Mark – before this is considered it’s necessary to look at what has to be done all along the path to certification. There’s a chain of custody question here. Presently nothing reaches the registrar that has not been vetted by the certifier and checked by the vice chair. A map sent by the measurer directly to the registrar may or may not match what’s been approved. Also, with over 2000 courses coming at the registrar each year from 500 different measurers, it would be an impossible job to keep the filing straight. I found that getting courses in electronic form caused me to become confused, and that was with only two people sending files that way. Although I did it as a courtesy, it added work and complexity which I did not welcome. None of the pretty colored maps were impossible to produce in clear black and white.
Shortcutting the path from measurer to registrar would reduce the time lag, it’s true. It would also result in many files coming to the registrar in unacceptable formats. What’s the registrar to do? Send a note to everybody who sends an unusable map? This is the job of the certifier and the vice chair. What comes to the registrar is supposed to be vetted and OK. There will certainly be exceptions, as we’re human, but they should be few.
Think through the process, and imagine you have the registrar job. It’s presently a simple but time-consuming job. It’s complicated by imperfections which we need to work on. The registrar presently deals with only two people in producing the course list – the vice chairs.
There may be a better way, but it’s got to be universal. If it’s not it results in making the registrar job a nightmare. Going electronic could involve a change to the entire process of certification.