Category: Classes

Proposed Session for vKWHSS: “Heraldic IT Systems”

I’ve submitted a proposal for a class session at January’s virtual Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium covering the information systems built by and for the College of Arms and the SCA heraldic community.

Heraldic IT Systems: A Roadmap for Geeks, and How You Can Get Involved

Decades ago the College of Arms ran on paper letters and reference books, but nowadays websites and databases are critical to our operations. This session will review these essential systems, both official Laurel resources and those run by individual heralds, from the perspective of technology: servers, software, interfaces, and more. We’ll talk about current development plans, the gaps that remain to be addressed in the future, and how new folks with technical skills can find a way to get involved and contribute to the College’s digital future.

(Non-technical folks are welcome to attend, but this session will assume some prior familiarity with the worlds of web development, databases, programming, or server operations.)

I hope this session helps to spread information about the infrastructure our community relies on, and maybe draws in a few new folks who can contribute to maintaining it and building the next generation of tools.

Heraldic Registration Basics Redux

At the invitation of the Canton of Northpass, I ran an introductory session today about how participants in the SCA can register historical names and armory.

I used my “Heraldic Registration Basics” document as the basic outline for the class, although I glossed over some sections and went into additional detail in others.

My thanks to the class participants for the questions and comments during the class; the ensuing discussions inspired me to add a few more paragraphs to my notes so I can better cover those topics the next time.

Running an OSCAR Commentary Training Session Online

Commentary in OSCAR is a valuable and necessary part of the Society’s submission and registration process, but because it all takes place online and is done privately, it can feel slightly opaque for incoming heralds who aren’t sure how to participate or where to begin.

In my role as the East Kingdom heraldic education officer, I have run a number of online commentary sessions over the last year focused on beginner and intermediate heralds who were not yet comfortable commenting in OSCAR, with the goal of providing a bit of training and encouragement, as well helping them to make connections with other members of the community.

In hopes that a similar procedure might be of use to other kingdoms, here are some notes about the process I’ve used. Continue reading “Running an OSCAR Commentary Training Session Online”

Book Heraldry Symposium in Lion’s End

On December 1, I was pleased to meet with a group of aspiring and intermediate heralds from Østgarðr and its neighboring Barony of An Dubhaigeainn to offer over five hours of classes in the practice of onomastics and armorial design and registration in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

My thanks to Lilie Dubh inghean ui Mordha for her capable teaching assistance, especially on the names side, and to Sláine báen Ronán for writing up a description of the event for publication in the East Kingdom Gazette, reproduced below with her kind permission. Continue reading “Book Heraldry Symposium in Lion’s End”

Registration Basics Class Notes

At Whyt Whey’s recent Schola In The Solar event, I taught a heraldry class (my first!) covering the basics of registration for folks who were new to the society.

I put together a four-thousand-word writeup that outlined the process and covered some of the basic rules and jargon for both names and armory, which served both as an outline for my presentation and as a handout that people could take home with them for future reference.

I’ve posted it as a web page and as ten-page PDF file.

There’s definitely room for improvement, but I was pretty happy with how the session went, and look forward to teaching more classes in the future.