Posted by kate_nortca on 3/21/08 12:41pm
Msg #240172

Commission Renewal in Chico, CA

Can I vent a little?

Yesterday I went to the training to renew my commission in Chico, CA. It was at the University of Chico. Apparently things have changed since I last sat for the test which was in Sacramento. I was amazed at how incredibly unprepared and disorganized they were. Is this how trainings are being conducted nowadays? In short;

1. There were 75 people at the training and one person taking our photos and one person doing thumbprints. Less than half of the attendees were thumbprinted before class start time at 8:15 a.m. The person giving the seminar suggested we use our breaks and lunches to get thumbprinted! What a joke! We should give up a day of work to go to training and not use breaks to say oh, use the restroom, call the office of god forbid eat lunch at lunchtime! Gimme a break.

2. Jose, the person doing the training informed us that the training was so critical we could not miss more than ten minutes except for during the described breaks. To that end we were required to sign out to use the restroom of leave the room for any reason. I could only laugh at this. I think at 41 years old I am old enough to decide how much of any given training I can miss and still perform on the test.

3. I hate to whine but when we went to training in Sac they had at least coffee there. Here it was all fend for yourself for much more money to be there. To me that just did not seem very equitable. It would be nice if for the money NNA made a microscopic effort to show us we are valued.

4. End of day - test time. The proctors talked us like we were all three years old. I don't recall being treated that way at any NNA training before. When it came time to sit down and take the test they were short one test. So all 70+ of us sat waiting while they argued with each other about how they arrived at that situation and what to do. Finally they figured out that one person had not put in their commission application thereby not being counted and their numbers were messed up for the tests. At nearly 6 p.m we finally took our tests.

Okay I had to get that off my chest. Maybe I'm making much out of nothing but I thought the whole training was conducted very poorly. Has this been anyone else's experience?

Kate

Reply by ZeeCA on 3/21/08 1:52pm
Msg #240182

You went to the NNA... need I say more? n/m

Reply by janCA on 3/21/08 4:12pm
Msg #240196

I couldn't agree more, Zee.

Just more money thrown down the black hole of the NNA.

Reply by kate_nortca on 3/21/08 5:33pm
Msg #240199

Re: I couldn't agree more, Zee.

That's fine but my question was if others had had a comparable experience lately.

Kate

Reply by Linda Spanski on 3/21/08 6:26pm
Msg #240200

My class was a breeze

I did it on line, then took the state-proctored test locally. XYZ was not involved in any way.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 3/22/08 3:49am
Msg #240232

Me, too.

BTW, the proctors likely are from CPS, the company commissioned by the SOS office to adminster the tests. I think it was the same three ladies that proctored my exam this time as the last two times (in Costa Mesa). They're are all well past retirement age and have probably been doing this since forever. I must say, though, that they sure have their act together! Very no nonsense. I think that's a good thing.

Also, if you're a Premier member of this site, you can'y beat the on-line class here: N/C!!

Reply by John_NorCal on 3/22/08 9:40am
Msg #240249

Re: Me, too.

Reminds of when CA first started testing for notaries. At that time all a person had to do was to appear before another notary public and take the test. No others involved like CPS. But I'm sure they discovered a lot of funny stuff going on, so now we have more red tape to go through.

Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 3/23/08 12:33am
Msg #240342

The great majority of people from CPS are great!

They are very nice to the students. I know I try to cooperate with them when I teach and make the check in process go quickly.

Reply by kate_nortca on 3/24/08 2:31pm
Msg #240441

Re: The great majority of people from CPS are great!

Thank you for those of you who gave me constructive feedback.

I will look around at some of the other trainings after my experience last week. As for the Proctor ladies perhaps they were just having an off day. They were well past retirement age as was noted above. I guess in my mind that did not mean it was okay to treat us like were infants. Maybe I was having an off day I'm not sure. But thanks for most of the above.

Kate

Reply by JanetK_CA on 3/26/08 1:47am
Msg #240756

Re: The great majority of people from CPS are great!

I think the intention was not to treat us like infants, but to make it clear to everyone involved that this is serious business, not to be trifled with. I think we should simply respect it for what it is and not take it personally. Let's face it -- if they didn't conduct the test in the strictest of procedures, there would always be the few individuals who would try to take advantage. Sad, but true...