were called are clearly conflicts, or not. I look at the armory, and make sure that it's clearly what it says it is, and that the blazon (that is, the words that describe it) are correctly spelled and in the proper order and have the proper grammar.
Recently, we've started doing a group meeting online to go over these items collectively. The biggest reason for doing this is that it is a good teaching tool for upcoming heralds to learn about what is a good submission and what is not. Each item is examined, and the commentary reviewed before I make a decision. People can ask questions, double check my work, voice their opinions, and in general have a fun time spending online time together with their fellow heralds. If you'd like to join in, these meetings are open to anyone, please email me or the Dragon Herald!
After the decision meeting, I transfer the items on the Internal Letter to an External Letter in OSCAR. This is the letter that gets sent upward for more commentary before items are either registered or returned.
The biggest part of my job is to summarize the documentation that's provided by both the submitter and the commenters. We summarize because the Laurel staff has twenty Kingdoms' worth of submissions to get through each month, and we want our documentation to be as succinct as possible while still providing everything they need to make an informed decision. While there are a lot of ways to summarize name documentation, I have a specific format that I use, and it gets compliments every few months. I'll share it with you!
Each name element needs a few things to verify that it's period. It needs the exact spelling that was found, the date, and the place. You should also include the gender of the element, if known, because some languages are gendered and there are different forms for feminine or masculine names. You should also include the author if the document if there is one, and the title of the same. If it's an internet document, a link is needed. If it's a book source, it might be on the no-photocopy list, but if it's not, you should also include the page of the information and a copy of the bibliographic page of the book.
By the time I'm done with it, all this data looks like this:
<name element> "whatever the document says about the entry, including header form, gender, date and place, and batch number if from Family Search". Title of document, author. (internet link if applicable)
That's it! It should be very brief, no more than a few lines.
After I make all the adjustments in OSCAR to the documentation, and delete any entries that are being returned, I go over any armory submissions that needed redrawing. If it's a minor change, I will go ahead and redraw the submission myself, and then email it to the submitter and ask if they accept the redraw.
Other than that, there are a few little administrative things that I have to make sure are included in "the packet", which is the collected private forms that get filed with the archivist.
And there's the job, in a nutshell. It's very detail oriented, and requires a fair bit of administrative prowess, but you don't have to be a master herald to do it, so don't let it scare you!
