The process you’ve described, with some variances, is similar to mine, and I figure many other responsible merit senders on the board. This requires some time to perform, more than would be desirable, since the KYM (Know Your Merited) takes some time to perform.

From a merit Sender’s point of view, meriting a person who has not being merited before is rewarding, but also requires in my case more checks than meriting a person with a merit track, specially if the merited person has been merited by reputable forum members previously. In those cases, although some historical post checking may still be needed, I kind of trust to a certain degree their judgment, and may end up skipping a step or so in the KYM process.

What @Jet Cash points out as his procedure is important for people to understand, as most responsible merit awarders will endeavour a similar process.