More on Standardization

A reader submitted an interesting comment on yesterday's blog entry which discussed the need for document formatting standards. To the person submitting the comment, formatting standards would be acceptable so long as they applied at every registry in the state. I completely concur. Without that type of predictability, what's the point of having standards in the first place? The reader also discussed the difficulties he faced because of the non-standard practices registries follow when it comes to returning documents. Some registries charge postage, others do not, and still others (like this one) require self-addressed, stamped envelopes. I can't speak for others, but I will explain how our policy came about. Up until the fall of 2001, this registry provided return postage service. Back then, employees in the "data processing" department would enter the return mailing address of each document into our computer system. This usually happened a day or two after recording. Sometime later, we would print mailing labels, affix the labels to envelopes, stuff the envelopes with the correct documents, run the sealed envelopes through our postage machine, and then stuff them all in the mailbox. In 2000, we spent more than $40,000 in postage alone. That doesn't count the cost of envelopes and labels, or the time spent by employees typing return addresses, placing labels and postage on envelopes, and stuffing the envelopes. In the fall of 2001, however, the gigantic and unforeseen deficit in the state's budget drastically cut our funding. Suddenly I was faced with the choice of either cutting our postage costs or laying off two badly needed employees. I kept the employees. And the return document policy we developed works quite well. Since the fall of 2001, if customers want documents returned, they must either provide us with a self-addressed stamped envelope or sign up for a no fee document pick up box here at the registry (the customer picks up recently recorded documents during his next trip to the registry). Documents that don't have an envelope or a pick up box associated with them are placed into storage until someone claims them. The system works great. Not only have we saved an immense amount of money in postage and envelopes, we have eliminated a considerable amount of human effort that was previously expended on the old way of mailing documents. The reason we don't just charge extra for postage is that any money we collect goes directly into the state's general fund. Our budget, which has either been level funded or cut in each of the past five fiscal years, in no way would reflect the extra money we took in. That's why we need the "in-kind" contribution of the self-addressed, stamped envelope. Sorry to make this such a long story, but I wanted to explain the logic behind our system. Other registry's might have different considerations that make our policy unworkable for them. That's why something as simple as a document mail back policy might be the toughest thing of all to standardize throughout the state.