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 How To Fill Out/Use the Court Report

"My Awards Go Jingle, Jangle, Jingle ..." -- Master Gerhardt von Nordflammen

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Information About the Court:

The screen starts with information that must be filled out correctly to ensure that the report gets to the correct people. It looks like the following:

1: Royalty of: Note: the region defaults to the West Kingdom, and the "Honors Given By" list to the right is automatically filled in (see below -- 2). It is vital that you select the correct 'Region' here.

The reason it is important that you select the correct entry here is that this determines to whom the Court Report is sent: If you do not select the correct region, it will default to being sent to the King and Queen of the West, who cannot confirm award reports for a Principality or Baronial court. Please be sure to select the correct region.

2: Honors Given By: When you select the region in "1", as shown, the list of Royalty is filled in for the region. It is sorted in "reverse" or descending order, so that the most recent royalty are at the top of the list. In the example, Uther & Vera were King and Queen of the West at the time the image was captured. Note, that you do not have to worry about the Royalty "titles" anymore, this is being taken care of automatically by the code. Before Submitting the Report: Please go back and double check both the date and the royalty, there have been odd cases where the royalty appeared incorrectly (it's only happened 3 times at the time this note is being written, but ...).

Special -- "Standing In": Once in a while, for a variety of reasons, The Crown or maybe even in the Coronets of a Principality, cannot attend an event that They wish to present recognitions at. In such cases, they may ask local Royalty to stand in for Them during the ceremony, so that the recipients may receive the full ceremonies. When that happens, remember that the recognitions were not given by the the royalty who were "standing in", but by the Royalty who asked them to do so. Example: A Court Barony given by the King and Queen, but as Their Majesties could not attend the event, They requested that the Prince and Princess stand in. The Court Barony was actually given BY the King and Queen, and a separate Court Report needs to be generated for this. It is a good idea when this is done to add a note in the "Notes" box, that explains that the Prince and Princess performed the ceremony FOR the King and Queen (name names, it's useful to have those details).

3: Alternate EMail for Royalty: Sometimes, particularly at the beginning or end of a reign, or if a Court Report is processed well after the end of the reign, it is important to have email addresses for the Royalty that are not the default ones listed in The Page (i.e., crown@westkingdom.org). This is because these are just "front-end" addresses that are used to forward to other email addresses. When a reign changes, this information is changed by the Kingdom IT officer(s). Please fill this out if the report is for the outgoing Royalty after a Coronation or Investiture event. This will mean making sure you have the email addresses for the outgoing royalty. It will help ensure that the report gets to the Royalty, who need to confirm the report.

4: Date (Modern): The date defaults to the current date when the form first comes up. Clicking on or tabbing into the date field will automatically bring up a calendar and you can change the date easily. Clicking the "Month" heading at the top of the calendar will bring a list of months, and you can navigate years going back and forth. When you leave the date, the SCA year is automatically filled in for you.

5: Event: The event that the award was given at. This should be the full name of the event, such as Beltane Coronation, March Crown Tournament, etc. This information is very important for use of the Chronicler, to ensure that it is listed correctly in The Page. If this is an event for a Principality or Barony, please include the name of the event: in other words: Cynaguan Investiture is much more useful than simply Investiture, and Winter's Gate Yule is definitely more useful than simply Yule (do you have any idea how many events in December are listed as simply "Yule"?).

6: Court Description: This refers to an event at which more than one Court was held. For example, a Crown Tournament typically has court on Saturday in the morning and in the evening, as well as a court on Sunday. Specifying Saturday Morning Court is useful to difference the courts, again this is important for use of the Chronicler for The Page.

7: Court Herald: and Court Herald Email: The Court Herald's name and contact information is so that they are in the loop for any questions about the court report that might come up. A copy of the email that is created by this program is sent to the Court Herald's email address, that way they can check their own records, if there are questions. If you hold a senior staff heraldic position, such as "Baldric Herald", you have an automatic email address of baldric@westkingdom.org and the email should be sent directly to your preferred email address (check with the Golem Herald for details on this). In this and the next item, we're looking for the SCA name of the herald, not their real-world name.

8: Submitting Herald: and Submitting Herald Email: If the person submitting the Court Report is not the herald who was the Court Herald, then it is important to note this, in case there are concerns about the report. Maybe there was a handwritten name that was hard to read, and the Court Herald can remember what they wrote, or knows the problem, etc. Please be sure the email address is correct ... However, this only needs to be used if the herald submitting the report is not the Court Herald as noted in step 7 above.

Herald -- PLEASE READ:

The following are instructions that need to be followed. Please take the time to read them, and be sure you understand them!

Item 1 in this list is probably the most important -- the names of the award recipients are important to both the recipients and the Golem Herald, to ensure we are using the correct name. Please look for each recipient's name in the Award List (in the Court Report form you can click on the link for "Awards List" in the instruction, and bring up a new browser window with the Awards List available). If you do find the name, click and drag the mouse through the name, and copy it (if using Windows, Ctrl+C will work, or right click the text and select the "Copy" option; for a Mac, I don't know what the Command key option is ...). When you come back and enter the name, rather than typing it, you can paste it into the name part of the screen (Ctrl+V on a Windows computer ...). If you find something close, or if there might be confusion with a name, please try to find more information (from the Royalty, etc.).

