Blogocentric Formulations

Notary Public Day

Is November 7th really Notary Public Day? I'm always so skeptical of these pseudo-holidays...

I am a Notary Public here in California, though, so I guess I should probably say something about it. I've been a notary since about 2011, I think. Each of my commissions has been paid for by my employer so that I can notarize documents for them; and I've taken the opportunity to notarize a bunch of other stuff for people on the side, mostly as a favor to friends and family.

Becoming a California notary requires renewing a commission every four years, and to do that you have to pass a test. One of those annoying ones where they can ask you anything about notary law type stuff and you either have to study really intently, or just hope that you get questions you happen to know. I'm a member of the National Notary Association, and they actually offer an all-inclusive training where you bring in everything ahead of time and they help you take your photo, get fingerprinted, fill out your application, take an all-day test prep course, and then actually take the test in the afternoon right after you've had an all-day cram session. I could technically get away with renewing my commission by just taking the test, but notary law can be pretty specific so I find it helpful to brush up on everything by devoting one day every four years to cramming for it and getting it all done at once.

Being a notary isn't exactly glamorous work, but it's nice to be able to help friends and family with that (everyone needs some form or document or other notarized sooner or later), and it's actually been a great opportunity to get to know higher-ups at my company too. At the various places I've worked, my actual day-to-day work doesn't always involve interfacing with the heads of the studio... but the heads of the studio are often the ones who need something notarized, even if it's personal in nature. Family trust documents, passport applications for their kids, real estate documents or litigation or contracts that require proof of execution... so it's been a great way to get "face time" with the heads of the companies I've worked for.

One of the things that's fun about being a notary to VIPs is to see the kinds of things rich and important people need done. The thing I notarize most often for "normal" people are things like government forms and applications, maybe the occasional real estate document or something along those lines, etc. For the "important" people, I've notarized all kinds of crazy stuff like private aircraft lease documents, registering a new "flag of convenience" for someone's yacht, high-profile divorce settlements, wage garnishment orders from a court, etc. I always find it interesting what kind of shenanigans rich people get up to.

Fun fact about notaries, though... did you know they can administer oaths of office? And did you know that there are no restrictions on what kinds of offices I can administer an oath for? If the President of the United States needed to be sworn into office on Inauguration Day and no Supreme Court justice or federal judge were available and I happened to be walking through the National Mall and someone was like, "Is there anyone here who can administer the oath of office to our new president?" ... I could do that! Well, not technically since that would be in Washington, D.C. and I only have jurisdiction and authority in California ... but still.