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When
a young man reaches 18 he can go to any of the 35,000 post
offices nationwide to register with Selective Service. There
he completes a simple registration card and mails it to the
Selective Service System. This begins a multi-step process
which results in the man’s registration.
Each
week approximately 6,000 completed registration cards are
sent to the Selective Service System's Data Management System
(DMC) near Chicago, Ill. At the DMC these cards are grouped
into manageable quantities. Each card is then microfilmed
and stamped with a sequential document locator number. The
processed microfilm is reviewed to account for all documents
and to ensure that the film quality is within strict standards.
After microfilming, the cards are keyed and then verified
by a different data transcriber.
Magnetic
tapes, containing all information keyed from the registration
cards, are produced for processing by the computer center.
The registration records go through a series of computer validation
checks resulting in either registration or placement onto
a computerized error file. If the computer accepts all the
information, the registrant is issued an acknowledgment of
registration. If an error is detected at any point in processing
the information is reprocessed or a letter is sent to the
registrant requesting clarification.
All
processing follows a published schedule. The time required
to process a registration, from the date the registration
form is completed at the post office, to the date the acknowledgment
of registration is generated, averages approximately 4 weeks.
Regulations and mobilization readiness require that processing
take no more than 90 days.
Updating
this data base requires continual changes and maintenance
to remain accurate and usable. Over one million changes, mostly
to addresses, are processed each year.
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