SUPPORT OFFICER S CONFERENCE (Sanitized) 19 SEPTEMBER - 21 SEPTEMBER 1971

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R004000030009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 76
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 12, 2002
• Sequence Number: 9
• Content Type: AG

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Support Officer's
19 September - 21 September 1971
Report of Panel 1A
Panel Topic - Planning for the Future of the Support Directorate
1. What should be the role of the Support Directorate?
Alternative goals and objectives?
2. What policy adjustments and practices are required to
raise the level of innovation and change in the Support
Directorate?
3. What is the scope of legitimate dissent and how can
dissent be made functional to the Support Directorate?
4. What will the impact of technology on the Support
Directorate's management and administrative systems?
5. Current management literature is replete with references
to organization development (OD). What is OD and does
the Support Directorate need an OD program?
I. General Comments
This was the first Support conference for the Headquarters area
in seven years. The timing was excellent and most appropriate.
Discussion and understanding was needed badly among the many
support officers of different grades, ages and experiences. We
have many new junior personnel with new ideas and in some cases
old ideas being repeated. In any event all were worth dis-
cussing and considering. We are faced with heavy cut backs in
both personnel and money. Additional efficiency is essential if
we are to continue performing our responsibilities effectively.
For the first time in the history of the Agency we are losing
large numbers of personnel through retirement and we are seeing
many new faces coming up from below. This gave us all a chance
to compare notes and prepare for the future. The Panel system
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was an excellent platform to get to know, intimately, a limited
number of individuals with varying backgrounds. The social
periods throughtout the conference added to this by expanding
not only the discussion subjects but the individuals involved.
Undoubtedly we all feel a much better understanding not only of
the career service but of those new individuals who will carry
the burden in the coming years.
II. Panel Report
A. Our Panel discussions, although at times heated, were
extremely beneficial and in the end all agreed on not only the
items to be covered but wording of those items. There were no
minority positions to be presented. In the following sub-
paragraphs the various breakdowns will be listed with comments
about each.
B. Role - To provide a highly professional management
capability and to develop and execute effective administrative
systems in support of CIA. Our panel felt that some statement
of the role of the DDS was essential. We felt this, as developed,
expressed our very reason for being and deserved a separate posi-
tion opening our discussion.
C. Goal I - Improve the professional image of the Support
Service. There was a general consensus that the image of
Support Directorate personnel and their abilities was not good.
Often the personnel are considered second-class citizens in the
operation of the Agency even though many of our support personnel
are equally or better qualified than those being supported.
Objective 1 - Participate in substantive decision at all levels.
We do not expect support personnel to be making substantive
decisions vis-a-vis agent acquisition, targets, intelligence
reports, etc. We did feel that the support officers should be
involved in such decisions from theirinception. It may be that
support capabilities could alter some of these decisions but
most assuredly support will be more thorough and more complete
if involved from the very beginning.
Objective 2 - Upgrade professional skills. It will be necessary
to determine what we have now in the way of support skills and
then decide what is necessary for the future. We'may have to
train our own people or we may have to recruit certain specialties.
There should be a mix in the various skills.
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Objective 3 - Continue to argue for a program of cross-
fertilization. Cross-fertilization in a limited fashion now
takes place but for the most part among very senior officers.
It would be to our advantage if mid-career and possibly junior
officers could be involved in such a program.
Objective 4 - Control support positions in other directorates.
Possibly this particular point would not have received as
much emphasis were we not concerned with a 5% cut and a grade
roll back. Problems are created as, for example, DDP partially
reduces its T/O by cutting support positions. The DDS is faced
with an even higher than 5% cut since these persons from DDP
are transferred back to the Support Directorate which is already
faced with its own cut. If the DDS cut concerned all support
positions reductions could still be carried out through
coordination between directorates but DDS would not be required
to take additional cuts.
D. Goal II Create an organizational environment that
encourages innovation and change. We felt that one of the
tremendous weaknessess of the present system was very poor
vertical communication. Some way must be devised to let various
management levels know what other levels are thinking.
