This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Government in Action
Feb
26
2020
It is a truth universally acknowledged that no one really likes to go to the SOS (or the DMV for those of you who are not Michiganders – it’s the Secretary of State). And for many years that was true.
Then in our previous administration we got someone in charge of the SOS who actually made an improvement. She brought the SOS up to modern times by allowing people to get in line via their phones, and to get updates via phones.
No more waiting at the government building! Check in online, and you only needed to head over to the SOS when they sent you a text. I could spend those 3 hours in line at work doing something rather than sitting in a hard plastic chair doing nothing. It was the best thing the SOS office had done in my lifetime.
But what about the internet? Surely being able to renew things online was a much larger accomplishment? Nope, and here’s why: they let you do things online that you could already do by mail. So it’s just a faster way of doing things remotely, but those things were already available to do remotely. The internet didn’t really change the things for which you had to go to the branch office. The online check-in changes the branch office experience.
They’re trying to help by adding more self-serve kiosks in more places like local stores. But those kiosks also don’t do things that you can’t already do online or by mail. Having SOS kiosks in every store across Michigan won’t put a dent in the wait times at the SOS office.
What they need to do, in addition to being able to use one’s cell number to wait in line of course, is to expand the things that can be done online. Every so many years, your license plate becomes invalid and you need to go in to get a new plate, instead of renewing online. Why? No one knows. And there must be other things that can be added to the online services.
What happened to the MI-Timeline? Why can’t I check in online anymore for the SOS? Why does it take so long to get an appointment? Good questions, and I can’t answer them. But you can help change the answer by going to the change.org petition to bring back the check in line online option.
What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should endure?
Job 6:11
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:53 am and has been carefully placed in the Current Events category.