If it is known that an individual lives in another Kingdom, please provide that information, either here, or in the Notes, although honestly if you added something like: (An Tir) to show the name of the Kingdom after their name, it would be easier. As the Golem Herald needs to let the Precedent Clerk in other Kingdoms of recognitions given by the royalty in the West, it is important to know which Kingdom ...

Items 2 and 3 in these instructions are quite important for the Chronicler. Group the awards of the same type together, such as Order of the Rose Leaf -- if there are more than one of these given during the same court, and alphabetize the names (however alphabetizing is not as important, it is helpful). This isn't quite as easy as one might like, but you can do it. It saves the Chronicler a lot of time, and I can guarantee they will appreciate that. This is, if you will, professional courtesy to another officer in the Kingdom.

Item 4 is only going to affect a few awards, but it is important from the point of tracking for those specific awards. The award recipient in the lists will have the number displayed either by their name or by the award (depending on the specific list). This number is also often used in the ceremony, so knowing the current number is important. It helps if the Court Herald puts a note of the number on the Court Report form used before getting away from the site. The ceremony book should have fairly current information, but you can always visit the Awards List site itself to find the specific award and get the number.

Item 5 -- Scroll Checkbox -- the awards list has added a simply (very simple) tracking for scrolls to help the scribes out. If an award was done in court and a scroll was presented with it, please make a note, and when filling out the form, check the box. Note that it doesn't matter if the award is supposed to get a scroll or not, sometimes a scribe will create something at the request of the royalty. This isn't required but it is helpful to avoid duplicate scrolls for an award.

Item 6 -- New to Awards List Checkbox -- If the herald (or whomever) filling out the report cannot find the recipient of the recognition in the award list, please check this box. While it may just be a spelling error, they may need to be added to the Award List, and this will help. If you can find other information about the recipient: Modern Name, Gender Preference, Local branch (and if they are from another Kingdom, the Kingdom name), please add this to the notes at the bottom of the report.

Item 7 is handy for those situations where a large court occurs (often a Coronation or Investiture, where a lot of guardsmen or other such titles may be being added, or the final court of a set of Royalty, where a lot of Queen's Cyphers or similar awards are being given). Put a note in the "Notes" section at the bottom that says "This is page x of y" (i.e., Page 1 of 3, or Page 2 of 3, etc.) will help us know that some of what was done in court was not forgotten. (Although with the new capabilities to add more rows to the report, the "page x" suggestion may not be necessary any more.)

Item 8 should not come up often, but sometimes an award needs to be reaffirmed because for some reason it disappeared, was not reported, etc. The reaffirmation needs to be noted as shown in the instructions, because this information lists who gave the award originally and the date. If the royalty do not know, and the recipient does not know, please work with them to try to find out that information before reporting it!

Example Reaffirmation

These are not in the awards list page, but important as well:

Item 8 Regional Notes for Court Reports - Kingdom and Principality award/recognition specific notes ...

In addition to the Regional notes: There are awards, such as competitions, where the person naming the winner may not know until shortly before court, or perhaps you as the herald did not have time to hunt them down and get the name -- PLEASE be sure to get the name of the person(s) the recognition was given to. This includes as noted, competitions (Pied d'Argent, Order of the Wooden Spoon), but might also include things like "Herald Extraordinary" being announced in court, and so on. (This is discussed in the document linked to above.)

Item 9 - "In Absentia" awards -- awards given when the recipient is not present. This can be tricky, and you should work with the Royalty on this. Two ways this typically occurs with examples:

1. The ceremony is performed in the court you are reporting. Enter the information as usual, then add a note that this was done "in absentia". If The Royalty have requested someone present the award in Their Name at a future court, that should be noted as well. Example: At a recent Pennsic War, the Crowns of the West named a resident of the Far West a Court Baron, performing the ceremony at Pennsic. Their Majesties then requested a representative note that this was done at Court in the Far West at a future event. The date of the recognition would be at the court at Pennsic (and the event would be the Pennsic War), and should be part of the regular report, with a note that Their Majesties asked their representative in the Far West to present the business there. If this is also reported from (in this example) the Far West event's court, then it should simply be placed in the Notes, with any detail needed, as the Baroness and Baron did not actually grant this award, the Crown did, and it should have already been reported. (If it wasn't, then we get into reaffirmation fun ...)
2. Sometimes the Royalty may state "We have asked <name of representative> to present this award in Our Name at <event, date ...>" (the peerage ceremonies have an option for this). If there are other awards and a court report is being generated for this court, then a note in the "Notes" that the royalty have requested this be done at "x" event, by Their representative(s) (and provide name/title ...) is useful, so that if anyone has questions, we know what is happening. When the representative (usually royalty) does the ceremony (often Baron/ess, Prince/ss, etc.), then the award should be put into a court report, but not the one for other business by that Royalty. It doesn't hurt to add a note that it was announced at "<previous event>, on <date>, by <royalty>", but the actual ceremony occurred at that court. This should be a separate Court Report from the regular one, as the Royalty who are responsible for the recognition are not the ones who performed the ceremony. Example: At a recent Pennsic War, Their Majesties requested that the Baroness and Baron of the Far West perform the ceremonies for several awards at an event that They (the King and Queen) could not attend. The ceremonies were not performed at Pennsic, but at the event, with the Baroness and Baron standing in FOR the Crowns. The awards should be in their own Court Report, with the King and Queen's names as the Royalty who gave the recognitions, entered as usual with the date and event the ceremony was performed at (the local Baronial event in this case), and a note in the "Notes" that Their Excellencies has presented these in the names of the King and Queen.

