As you may recall, the fifth Potter biography described the paper aeroplanes that the Misnistry uses for memo delivery. They certainly sound preferable over swarms of postal owls and their resuslting mess. And they can be: better delivery speed, higher volume of messages able to travel at once, and less basic upkeep. I do not advocate a return to the owl system. However, the owls had a better accuracy rate then the memos currently do. I don't fault the system, just the witches and wizards using it. With owls, people realise that they are conversing with another being--a magically enhanced being, but a being nonetheless. Therefore, they take care to give comprehendible instructions. Some even take more care than when instructing other people.

With a system built upon automated magic, however, people all too often expect the magic to just 'know' what they meant. One memorable example comes from my first year at the Ministry. I had recently returned from the canteen, bringing some pecans back to snack on throughout the afternoon. In the middle of taking dictation from my boss, memoplanes began diving into the pecans. I opened one, assuming they were sent to one of us. Instead, I find a message from the Pest Advisory Board, clearly intended for the witch and wizardswho filled the British seats for the International Confederation of Wizards.  Curious as to how the memo went astray, my boss cast a spell to check the sealing of the memo. It turned out that a clerk for the board, in a fit of pique, had addressed the memos to 'The nuts on the fifth floor'! For a force that draws on the fantastical and figurative, magic can be quite literal.

Usually, people just fail to completely address their memos. When I joined the Ministry, I did so to somewhat follow in my father's footsteps. I had realised by then that we had very different interests in what to do for the Ministry, but he is the one who inspired me towared political service. Memos addressed with just a surname tend to fly to the closest of us. I forward at least a dozen memos a day to him. I can understand confusion for the first few months, but after twelve years, people should know that more then one of us work here. Addressing a memo to a specific department or division has its own perils. Departments generally have one to three clerks to forward correspondence on to the most appropriate party. That includes vast amounts of owls from the general populace, so memos sent through them get delayed.

I have, at times, suggested a self-updating Ministry directory for all personnel. Everyone complains about misdirected memos at some point, yet the support for an overhaul of the guidelines is not there. I shall keep canpaigning for it, though.