Cheryl -
I hope the last line of your message is sarcasm. :-) Beyond their self-serving, transparent efforts to peddle their certification and sell more memberships vis-a-vis the rates announcement along with their get-rich-quick ads, there are two additional points for which they should be ashamed:
1) Product Pricing. Do you know what the actual cost of their Official Journal of Notarial Acts is? Based on their purchasing volume and the quotes I have in-hand for our forthcoming Journal, it's probably UNDER $3.00. Do you know what you would pay, including shipping, if you purchased their journal at retail or even member pricing? If that's not bad enough, how about the "Signing Agent" incarnation? Wow. Then there's the matter of stamps, another key notary tool. The Ultimarks we sell in our store are comparable to their premium stamp. Once shipping is taken into account, our stamps are about 50% LESS, and we still make a small amount of money on them.
2) People as Billboards. Who in the world wants the NNA logo plastered all over their gear, their person, etc.? Why can't a stamp just be a stamp, a bag a bag or a journal a journal? Are notaries getting paid to use this stuff? Are you kidding? No, they're the ones paying - paying for the extra screen printing and foil stamping ad nauseum - paying a premium for the right to be a walking billboard. Figure that one out.
At the root of all of this, certainly, is greed and commercialism. What may have started as a noble institution - "non-profit," even - seems now to be a bloated, cash-craving 800 pound gorilla, trying to rationalize its bad behavior under the pretext of an unnatural symbiosis between itself and the notary signing agents it claims to be fighting for.
At the end of the day, I can tell you who the losers will be - this is nothing short of a pyramid scheme (in my opinion, of course).
Harry |
