TQS Quandry
Being an education student at SFU and hopefully meeting all the requirements for a teachers certificate from BCCT this August, I am naturally curious about the pay scale categories assigned in BC. The Teachers Qualification Service, TQS, is the organization that is in charge of this. I had a question about categories and how they are affected by UBC’s MET programs, so I went to the TQS website in hopes of finding someone to contact with my query.
I was a bit surprised that on the TQS website they say that all questions should be directed via mail, fax or in person. I don’t have a fax machine, I didn’t want to wait for the mail service, and I had some free time yesterday so I went to their office to ask my questions. I turned out that the people “in the know” weren’t in the office at that time, so I wrote a letter outlining my questions and left it there, along with some supporting documentation.
Later that day I received an email from the TQS. I thought that was a bit odd considering they don’t apparently like email. In the email, the person asked for my BCCT certification number. I replied that I didn’t have one yet. I then received the following email:
from: TQS subject: *Please submit your request by fax or mail.* Re: TQS Inquiry
Teacher Qualification Service 106 - 1525 West 8th Avenue Vancouver, BC V6J 1T5 __________________________________________
Well shiver me timbers, I had a good laugh at that one. It of course begs to be replied with any number of smart-ass responses. Here are some of the better ones that I’ve thought of:
“When is a good time to pick up the letter I dropped off, so that I can mail or fax it to you?”
“Would you be so kind as to mail or fax me my letter, so I can do the same for you? I don’t have a fax machine, perhaps you can drop it off at my house?”
“Do you remember that flat, white, papery thing that I dropped off today? There’s a good chance it’s still on your desk. If you can’t remember what it looks like simply recall that it’s the thing that you used to copy out my email address. There, you found it. Good. Can we just pretend it is the letter, and that it has already been mailed AND faxed?”
“Can I fax only a cover letter? You can then attached to the documents I already dropped off at your office and we can call it a day.”
“Do you remember seeing that flat white thing on your desk with a bunch of blue lines, circles and arcs on it? That is paper with writing on it. The hi-tech name for it is “letter.” You already have it, me mailing or faxing another one isn’t going to change that situation. Please take action accordingly.”
“Can you please scan and email me the contents of the letter? I recall that it was written quite clearly and neatly covered all the points that I was interested in. I’d hate to re-write it in case I miss something.”
