On-Line Appointment & Reservation Service

So many businesses and services need a reservation service to help manage queues. It seems that a company such as Yahoo, AOL or Google would be able to develop a site that would allow everyone--including small businesses, to book reservations for appointments or services. People trying to make appointments should be able to search and find open time slots, and make confirmed appointments using their PC or Smart Phone. Service providers would have to upload their availability, and should be able to choose options on how appointments should be made: For example: they could require people to use their credit card to make the appointment subject to a "no-show" fee, if the service provider desires. They may want to provide a logo for customer to see, they may require "new customers" to do something different than "repeat customers" The appointment length might be different depending upon the service selected etc.

I could see the service be used by doctors, therapists, lawyers, hair salons, barbershops, tax preparers, CPAs, escrow & title companies, financial advisors, engineering consultants, city services (building permits, for example), auto inspection & repair, etc.

Obviously, the scheduling button should be located on the businesses web site, but it could also come up with searches. For example, If I want to have my car smog-tested on Thursday at 1PM--could the search engine find the nearest business that has an opening at that time slot? Right now, there is no way of doing that search, that I know of.

Eventually, it could be operated similar to "pay per click" in that businesses would pay per appointment made & confirmed. Businesses would eventually save money because they could eliminate a administrative task.

Website for Homeowner Association Balloting

It amazes me how easy it is to vote my common stock proxies via proxyvote.com. The system seems very secure, so that corporations don't fear that ballots could be forged or altered. Millions of shares are voted daily with confidence.

However, for homeowner associations--particularly in California, we are saddled with a complex "double envelope" system that requires signatures on the outside of the first envelope etc. Depending upon the CC&Rs and Bylaws, many associations are required to hire outside experts to act as "Inspector of Election" and oversee the counting of ballots. It seems to me that we badly need a good, secure web site, operated similarly to proxyvote, where an association could operate an election.

I envision the web site to allow an association to upload a list of owner's names, addresses, and e-mail addresses -- current as of the "cut off" date for the election. The association would pay a fee --per owner, and then upload the ballot issues. The web service would mail & e-mail ballots to all owners, and accept both e-mail and snail mail ballots. Hopefully most owners would vote via e-mail.