I would like to announce that the new and long empty Director of Legislative Efforts position has been filled, not once, but twice.

Please help me congratulate and welcome our Co-Directors of Legislative Efforts, Hugh Brady and David Shorey.

They have been working hard over the past few months researching and preparing a brief that will aid us in determining where we stand. This brief should also guide us as to the most practical and legal avenues of action we should be considering. Once complete and approved by the Board of Directors we will release the brief to the AHS Members and start forming committees of action within the society.  If you want to be a part of this movement, please join us by clicking here.

Hugh and David please feel free to tell us a little bit more about yourselves and your experience both in what you are doing for us as a society and in heraldry.

Welcome!

I join in with the president in congratulating both men.

Excellent!  Congratulations to both.

Thanks for the congratulations. I will be posting an introduction later tonight. Sorry about the delay, but yesterday was my partner’s and mine 5th anniversary and also we had a pledge drive at work, so no significant downtime at work or home to play on the web.

Dave

I grew up in Pacific Grove, California on the Monterey Peninsula. I have been interested in Heraldry since I was teenager. I started becoming politically active as a teenager as well. I ran for student government in Middle School and High School and was elected to office a few times. In addition I became politically active in my local community attending and speaking at City Council and other community meetings as well as being involved in neighborhood groups and local city council campaigns. I was appointed to a city committee and designated as an official youth liaison to the City Council.

After I graduated High School, I moved to Sacramento to attend California State University Sacramento where I majored in Government and minored in History. During my time at CSUS I was active in student government representing the then School of Arts and Sciences (now split into 3 colleges) and also was the representative to the California State Student Association, the statewide lobbying organization for the students of the California State University.

I graduated CSUS in 1998 and went to work at Californians Against Waste as a Policy Associate. Over the years since I have worked as an Intern for a state Assembly Member and continued being active in local government attending and speaking at City Council and other meetings. I was also appointed to two terms on our City’s Park and Recreation Committee.

I worked for 4 years at the Planning & Conservation League, a statewide lobbying organization focused on environmental and quality of life issues. I ran the land use policy training program and the membership progam.

At the beginning of this year, I started working at Capital Public Radio, our local NPR affiliate and I work in the membership department.

My experience with Heraldry is more narrow, having no formalized training, but having kept an interest since I was a teenager.

I look forward to working with the members of AHS in advancing our legislative interests.

Dave Shorey

Since Dave has broken the ice, I’l follow up with my particulars.

With over 20 years experience at the state level, I currently practice law in Burlington, Vermont, and Austin, Texas, concentrating on appellate, administrative, and legislative & political law. My clients include local governments, elected officials and candidates, nonprofits, political parties, professionals, and small businesses.

A "yellow dawg" Democrat, I am best known for providing advice on complicated procedural and drafting questions to Texas lawmakers of both parties as an expert on the Texas legislative process. I was one of the advisors that helped the Texas House Democrats block consideration of the DeLay redistricting bill—alas, only temporarily—by busting a quorum. The Texas Observer reported in 2003 that “[w]ithout ever stepping on the House floor, Hugh Brady . . . had a larger impact on the 78th Legislature than many representatives did.”

I was editor-in-chief of the Boston University Public Interest Law Journal, one of the top specialized law journals, and a law clerk to an United States circuit judge. I took the Texas Bar Examination while I was still in law school and was licensed to practice law immediately upon graduation. Before becoming a lawyer, I worked as a reporter, political newsletter publisher, lobbyist, policy caucus director, political marketing firm executive, and legislative aide. I am the son of a preacher and a horsewoman and was raised in Jack, Palo Pinto, and Dallas counties.

I first got interested in heraldry by reading Iain Moncreiffe’s Simple Heraldry at the age of eight, and have read casually on the subject since then, generally in the context of Tudor history. I designed a few coats of arms for folks in high school when I was an improv actor at a Renaissance festival—I thought I was going to California to be a real actor! I rekindled my interest in heraldry and vexillology a couple of years ago as a therapeutic endeavor.

Well I’m not only going to congratulate ya both as I did before, but thank you as well. Thanks for doing this fellas.

Hugh,

I suppose your CoA is a derivation from the Irish Brady one, but I wonder if your choice was led by the meaning of the sun as a symbol for justice ? Anyway, a welcome choice for a lawyer !

Nicolas

Nicolas,

I can’t say that I knew that the sun was a symbol of justice—none of my sources indicated that—but how serendipitous! And yes, my CoA is derived from the Irish coat but suitably differenced for an indeterminate cadet. This is probably more than you want to know, but at one time, I toyed with the idea of having the sun Gules on Or because I was a big Superman fan when younger, but decided that was a little too cute.

Best,

Hugh

Quote:

...but at one time, I toyed with the idea of having the sun Gules on Or because I was a big Superman fan when younger, but decided that was a little too cute.

It could’ve worked Hugh. And what’s wrong with being a Superman fan? I make a good living off of cartooning and comic book styles of art! (all said tongue-in-cheek)

I was going through the Chief Herald of Ireland website and came across a familiar theme:

http://www.nli.ie/pics/gerard_bradys_coat_of_arms.jpg

http://www.nli.ie/fr_offi2.htm , section: Grants Of Arms 2000

—Guy2

And let’s not forget cousin Sean Mac Bradaigh:

http://www.hughbrady.com/images/ireland/arms2.gif

also at the same location