The task I selected is obtaining a passport to leave the country. In terms of the bureaucracy behind it the federal government is in charge of a citizen obtaining their passport. To get a passport (first time) they must submit a DS-11 form and deliver it in person. After that you must present a form of evidence of being a citizen, then you present your I.D and photocopy said I.D. Finally you provide a passport photo and it must be taken over a set of circumstances, wait 5-7 days get the passport and leave the country.

Now this is not as bad as I expected but the paperwork is awful. The paperwork is straightforward but the questions sometime just seem unnecessary and I would hate to fill out as someone who is not born in the U.S.

If I had to change something about it I might include the prices but if you want to leave the country you usually need spending money so they should just dip into that fund. This system is more straightforward than I assumed but I can only assume it as a overreaction to terror attacks and terrorists getting into our country as I have seen with the Patriot Act. But besides that I think it might have been because they wanted to cover all bases so badly that they made it impossible to make it past first.

Click here to view our "Steps to Divorce" Flow Chart.

The bureaucratic process that Amber and I detailed with a flow chart was the process of getting a divorce. In the simplest form, a divorce is the process of ending a marriage and contains many different factors that can quickly escalate the process into an expensive, time filling process. Things like personal property and custody of children almost always extend the process along with numerous disagreements between the two spouses. The paperwork that Amber and I filled out was straight forward only because we filled out the form that did not require us to inquire about children or the split up of property between the two former spouses. If there was one thing I could change about the bureaucratic process it would be the never ending loop of paperwork that would have to be filed if disagreements are made between the two spouses that would result in a stand still for quite some time. I think the systems have become so complicated because of many other laws that have passed that present obstacles for these processes. Also, these obstacles are present to prevent exploits of the system and to provide checks and balances.

Link to project here.



Reflection

The task that me and my partner decided to do was obtaining a business license. Which is the paper you get that says it is legal to have a building that you run a business out of. If you do not have this license then it is impossible or illegal to make a profit out of a building. To get this license you need to file for a number of different things. But to be short and to the point you need to apply for all of the L & I approvals, these are the things you need in order to ensure that the building will be properly ran. Then you apply for a tax account number, pay the fee that you will need, and send everything in. Once you send it in you will have to wait and see if you get approved, if you don't you must start from the beginning but if you do then you can start filling out the business license form. Send that in when you are done and wait for that to get approved as well, and once it is you well get your license.

This project wasn't hard it was just very tedious and time consuming. The paperwork was hard to find but not hard to follow. The work was very straightforward but because we needed to make the information up it made it more difficult because we didn't know what everything was. But with everything no matter how difficult it was the process flowed together. I don't think I would change anything about the process on the flow chart because with out all of the steps on there you might get denied before they even look at your information. So it's better to have every little detail than to not have something it's wrong.

I think this process is so complicated because they don't want just anybody owning a business of any kind. You need to know exactly what and where everything will be, there is no time for mistakes or "going with the flow" after you get the business. It will be time for getting the money and being successful, which I agree with I just wish everything was easier to find. I think for this project there should be a hint to where the students could find the information.

​Link to chart.

The bureaucratic process in which we chose was the block party permit application. It is a simple, yet somewhat expensive process in which people who wish to plan and hold a block party must go through. The process only requires two sheets of paperwork and and varying amounts of money depending on the day of the week and the number of streets blocked off.

Our process was rather simple. It only took two days to get everything together and we were able to get everything else edited within the remaining in class time given. On the second class I counted the amount of students in the class and got the signatures of three quarters of them them which was the proportion needed. Beyond that the paperwork was simple and very straight forward.

If I had to change one thing it would be the fact that you have to pay more money of weekdays. I would also make the time needed to reserve the space longer as to give more time for bus routes to be informed. This would in term lower the prices of block parties by a significant amount on weekdays.