Objective 1 - Formal recognition of creative efforts in the
evaluation process. Many individuals make efforts to suggest
changes or question procedures. Whether these suggestions or
questions are good or bad the individual should know that they
are appreciated. Good ideas should receive recognition on the
Fitness Report, in a letter of commendation, as a QSI, or in
some other form. The fact that ideas are being presented and
good ones are being accepted should be made public so that other
persons are aware of such action.
Objective 2 - Encourage candor between colleagues. Colleagues
in this case include not only an individual's peer group but
all of his associates. We had the feeling that while many dis-
cussions take place often the junior person does not feel com-
pletely free to make his deepest thoughts known. Complete
candor is essential and is possible only by building trust
among individuals and groups throughout the organization.
Objective 3 - Legitimize dissent as a functional proposition.
The question of whether or not dissent is legitimate seems to
bother certain individuals. We feel,with certain exceptions,
it is and should continue to be legitimate. It must be accepted
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and must be available to the decision making level. This will
increase the number of choices therefore decisions will improve.
Objective 4 - Provide alternate channels wherein new ideas can
be surfaced to the decision making level. In this case we con-
sidered formally organized groups representing a cross-section
of the service who would discuss ideas upon request or of their
own concern. There would be a direct line to the top. Some of
these considerations would be in the form of dissent and some
ideas and suggestions. Such organizations (i.e. Management Advisory
Group) should be made up olf middle career and junior officers
but not necessarily in the same group.
Objective 5 - Evaluate organizational development (O.D.) as a
management tool. I do not think it necessary to go into detail
on this point. OD is a management tool or-process which is,
most assuredly, an improvement on older management methods,
however, whether we use this or some other equally acceptable
tool is immaterial. The basic need is for better management at
all levels. OD should be considered as a method in working
toward that goal.
E. Goal III - Increase directorate effectiveness in support
of CIA. We discussed this goal and all of us realized it could
easily be our number one goal or, for that matter, could have
been considered our one single goal with all other points in support.
The Panel decided that this should be Goal III to give proper
emphasis to Goals I and II.
Objective..1 - Continually evaluate administrative systems and
redesign as necessary. On this point we wanted to emphasize
the need to not only look at and consider various administrative
procedures but to find some way to re-evaluate such procedures
periodically. Such actions are essential atthis stage of the
Agency's life with the increased need for efficient operation.
Objective 2 - Insure optimum use of financial, human and technical
resources. Tied in with Objective 1 this emphasizes the need
for efficient and effective use of our human and monetary re-
sources and the need to channel as much work into the technical
field as can be handled efficiently.
III. Conclusion
One interesting point which first surfaced during the presentation
of Panels lA and 1B and seemed to continue through the conference
was the similarity of approaches and ideas determined independently
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by separate panels. Though there was limited disagreement with
some of our positions not only during the initial presentation
but later in the conference we had the feeling that with rare
exception most groups of support officers with views and ages
similar to ours would have come up with about the same results.
This seems to indicate that we have hit upon at least some of
the problems facing the Support Directorate. Speaking for
myself and being sure that the Panel would agree with me I
think the conference was an extremely valuable exercise. I
had misgivings about the panel approach with predetermined
subjects but I am delighted with the results. Possibly if
there is another conference within the next 12 months the
approach should be somewhat different to offer a change. For
this conference the results of our 2 1/2 days were excellent.
There should be no question in anyone's mind that some type of
periodic conference in the Headquarters area is a most valuable
tool in our future management and planning.
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29 September 1971
25X1 MEMORANDUM FOR: I Chairman
Agenda Committee
SUBJECT : Report from Panel 1B
The following summary is based upon the panel dis-
cussion and ideas which were generated around the topic
of "Planning for the Future of the Support Directorate".
Participants in our group included:
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Chairman, Panel 1B
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GOAL:
The overall goal of the Support Directorate and Support
careerists should be to develop a more active role in the
policy making of the Agency. This would entail a movement
away from the traditional reactive role of the Support
Directorate toward an initiative, participatory role.
Visualized on a continuum, our current role is between
reactive and informal consultative. Our future role
should be participation in formal policy making:
INFORMAL FORMAL
CONSULTATIVE POLICY
PARTICIPATION
OBJECTIVES:
In light of this goal, five major objectives were identified.
