Why We Do the Things We Do?

As with many day to day business activities and somewhat rituals or habits sometimes people fall into a rhythm of simply doing certain things because that is how they were trained and never asking why. 'That's the way it's always been done and who am I to question why?'
There is an old tale someone once told me of a college getting a new dean. As he was being shown around by one of the faculty they stopped into the cafeteria for lunch. As they were discussing items where they could cut costs the faculty member introduced him to the cook and involved him in the conversation of cutting costs. At some point a subject came up of how the cook makes two tapioca puddings every day and every day he throws them out. When asked why he makes them his response was that the previous cook had always made two tapioca puddings so in his training he learned to do so and never thought to question why he made two and threw two away. He simply did it without thinking why. History behind this is that two deans ago liked tapioca pudding and requested it be put on the menu. In the event that someone were to sit with that dean and also wanted a tapioca pudding the previous cook was instructed to make two tapioca puddings every day.
Moral of the story is: DO ask questions. DO ask why something is done. Sometimes when someone has done something for so long they forget why they do it and it takes a NEW perspective in the picture to really evaluate the true reason certain things are done and if they still meet the needs or are futile and need to be disregarded.

Iowa Mobile Notary Service

It's quite difficult to find a notary when you need one! Ya, you can go to the bank if you want to do it on your lunch hour or breaks but once you get off work they are difficult to find. There are now Mobile Notaries to serve your notary needs at your convenience. I am in NW Iowa. I can be located by going to my website at halitek.com
Mobile notaries have been around since the late 80's and growing in numbers.

Having so much fun building a notary website!

Well! I have created several blogs on Blogger.com. I placed the links to them on the 'My Blogs' page on my website www.halitek.com. I decided to make a Blog for my enthusiast remarks on the satisfaction I'm getting in creating this site. It started out as a site to refer my clients to. Through my reading on several forums I find people asking for help or where to find things. As these have come to my attention I have tried to find and post these items on my website. If you have any items you would like added feel free to email them to me. I'll do my best.
In my searching for more ideas to add, I had heard so much about blogs and never knew what they were. I did a search and low and behold, here I am. I am posting blogs also to help people network and troubleshoot.

Having questions about Quickbooks?

If you have questions about using QuickBooks, I have Quickbooks Premier and would be glad to try to help. Please realize I am only another user and nothing I post is anything more than amateur help.

Signing Agents: Is business slowing?

Notary Signing Agent: What the Future Holds

What the future of the notary or signing agent holds is unclear. With the increase in identity theft and mortgage fraud the NNA is working with government officials to inact new laws to implement e-notarization. With e-notarization the industry will become more electronically oriented. There will no longer be physical stamps and physical signatures but rather 'all digital'. A document being notarized by a notary will be on screen in a computer and they will have a passworded notary seal and signature which will be accessed from the Secretary of State each time they use it. Such as in the case of the mortgage industry, a notary will sit with the borrower viewing the necessary documents on a computer screen. You know how you sign a signature pad when you use your credit card at the store? Well this is how a borrower would sign, then the notary would access her seal at the SOS Online to notarize that document. All these documents would be at an online secure site. Once signed and notarized the file is saved. At that point the lender can retrieve it to fund the loan. These documents will have code behind the scenes of when each document was signed and since the code tells of any changes made after that date, it is quite fraud proof. Think of it. No longer can the lender ask us to backdate (which is illegal). Also a notary with an expired commission cannot notarize. When the commission expires or is suspended it can no longer be accessed by the notary. In addition, the impersonating notaries will no longer be able to function. It is said and I believe it to be true that total implementation of e-notarization across the nation will be many years off. I believe the states will start by allowing notaries to sign up to be either an e-notary or the normal notary.

Earlier skeptism said that with the onset of e-notarization the notary public would become obsolete. Actually the notary will become more a part of security within our country and abroad. E-notarization will take a higher level of commitment on the part of the notary public, financially and training. There will be training and testing involved to have the e-notarization option available to you. A Notary will have to purchase a laptop, cell phone, wireless internet, webcam to hook to the laptop and a digital program such as Enjoa or Digisign for signature and electronic journal entry storage.

The companies I see at the forefront of this new wave are NNA (National Notary Association), MISMO (Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization)Their mission is to develop, promote, and maintain voluntary electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry. There are many more but I'll leave that for another time. These as well as many others are working in conjunction with the FBI, CIA, FTC etc to minimize fraud and terrorism.