Replying to the question about NSF FASTLANE from Eleanor Cicinsky,
 Temple University:

 Based on the demonstration of FastLane by Bill Kirby at the recent
 NCURA Region III meeting in Williamsburg, I think you'll find FastLane
 to be a good tool for both proposal preparation and submission. (Your
 faculty members may choose to prepare their proposals using FastLane,
 print the results out in a PDF format which provides NSF forms
 suitable for submission in the "old-fashioned," hard-copy way if they
 choose. So you can ease into implementing electronic submission, and
 faculty and staff can begin learning to use FastLane right away, even
 it they don't feel ready to plunge into sending a proposal via the
 Internet.) FastLane also provides access to information about the
 status of a pending proposal, which the PI can check as often as he or
 she wishes. The design of FastLane has taken into account the
 possibility that a PI may designate the task of entering data to a
 member of the clerical staff or a graduate student, and proposals in
 progress can be stored and modified until the PI is ready to send them
 forward to the Sponsored Programs office.

 These are some of the features I like about FastLane, but I realize
 that, like any tool, FastLane is going to require some initial
 investment in learning by whomever uses it. The OSP office here will
 conduct demonstration and training workshops to help the faculty and
 staff make the most productive use of their time when it comes to
 using this tool. Since WKU has recently inaugurated the use of a
 campus network which provides 100% access for the faculty, this is an
 ideal time for us to introduce FastLane. Interest is high, and the
 support by the microcomputer center on campus is excellent.

     Molly Daniel
     Office of Sponsored Programs
     Western Kentucky University
     Bowling Green, KY