Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A Long two weeks (Part 2)

Well, as most of you probably know already, I have been eying the Northern Regional Herald's position for close to a year now, if not longer. As a herald, I felt like it was one of the best venues available to me to help heraldry in the north. When The Nordsteorra office came open for application a few months ago, it didn't take long for me to take stock of my situation and decide to put in my application.

To be specific, I was ultimately one of two people who applied, though the other person is a dear friend.

As an aside; I will freely admit that one of the things that we both discussed was writing each other a recommendation letter. Though this sounds chivalrous, the real goal, at least on my part, would have been to totally mess with the Star Principal Herald's head. Heralds are like that at times.

Well, thirtieth was my interview, which was very much a low impact thing. I can't be sure, but I think some of the questions were meant as feelers so that Alden could decide what my agenda was. I was honest, and respectful, to be sure. But I didn't candy coat anything. I was very frank about wanting to see more voice heraldry in the north, including list and site heraldry as formal classes. But there was also a healthy bit of acknowledgment of the fact that I am still new to a lot of the administrative side of this, and that I would be leaning hard on those who came before me.

So, in the end, on the Friday before Redtape, I got the following e-mail.

*****************

Gentlemen,

First let me thank you both for submitting applications for Nordsteorra Herald.  Both of you bring excellent qualities and capabilities to the table, and next to appointing my own successor, this was probably the most evenly matched pair of candidates I've had to choose between for an office.  Thank you for that!  HL Emma, Incoming Star and I have discussed it, and we agree that at this time Lord Ivo is our choice to step into the office of Nordsteorra. 

 

Appointed, or not, I am very confident after talking to you both that you each have a desire to increase the art, service, and visibility of heraldry in our kingdom and I am sure that you will do just that.  I have a feeling, and I sincerely hope I'm right, that I will continue to see your names moving around the different CoH offices in years to come!

 

Thank you both again very much!

 

In service,

Alden, Outgoing Star


*****************


So, in short, I got the job.

And that was just before I left for Redtape.

Fortunately, Redtape was not the inondation that I was afraid it would be. A lot of good people were there, and a lot of people were glad to offer help to me when asked. As always, the College is full of people who want to help out, and are eager to watch out for one of their own. The Plenary meeting was interesting, and informative. It was fairly clear from the word go that HL Emma, the new Star Principal herald, has a specific agenda, and from what I have seen of the college, this is not a bad thing in the least. Like I have said from the beginning, Agenda just mean you have objectives going into a situation, regardless of what negative innuendo the word might have.

Unfortunately, Redtape was not long enough after 30th year, and I was still feeling a lot of the effects of the heat and the effort that went into 30th, so my energy levels were low at best, and by Nine PM, it hit rock bottom and crashed like a rock.

I woke up maybe an hour or so later, and made use of our host's laptop to check my e-mail account. That was when I first saw the Officer's e-mail account. Ansteorra is using a G-mail based system, so I'm familiar with the overall layout. The good thing is that the G-Mail system they use is simplified, fewer bells and whistles, and not a lot of fluff to distract from the job at hand. Overall, i like it.

So, with that, I conclude what was a very long two weeks worth of time.



Lord Ivo Blackhawk
Nordsteorra Herald
Protege to Master Robert Fitzmorgan
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"God Save the King!"


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