[MR] Unfortunate Tidings regarding the Queen's Arms change

[gormofberra at direcway.com]

Unto their Majesties and Highnesses of Atlantia, the Heralds of Atlantia, and the various other Peers and Poulace of this finest of Kingdoms does Gorm of Berra, Golden Dolphin Herald, send greetings:

I must regretfully inform the Kingdom that last evening, I received the Laurel April, 2003 Letter of Acceptance and Return.  On this letter was the consideration of the requested change to the Queen's Arms put forth last fall during the reign of Cuan and Padraiga.

For those who may have forgotten, the proposal was to make the Arms "Per pale argent and
  azure, on a fess wavy cotised counterchanged a crown vallery Or, overall a wreath of roses proper."  Fundamentally, this would have replaced the seashell charge on the current arms with a crown.

The best way I can convey the result is to copy verbatim from the "Returns" section of the April, 2003 Letter of Acceptance and Return:

(begin quote)

Atlantia, Kingdom of. Device change for Consort. Per pale argent and
  azure, on a fess wavy cotised counterchanged a crown vallery Or,
  overall a wreath of roses proper.

      This submission has insufficient support from the populace of
      the Kingdom to be accepted. It is necessary for a kingdom to
      show support, not merely indifference, for changing armory that
      is as important as the consort's arms. The total polling,
      according to the LoI, had 93 respondents with 74 of the
      respondents in favor of the change. According to the S.C.A.
      Registry, on April 1, 2003, the Kingdom of Atlantia had 1254
      sustaining members, 166 associate members, and 663 family
      members, for a total of 2083 members. This means that the total
      polling of 93 people reflected less than 5 percent of the
      Atlantian membership, with the positive responses being even
      less than that. We do understand that in any polling, many
      members will choose not to respond to the polling. Even taking
      that fact into account, the support shown here is insufficient
      to support the change in the armory.

      Questions were raised about the inclusion of a crown in this
      armory. Kingdom armory of any sort may use a crown, as indicated
      in the reserved charges portion of the Glossary of Terms. Many
      kingdoms have registered secondary armory, such as badges, which
      include a crown or coronet. Having such a crown or coronet in
      the consort's arms, when one can be sure that the reigning
      consort is entitled to bear a crown, seems perfectly reasonable.

(end quote)

The practical impact of this is that the Queen's Arms, as registered by the College of Arms, remains UNCHANGED from what it was before this effort was begun.  I point out that this is not a case of "Those mean Heralds not letting the People do what they want", it is a case of "Those uncertain Heralds not getting sufficient input FROM the People to accurately judge what they want"

At this point, their Majesties and Highnesses have several options they could pursue:

1.  They could decide to leave things precisely as they are, which is "Per pale argent and azure, on a fess wavy cotised counterchanged an escallop Or, overall a wreath of roses proper." (The traditional Atlantian Blue and White wavy field, with a Gold seashell inside a wreath of red roses with green stemwork).  This would require redoing all of those items of Kingdom Regalia which had been changed to the "new" artwork.

2.  They could decide to redo the polling, hopefully gathering a larger level of response.  I concur with the College that 93 out of over 2000 is nowhere near enough to accurately judge the intent of the populace.  Then armed with the higher turnout polling, they could resubmit the change, and it would have a good chance of passing.

3.  They could begin the entire process all over again with some other design.  

I do not know which of these options their Majesties will pursue, or if they will pursue some other path.  I suspect they would appreciate having some time to determine what their desires are before being innundated with mail from the populace (which does not replace the need for a polling regardless).

Bringing this news gives me no pleasure, however it is my job.  We as a Kingdom need to figure out what we wanna do and do it.

In Service,

Gorm of Berra
Golden Dolphin Herald