Ways the US Census can save money...

This is a topic I've badly wanted to see here. A growing list of serious solutions to the everyday waste and inefficiency of the US Census Bureau. I mean solutions people. Quick, bullet-point list items. Please don't use this as a place to moan about what you see...let's see what we can come up with if we are 100% solution-oriented. Please avoid solutions that apply only to your own office. I'll start:

1. Stop mailing those earnings statements. Put them on a secure web server like so many other large employers do. If we want paper copies, we can print them ourselves. Savings in paper, ink and postage.

2. Issue a single copy of the Employee Handbook and other standard reference materials not required for field use. For example: I've worked four phases of the census and I have four identical handbooks. Better yet, have a hard copy for review at training only, and then refer employees to an online version for future reference. Hard copies can stay and be reused throughout training. Savings in paper, ink, glue, shipping... and trees, many many trees.

3. Eliminate use of any shipping apart from the US Postal Service. You are a government agency; use your own postal system. Figure it out. Savings in postage, and support of a sibling agency.

4. Make electronic payroll entry possible. One person who works every day may complete up to seven duplicate D-308s for just one week of work. Multiply that by the number of Census workers. Staff can enter information into a secure database, perhaps on the same site as the one that shows us our earnings statements (see #1). This will also eliminate the need for so many other forms, like the per diem record (D-308A), the daily hours tracking (D-308C), daily time & expense tracking (D-308R), etc. Savings in paper, ink, shipping, etc.

5. Require trainers to read all verbatim training materials from an e-book that is updated daily. There are too many errors in the materials that could be easily fixed without sending multi-page errata that many people don't use, or even know how to use. It also slows down training considerably. For that matter, consider using e-books for all staff during training only. All else could be referenced later online. The only printed paper we need is what we must have on hand in the field. Savings in paper, ink, shipping, training time, etc.

now you go...someone give me number 6!