Thank you for your response.  At the same time I sent a message
to the FastLane folks and they responded promptly also.

Even tho the guidelines can be confusing and the changes in
procedures may make us crazy, NSF is so communicative.  I seldom
have a bad experience.

Your comments and theirs below at least solved today's question of
whether or not to use a courier.

Here are excerpts from my communication with NSF:
>
> For those of us with scanners, could we scan the signed cert page and send
> it as a PDF to DIS via e-mail with the header
> 'FastLane Cover Sheet'?
>
***That is not the correct procedure at this time.  We are working on a
solution which will allow institutions to fax the signed cover sheet.**

> For preproposals, would you ask the directorates NOT to require a signed
> certification page?  KDI did not require it, XYZ on a Chip did.  Is the
> extra processing required on both ends to produce and receive a signed
> cert really necessary for a preproposal?
>
***This is something that the NSF policy office is going to decide upon.***

> Will you refuse a courier package containing the signed certification
> pages from more than one FastLane submission? You still have to sign for
> it and slice a cumbersome envelope but only once for 2, 3 or more
> submissions.
>
***We will not refuse any courier package.***

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