MGC Protests Plan for Drastic Cut in Massachusetts Vital Records Research Hours Available

The following was written by the Massachusetts Genealogical Council:

To Massachusetts Genealogical Community:

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has announced a drastic cut in the research hours available to genealogists and the public at large. The notice reads:

DUE TO BUDGET RESTRICTIONS AND STAFFING REDUCTIONS, THE REGISTRY OF VITAL
RECORDS AND STATISTICS WILL BE REDUCING RESEARCH ROOM HOURS EFFECTIVE
FEBRUARY 23, 2009. NEW RESEARCH HOURS WILL BE:

MONDAY: 2:00pm - 4:30pm    TUESDAY: 9:00am - 12:00n
WEDNESDAY: NO RESEARCH HOURS
THURSDAY: 2:00pm - 4:30pm     FRIDAY: 9:00am - 12:00pm

We apologize for any inconvenience.

The cutback in hours represents a 16½ hour loss of research time from a previous weekly service level of 27 ½ hours. The reading room is not large enough to fit the current number of users in the new hours, so numerous researchers will be turned away.

Change in Research Hours

Day	New Hours	Old Hours
Monday	2 1/2	5 1/2
Tuesday	3	5 1/2
Wednesday	0	5 1/2
Thursday	2 1/2	5 1/2
Friday	3	5 1/2
Total per week	11	27 1/2

The Registry plays an essential role by providing access to birth, marriage, death and divorce records in Massachusetts from 1916 to the present.  The records are essential for the legal community when searching for legal heirs at law for personal estates as well as law enforcement officials when researching individual backgrounds. Massachusetts’ passionate genealogy community uses the registry to research family history. Visitors from outside the Commonwealth bring countless tourism dollars into Massachusetts every year by doing research at the facility. The medical information contained in the records is critical to building a family history for medical providers of all kinds. By reducing hours at the facility, the Commonwealth is reducing its own revenue stream by losing the nine dollar per hour research fee from researchers.

The Massachusetts Genealogical Council finds this cut unacceptable and we need your help to restore the previous research hours available to the public. Please copy and paste the letter given below and email it to your state representative, state senator and Governor Patrick today.

To find a listing of your representative click here:  
http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm.  

Governor Patrick’s email contact page is: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us

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MGC's Suggested Protest Letter to Legislators:

(Subject line email): Objection to drastic cut back in hours at the Registry of Vital Records

Dear [Senator/Representative/Governor Patrick]:

Please act immediately to maintain the current hours at the Registry of Vital Records. The Department of Public Health’s announcement that Registry research room hours will be reduced from the current 27½ hours to a paltry 11 hours per week effective February 23 is unacceptable. The Commonwealth’s citizens need your immediate attention to stop this action.

The Registry plays an essential role by providing access to birth, marriage, death and divorce records in Massachusetts from 1916 to the present.  These records are essential for the legal community and law enforcement officials. Massachusetts’ passionate genealogy community uses the Registry to research family history. The medical information these records contain is critical to building a family health care history. The Registry is a tourism destination for countless visitors from outside our borders, bringing in thousands of dollars to our state government’s coffers every year. The reduction in hours at the Registry will reduce the Commonwealth’s own revenue stream by losing the nine dollar per hour research fee paid by every researcher. It also strangles a revenue stream for the dozens of genealogists who depend on research hours to sustain their small businesses, reducing the taxes they can pay.

Thank you for attention to this important issue. I look forward to your positive action on this matter.

Sincerely

(Your name)
(Telephone Number)

Comments

[George G. Morgan]

I would suggest that the MGC contact the Federation of Genealogical Societies' Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) to engage them in this matter. The website for RPAC is http://fgs.org/rpac/index.php.

[Gwen McCullagh]

Each Block of hours is now so brief that travelling from any significant distance becomes uneconomic and would most likely involve an overnight stay.
The hours remind me of the old GRO in Dublin. There you supposedly had an option of researching for a 7 hour day but since everyone on staff left together for an extended lunch during which patrons had to leave there were only 6.5 hours per day available! That has improved somewhat.
Official agencies are notoriously reluctant to accept volunteer help but in times when budget constraints such as this limit public access and many usually employed are out of work, it would make sense to seek supplementary help from the genealogy and library communities and creatively address the problem.

[Jan Fortado]

This reminds me of the time Vital Records tried to close its office to ALL searchers. That took a flurry of letters to state reps. When I used to visit there regularly, there was only one person who would call regularly for slips (index items so the staff could get the correct book). The rest of the workers would call for slips every half hour, and they would also limit your request to three per hour. So if you arrived just after the first "call" (Boston traffic), that meant a call sometimes at 9:45, 10:15, 10:45, 11:15. They considered 11:45 too close to closing. So you would pay $12.00 an hour to get 12 records (and since you were working with index items, you might find the record was not the one you were looking for). The excuse was that the staff was busy. While you waited for your books to arrive, you could hear conversations through the walls - constant laughing and talking. It was difficult to believe they were busy. And the fellow who sat behind the desk in the research room area often just sat there - no work being done. I have to wonder if one person could make regular calls or tell you that you could pass in as many index items as you had, why couldn't the others do that? It doesn't take a PhD to figure that one out. Occasionally, a worker would allow more than three requests, but more and more the number of requests was limited. I ALWAYS got the impression that the workers just didn't want any researchers there!!!There was a certain job entitlement in evidence. (In addition, the fee went up rapidly from $3 an hour to $6 an hour to $12 an hour. They must have been disappointed to see researchers still arriving). The Massachusetts State Archives is under the Secretary of State. The attitude of the workers there is very different. Granted, you can look for your own microfilms, but the staff is always willing to help. I suppose I shouldn't add this comment, but I can't help but hope that the laziest of the workers at Vital Records lost their jobs.

[Alex Woodle]

Jan's comments mirror my own experiences. One had to develop a strategy to maximize the time and transcribe like heck so when next batch were asked for, you would be ready to submit new slips. And we are paying them to pull books!! With the reduction in hours, the researchers will be severely limited in their ability to conduct proper searches.

[Alex Woodle]

Jan's comments mirror my own experiences. One had to develop a strategy to maximize the time and transcribe like heck so when next batch were asked for, you would be ready to submit new slips. And we are paying them to pull books!! With the reduction in hours, the researchers will be severely limited in their ability to conduct proper searches.

[Peg Buckman]

Have to agree with Jan's comments. Also, offers to help were routinely rejected a few years ago. I no longer go there unless I absolutely have to. Almost anywhere offers better service. For the price they were charging, the service was laughable. Have to go get my letters off. Understanding the economic situation we are in, I will be encouraging volunteers be allowed to help pick up the slack and hopefully teach those staff how to do the job correctly. Thanks,
Peg

[GMF]

One can only wonder, as he reads the accounts of poor service, whether alleged financial woes are now a good excuse to do what teh staff always wanted -- less work!

I recall going to the National Archives and the empoyees seemed so indifferent. Employees in public agencies, state or federal, should be screened and retained on their ability to be courteous public servants.