What this boils down to is that the first event the Ceremony was performed at (whether the recipient is there or not) is the event and date of the recognition, and the Royalty are the ones who would normally have given the recognition (and in the second case above requested that the ceremony be done by a representative).

If this is not handled in one of the ways shown above, do your best, but work with the Royalty in question to ensure that it is processed in the best possible way. The Golem Herald will also work with you and the Royalty, if needed to find the best solution.

Item 10 - Backdating (rare, but it does happen) -- if the royalty request that an award be backdated (say, a member of the Queen's Guard, backdated to the Coronation date of that Queen), enter it into the report, and add a note that the royalty have requested it be backdated to the date and the event.

The Following Honors Were Given (this page defaults to 30):

The following is what the main entry area looks like. Please note the columns as listed:

It is important that the information be entered in the columns as shown (Award/Honor in the first column, and Recipient (SCA) Name in the second).

If you have lists of one type of award (consider two or more to be a list), such as Queen's Cyphers, please do not repeat the name of the award for each entry. Put the name of the award for the FIRST recipient, and then for the others just put the names in the second column. Once you have finished with that specific award type, then put the next award name in, and continue. For example:

	Award(s) / Honor(s) Given		(Recipient) SCA Name		Scroll?
1	Leaf of Merit		Alfred the Smart
2			Bjorn Bearsson
3			Fred the Lame
4	Award of Arms		Albert the Not-too-Smart
5			George the Tall
6			Sheena Red-hair

(and so on ...)

Note the instruction that says "Please do not leave any blank lines between names of recipients". Leaving a blank in the name column will cause the program to stop processing and important information will not be reported.

More Than 30 Awards? No Problem:

Before the "Notes" and file attachment section shown below, a new button has been added (Sept, 2021). Some courts may have a longer list than 30 recognitions (some have many more). If you click the button at the bottom of the current list, ten new rows will be added each time. This allows for those longer lists. The code that processes the information will know how many rows are in the table and do its work appropriately.

Royalty Have a REALLY Large (100 or more) List of Award Recipients?

Before the "Notes" section shown below, you can, if you have a really large court report (with more than 100 recipients of an award), attach a Word Document. This is a new addition as of September, 2021. Do not use this lightly, if you do a normal report and just attach it, it will be returned. This is a limited use item, for very rare occaisions. This is limited to Word documents.

Notes:

Note that at the bottom is a large entry area, using an editor that allows you to use HTML to format your comments. Please enter any information think might be useful here. This can be, as mentioned in the instruction section above, a comment that this is "Page 1 of 2", if this is the first recognition for someone (that is particularly helpful for the Golem Herald), it can be details about a specific award or honor, it can include questions if needed ... Note that the current version can handle basic formatting as needed (bold, italic, lists ...).

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It was discovered a long time ago that pressing "Enter" automatically submits a web form to the program that processes it. This caused some problems, because some folk are used to working with programs that allow them to move from entry area to entry area using the Enter key. However, that doesn't work here. Use "Tab" for that, or use the mouse and click on the appropriate area.

Pressing Enter does not submit this particular form by design. To submit it, you need to click the checkbox that says "Form is Complete - Enable Buttons". Once you do that, the form is now enabled, and you can click on the "Send Report" button (or press Enter) if you are sure you are done, or click the "Clear" button to empty out the form.

It should be noted that there is some spam-filter software being used to trap "Spam-Bots" (programs that fill out web forms), and if you enter a web address your court report may get returned to you ... you will know if that happens. If you leave out any of the required information you will know, as a screen with a lot of red text on it will appear and tell you what to do ...

February, 2020: When the form has been submitted, as long as there were no errors, the email gets sent, and you will get confirmation at the bottom of the screen. The new part is that a pair of buttons will appear at the bottom: "Continue Report" -- this will restart the court report form, but pass back to it all the information at the top of the report (including royalty names, date, court description and so on). This is meant to be useful for courts with a LOT of recognitions (Coronations, Investitures, etc.). If you just need to do a completely new/different report, use the button "New Report" and all the information at the top will be cleared out as you would expect.

Hopefully all this will get you through the process. This is not as complex as it may seem, and once you get used to it, it is a pretty good system ...

The Golem Herald