Newsletter of the Royal College & Confraternity of Scribes & Illuminators of the Kingdom of Lochac
Volume 11 Issue 4 December 2011
Greetings
all and welcome to the December Ductus.
I would like to start this
issue of Ductus by wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.
This has been a big year for
the College of Scribes yet again. We have not completed all of the
Pelican Scrolls that were on the backlog but there are a lot that
have been started, completed or are well under way. It has been
amazing to watch the progress of many of the scribes this year. I
have been particularly impressed by some of the newer scribes who
have been so productive and who have really managed to branch out
this year and produce totally wonderful scrolls.
Competitions
The
Pelican Scrolls competition end at Canterbury Faire at the end of
January 2012. If you have scrolls for the Pelican Competition please
let me know and make sure that they get to me either before
Canterbury Faire or at Canterbury Faire at the latest. I hope to
announce the winners at Festival in 2012.
If
anyone would like to see the scrolls that have been done this year
please check them out at our Flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48016044@N02/
As
a number of scrolls have come to me at events or have arrived
directly before events and gone straight out there are a few that I
am missing photographs of. If your scroll is not up on the site and
should be could you please send me a photo so that I can put the
scroll that you have done up on the site.
Next
year our focus will move to Knight and Laurel scrolls. Can everyone
please complete your Pelican scrolls ASAP so that I can start to
assigning Knight and Laurel scrolls as soon as possible. We have lots
of them to do this year and it would be wonderful to get through as
many of them as we have managed to get through of the Pelican
scrolls. We still have a fair way to go but the backlog is looking
much better than it has for a very long time.
Scroll
Timings
When
scrolls are assigned they are not assigned indefinitely. AA and GA
scrolls must be completed within six months. Original Scrolls for
Peerages must be completed within 1 year. If a scroll goes over this
time an extension must be negotiated with the Provost of Scribes.
This extension is not automatic and if the Provost of Scribes does
not feel that it is warranted it will not be given.
Currently
there are a number of outstanding scrolls that have gone over this
time. Those scrolls will be removed from the people who are doing
them unless they have already contacted me to request an extension or
unless they do contact me and ask for an extension.
Seals
The first Scribes seals have been used
for the new Writs for Their Royal Highnesses. These have been sent
out to Their Royal Highnesses so that they will be available for when
they step up. It is very exciting that we have finally go to the
point where these seals are available and able to be used. From now
on all Writs will be done with the College of Scribes Seals.
I hope to have seals for all the
Wardens by Festival 2012 and to be able to give out many of the seals
to those Wardens who will be at Festival.
Copies of all Writs that have been done
for each Reign will soon be available on the Scribes website. Keep an
eye out so that you can see what they look like
http://www.sca.org.au/scribe/gallery3.htm
Royal Peerage Scrolls
One of the many changes that
has been made while I have been Provost is the completion of scrolls
for the Kings and Queens of Lochac as they step down from their roll
and receive the award of Duke/ Duchess or Count/ Countess. So far for
each Reign the College of Scribes has had at least one if not two of
these scrolls to complete. These have all been done and presented on
time as the ex-Royalty have received their awards. This has been a
tremendous success at these events with many people commenting on the
quality of the scrolls that have been done and how wonderful it is to
see these scrolls given out at these events.
I would like to congratulate
all of those who have contributed to these scrolls to date. They
have been very well received and have provided a much needed boost to
the College of Scribes visibility.
AoA Scrolls
Even though Pelican Scrolls
have been the focus of this years efforts this has not meant that the
College of Scribes has lost its focus on continuing to complete AoA
scrolls. A large number of AoA scrolls have been completed and handed
out this year. In particular I would like to thank the scribes in
Queensland for their amazing efforts to catch up and complete so many
AoA scrolls this year. They have been an inspiration. To see their
efforts please look at the Flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48016044@N02/
Beginners Packs
Thanks to the generosity of
the Barony of Rowany through the Rowany Fighter Auction, the College
of Scribes has been given some money to make up beginners packs for
new scribes. These packs will have enough brushes for five new
scribes for each region plus a set of paints for each region. These
paints will be made available so that the Wardens in each area can
hand them out to new scribes who would like to start doing
calligraphy and illumination but may not have enough money to be able
to start work on projects.
To keep the equipment in
each of these packs the idea is that the local Warden get a
commitment from each scribe to complete at least one AoA. As usual
any person who has a pack has six months to complete their AoA. If
they do not feel up to doing both the calligraphy and illumination
then they have that six months to complete either the calligraphy or
illumination and to get the scroll to their local Warden who will
either complete the remaining section or assign it to another scribe
for completion.
This has been trialled in
Rowany with success and I hope it will prove to be as useful for the
Wardens in other area's. If you find that in your area a different
system works better than please let me know.
Packs will be given out
between now and Festival depending upon my availability at events and
which Wardens will be at what events. At this stage I will be making
it to Canterbury Faire and Rowany Festival. If there are going to be
representatives from any of the scribal groups at either of those
events can you please let me know so that I can take your pack with
me. Otherwise packs will be sent out.
Website
The College of Scribes
website always needs the links updated, as things change links go out
of date and sites disappear. New sites also appear and many of those
are really useful for the College of Scribes site to link to. If you
find any websites that you think it would be useful to have links to
on the College of Scribes website please send those details through
to the Upper Warden Kerdwen the Mouse at janelle.heron@gmail.com
Provost
2012 will be my last year as
Provost of the College of Scribes. I plan to step down in August. I
already have at least one person interested in the position of
Provost, however if you think that Provost is a position that you
would like to do please contact me so that I can send you a job
description and talk to you about the roll.
The roll of Provost can be a
very rewarding one but there is quite a lot of paperwork. The Provost
is a Kingdom Officer and as such needs to complete a quarterly report
amongst the other paperwork that comes with being the head of the
College of Scribes. This is not the job for someone who just wants to
do wonderful illumination but does not want to do the paperwork. You
do not have to be a Laurel in calligraphy and illumination to be
Provost, you do not even have to be a Laurel, you do need to be able
to do paperwork. I hope to see a few people interested.
The position of Provost will
be advertised in Pegasus as is required of any Kingdom Officer. All
applications should go to the Crown and to the Kingdom Seneschal. It
would also be beneficial if they came to me. As a requirement of the
roll of a Kingdom Officer you must have a Drop Dead Deputy in place
within six months of moving into the position of Provost of the
College of Scribes. For other requirements of a Kingdom Officer
please see the Lochac Procedures Manual
http://lochac.sca.org/seneschal/docs/LochacProceduresManual.pdf
and the Provost job description that I will send out upon request. I
will also have the Provost job description place on the website.
Thank you all for your
support this year. I look forward to seeing many more wonderful
scrolls as we move into 2012.
Caristiona
nic Beathain
Provost
of Scribes
