2002-05-06 - 9:42 a.m.

I'm Thursday fatigued, and it's only Monday.

This weekend wasn't restful at all. The Pavillion project isn't going well...somehow we managed to make the wall panels nearly 3" wider at the top than the roof panels are at the same location...this is bad.

I think it's because the pattern we were working from was just too accurate...it assumed perfectly 58" wide fabric, and had measurements in from the edge on both sides, and the middle measurement. We, the cutting team, figured that if we followed the "outside in" measurements that the inside measurements would have to be correct.

Apparently not...that would explain about 2 of the 3 inches, and the other inch could just be seam allowance difference.

Gina thinks she's got it fixed...big issue was that we didn't discover the problem until we have five wall and two door sections put together into a halfwall and were prepping to attach it to the roof. Couldn't easily take out inches at that point.

So there's darts in the pavillion walls...they're under the rainflaps, so noone should see them, nor should the water get in through there...I don't think at least.

For some reason, our sewing machine isn't as thrilled by this pavillion as it was with the last one. Thicker canvas, I think. It's making it...and it will make it through the other, smaller one we have to make, but it won't be happy about it. Probably time to ponder letting the service folks tune the machine again after this process. A good cleaning and adjustments and all should be well again.

I'm getting frustrated with the Heralds. Almost threw up my hands in frustration and said "Fuck it" when I was reading commentary on my first couple of Letters of Intent this past week.

See, there's been this problem, three separate submitters over the past four months (where "past" is really September to December, because the CoA works a good 4 months behind) have had submission forms lost somewhere in process between the then Golden Dolphin and Laurel.

Laurel claims that they couldn't judge it because they didn't have the forms...okay, that's not illogical...except that means there are three possiblities. 1> The Then Golden Dolphin (not me, I hadn't taken over yet) didn't put the form in the packet, 2> The Laurel team lost the form in their processing, or 3> the USPS opened the packet in the mailstream and removed the form.

I'm pretty sure 3 didn't happen, so it's either 1 or 2.

I know Alanna, and she was meticulous in her paperwork handling. She had a list of submissions and checked things off as she put them in the packet. She had been doing the job for 18 months before this string of problems began, with no complaints.

On the other hand, the problems began right when a new Laurel Team took the office. A team that is spread over the entire western half of the country (literally, the office is in Texas, as is the person who judges names and "Laurel", who arbitrates disputes and makes sure the trains run on time, the person who judges armory is in Oregon). The packets with issues were the first few they handled.

Where would you expect it would be more likely the problem lies?

My truest issue has been, and still is, that the Laurel team didn't even bother to give Alanna a courtesy "Hey...we got your packet, but there's no form for X" phone call or e-mail. They had the forms for *FOUR* months before the decision meetings, and *three* months afterwards. That should have been *PLENTY* of opportunity to drop an e-mail, phone call...heck, given 7 months a carrier pigeon could have done the job adequately.

But no, the first word we on the coast got about the problem was the Letter of Return with the terse "There were no forms received for this submission, therefore we returned it".

*BULLSH*T*.

So the only option I, as the new Golden Dolphin Herald, had to fix the problem is to resubmit the paperwork.

For those who don't know the internal process of the CoA...that's not as simple as just copying a piece of paper and making sure it gets into the next packet. There's this process called "commentary" wherein the Heralds around the world get to dissect the submission for four months, commenting on style, conflict, and generally anything else they can care to talk about.

My job, as Submissions Herald, is to send each of these people a letter describing the name being submitted, the documentation provided by the submitter (or by Kingdom, whichever), and the like.

This was done when the submission went through the mill the *first* time. The name was commented on. NO ONE commented unfavorably. The only problem noted 4 months ago was the purely administrivial issue of the forms not being in the right place at the right time (or being lost...).

So, when I wrote my resubmission letter, I said "This has already been looked at, we refer you to the previous discussion". This makes sense to me. There's no reason that the CoA should spend their time figuring out if this name is truly period or not. They did that 6 months ago, and that wouldn't have changed.

So I'm getting bitch-o-grams from the commenters saying "You didn't summarize the documentation...you're lucky I dug it up for you, it should have been returned".

Again...BULLSH*T.

And we wonder why we have crappy reputations with the rest of the SCA.

This *will* be reformed...if I have to pull a Martin Luther and nail theses to the door of the Church...it *will* be reformed.

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