While I thought my services as an emergency physician might be of benefit someday, now I wonder if the most pressing need was for an interface & usability expert. Either that, or years of Google and Apple interfaces have spoiled me to the point where navigating forms online is pretty much unbearable.
The way I understood NYC Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is this: you sign up. You give some details about yourself and your skill set. You give contact info. The city calls or emails you periodically to verify your info. We all stand ready to help.
Members recently got a flurry of emails about some kind of upgrade. New logins would be necessary, more features, etc.
Here's one small section of the process:
- Scroll down to “To become a volunteer, click on the Join Now button.”
- Enter NYC MRC ID and ServNY password, Click on ‘Log In’.
- When prompted, enter NYC MRC PIN, Click on ‘Continue’.
- To “Confirm your identity”; Enter last 4 digits of phone number or 5 digit zip code.
- Click on ‘Continue’. You have now ‘claimed’ NYC MRC records. Continue to Step 3.
But first you've got to get a ServNY userID:
- Change drop down box “NYC MRC ID” to ‘Yes’.
- Enter NYC MRC ID and NYC MRC PIN from Go Live/Welcome letter. Case-sensitive. NOTE: PIN is listed as “password” in Go Live/Welcome letter.
It goes on and on like this, forcing you to refer to info from multiple websites and emails. As you fill in the fields, there's often no indication when something worked or didn't. I thought I completed the process on several occasions, only to be unable to login later, or receive a reminder email asking me to repeat the same steps.
To be fair, NYC MRC has offered to help, and set up phone numbers and better step-by-step guides. But I'm also not sure why we're even being forced to re-register. Don't they already have my contact info? Isn't that pretty much all that's needed?
I think, like with many systems and institutions, something got lost along the line, and a simple volunteer network became a massive bureaucracy. The simple act of offering to help, and providing contact information, is now insufficient. There's too many hoops to jump through, for the privilege of helping New Yorkers.