PA Association of Notaries President Names State's 1st E-Notary
February 8, 2006
PITTSBURGH (PRWEB) -- When phase one of the Pennsylvania Electronic Notarization Initiative began on Monday, Jan. 30, the tools of the trade will change dramatically for notaries in the commonwealth, according to Marc Aronson, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries (PAN).
“The instrument the notary uses for electronic notarization will go from being a seal and a pen to a symbol or an electronic process,” Aronson said. “The notary will go from notarizing paper documents to notarizing documents that appear right on the computer screen. And although the customer must still personally appear in front of the notary, these documents will be recorded instantaneously.”
Aronson has closely studied the development of the electronic notarization initiative since the Notary Public Law was amended in 2003 to permit electronic notarizations. PAN president since 1983, Aronson attended the 2003 Special Commission of the Hague Conference on Private International Law at The Hague, The Netherlands, on electronic commerce and electronic notarization.
“We have put a lot of time and hard work into studying the electronic notarization process to ensure that the technology actually does what it is supposed to do,” Aronson said. “We have worked closely with a wide range of people from government officials to technology experts for nearly a decade to find the best way for this to work.”
Aronson, a notary public since 1975, has been approved by the secretary of the commonwealth as Pennsylvania’s first electronic notary. Although any currently commissioned Pennsylvania notary may file an application to become an electronic notary, the only counties accepting electronically notarized documents for the initiative will be Philadelphia, Lancaster, Chester and Westmoreland.
The first phase of the initiative will last one year, although additional phases could be added to the project. It is anticipated that more counties will be permitted to participate in the project as additional phases are developed. The department of state will evaluate the project after six months.
Aronson is a participant on the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Notary Public Administrators (NPA) Committee, a member of the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA), and an observer on the drafting committee of the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recordation Act, introduced by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).. Aronson also is involved in the electronic notarization/recording projects of many groundbreaking and standard-setting organizations including the Pennsylvania Recorders of Deeds Association (PRODA), Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Standards and Procedures for Electronic Records and Signatures (SpeRS), The National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (NECCC) of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform States Law (NCUSL), the American Bar Association (ABA) e-Trust subcommittee and the e-notary workgroup and NASS.
Source: Pennsylvania Association of Notaries
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