Improved Yes Declaration Form

Improved Yes Declaration Form giving more space to each signatory and an added notes field for the recruiter.

After having entered several dozen Yes Declaration signatures, I found that the original Declaration form doesn't give much space to each signatory. A significant proportion of supporters tended to just initial their first name, partly due to lack of space, and half a page width is not quite big enough for a long email address.

In order to gather more legible data, which in turn leads to greater accuracy when the form is transcribed, I have re-created the form such that it gives a full page width to each supporter with separate fields for signature, first name, surname, postal code, telephone number and email address. The email address field has character separators to persuade signers to use block letters. Results have been good with much improved readability.

I also added a big notes field in which the Yes campaigner can, for example, write down those details that are hard to read, or make a note if that person would like to help with the local campaign. Otherwise, the form is identical to the one that can be downloaded from YesScotland.net.

We found the new form made a huge difference. The percentage of first name initials went from 25% down to 3% and in many cases additional notes helped to clarify otherwise illegible details. Whoever enters the data will thank you for it!

To save paper, and postage for those who send their signature sheets to Yes Scotland, I suggest to print the Declaration form double-sided.

Download yes-declaration-form-improved.pdf.