People ask me what does the in service mean at the end of my post... Its how you sign off a letter you are writing to Royalty... I consider you Guys Royalty... Writing To The Royalty There are a variety of reasons you may wish to write to the Royalty. Some of these may be personal reasons, others may have to do with recommending someone for awards (see below), or dealing with business that you may have with the Royalty, and so on. There are ways to write to the Royalty that show the respect to the Crowns or Coronets that also sound quite good, and well briefly discuss these. Your letter should include the following: The Date A Salutation The Body of the Letter A Signature The Date First, always make sure you put the current date on your letter. This is so that the Royalty who keep all letters can find things by date, or refer to letters when responding by date (i.e., Concerning your letter of ...[date]). The date can include the SCA Year (Anno Societatus, or AS), but you should always include the real-world year as well. For example: August 5, AS XXXIV (1999 CE) In this example, AS is the Anno Societatus year (34 in Roman numerals), followed by the real-world year and CE standing for Common Era. You can leave the CE off and it will not hurt anything (I usually do ...). The Salutation This is often the hardest because you want it to sound good when read, and you also want it to convey respect, but you do not want to sound obsequious (like youre sucking up ...). Here is a salutation I often use, make sure that when you use it (or something like it) that you substitute the appropriate forms of address for the Royalty to whom you are writing: Unto Their Majesties Leigh and Deteriorata, King and Queen of the West, does Master Hirsch von Henford send greetings! The first line includes the appropriate forms of address, and just to be sure, it notes which Kingdom - this is not necessary, but it sure sounds good. If you are writing to multiple royalty, include all of them - this means that the line is likely to wrap, but that should be no problem. Example: Unto Their Majesties Leigh and Deteriorata, King and Queen of the West, and Their Royal Highnesses Fred and Ginger, Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the West, does The second line of the salutation shows clearly who is writing them, so that there is no doubt in their minds. If you wait until the end of the letter to sign it, they may not have any idea who is writing. If you are an officer, you should include your office. Example: Lord Fred the Savage, Constable of the West, send greetings! You should include, if you have any, your title or titles, but if you add too many, think how it might sound if you were reading it - heres a really bad example: Duke Sir Master Master Baron Lord George the Simple, KSCA, OP, OL, CB, AA, QOG, QC ... Sounds like a bit of overkill, eh? The Body of the Letter When you start the actual content of your letter you may want to start with something that sounds a bit formal, but gets things off to a start. One example might be: May it please Your Majesties, Another might be: It has come to my attention, And so on ... From here, you should start the actual content of the letter. This of course will depend on the purpose of your letter to the Royalty. A couple of things that should be kept in mind: Stay on Topic Dont say in three pages what can be said in one If you ramble, it will be hard for the Royalty to keep track of what the letter is about, and They often get quite a bit of correspondence. If it is important to you and you want Them to read it, keep this advice in mind. If its hard to read or determine what the letter is concerning, They may just put it away somewhere and forget it. Signing the Letter There are many ways to end a letter. You should always end your letter with information on how to contact you if necessary. The chances are that the Royalty didnt keep the envelope (how often do you keep an envelope from a letter?), and so cannot refer to the return address on the envelope (if you included it in the first place). Here are a few options for ending a letter: Please believe I remain Your humble servant, Your servant, In Service to the Crown and Kingdom of the West, Your signature block itself should include after a statement similar to the above, room for your signature, and then your name, your mundane name, your address, phone number, and perhaps even your email address: Hirsch von Henford, OL, OP (Office - if any, and if relevant to the contents of the letter) c/o Ken Mayer Some street Some city, state zip/postal code Phone number Email: youraddress@ispname This way, if the Royalty have a need or desire to contact you regarding your letter, they have several options. Note that I tend to indent this a bit further in than the first part of the signature block - this is a personal preference, but I like the way it looks. Also note that if you are an officer, and if the office is relevant to the content of the letter, you should note it after your SCA name, or under it. Courtesy Copies? If you are sending copies of your letter to more than one person, or you are an officer and wish to include copies to multiple officers (ex.: a Kingdom Officer may wish to send a letter to the Royalty of that region (i.e., Prince/Princess) and include their Principality officer in the mailing), then you should include a cc listing. This always goes after the signature block. An example might look like: cc: Erkle the Red, Chronicler of the Barony of Elsinore If you have multiple people, you can add them on the same line, or put each on a different line ... in service,
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:30:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015