They were:
1. View the Agency as an interdependent system.
2. Integrate managerial policies and programs into a
overall strategy.
3. Formulate a plan to evaluate and expedite change.
4. Involve DDS upper management in Agency policy making.
Involve Support careerists in Directorate policy
making.
5. Reevaluate the current DDS personnel management
"systems".
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TECHNIQUES:
The following proposals were suggested in order to achieve
Panel 1B's Goal and Objectives:
1. Develop overall program planning - if rational
decisions are to be made, we must undertake ob-
jective analysis of probable costs and effective-
ness of alternate courses of action. The current
trend of task-oriented programs must be converted
to a comprehensive approach to meet the current
obligations of our Directorate and Agency in light
of future requirements. This must be conducted
both an intra- and inter-Directorate basis.
2. Centralize all support people/slots/funds in the
DDS - if our Directorate is to be responsible for
the support of the Agency, we must be given the
overall authority to effect this support. The
other Directorates have clearly delineated functions
which are their specialties. If we are to be the
Agency's managers, our Directorate must have this
same responsibility/authority relationship.
3. Formalize means to evaluate and implement dissent -
while there are institutional means to convey and
resolve personal complaints, no such mechanisms
exist for suggested improvements and disagreements
with current policies. Some type of Junior Officers
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Panel or Advisory Group could resolve this need.
Part of this function must be a two-way channel
between management and the suggesters. Notifica-
tion of feasibility and implementation must be
fed back to the originator.
4. Utilize Technology - as a means to reaching more
informed decisions, management must understand
technology's benefits and limitations. While ADP
is normally viewed as technology, the concept also
includes personnel management techniques, e.g. or-
ganizational development. Technology can assist
the Support officer to do a better job with reduced
resources, but we must anticipate and plan its effect
on our traditional role.
5. Interaction and review of career panels - before any
long range planning can be undertaken, the limita-
tions and inconsistancies of the career panels must
be remedied. At the very least, panel criteria must
be reviewed and standardized to insure the equal
evaluation of all Support professionals. This could
be accomplished by having all the panels submit
their actual weighted criteria to a group of panel
chairmen, the CMO and other interested parties. This
group would draft a Support Directorate criteria for
the DDS's approval. The output of this process
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would then become the standard for all DDS panels
(subject to approved particular exceptions).
COMMENTS:
Additional observations which were developed in the panel
included:
1. DDS upper management must be freed from the daily
minutia so that they can devote their talents to'
the broader policy questions.
2. The DDP Ops Support/Non-official cover concept is
a challenge to the traditional role of the DDS.
3. The Support Officer is?more respected as a pro-
fessional in the non-DDP setting.
4. All too frequently, a reduction of slots equals
the elimination of Support slots.
5. In the DDS there is more widespread information
on the workings of DDP panels than there is on
DDS panels.
6. Given the current managerial changes, this might
be an opportune time to propose a more active
role for the Directorate.
CONCLUSION:
In an attempt to unify our Goal, Objectives and Techniques,
Panel 1B suggests that some comprehensive approach be uti-
lized to assess our current position, develop an overall
strategy and assist in its implementation. Based upon
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our knowledge and understanding of the organizational
Development approach, we believe that this could be the
means to achieve our vision of the future.
Since change is inescapable, what we must do is learn to
manage it. Growth and survival can not be taken for
granted. The same methods, procedures and principles
which were successful in the past are no guarantee to
future success.
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SUMMARY COMMENTS SUPPORT OFFICERS CONFERENCE 19-21 SEPTEMBER
Panel 2-A
The Support Career Service:
A Critique of the Current System and Recommendations
For its Improvement
There were eight subtopics identified for discussion by this panel.
During the panel meetings we attempted to handle each subtopic
separately, however, because of the overlap in the substance of these
subtopics it was impossible to treat them as separate items throughout
the panel discussions or in our formal presentation. Likewise, this
summary will group related subtopics.
Subtopic I
Is the "S" Career Service a valid concept for the challenges
of the 70's?
The more significant and obvious challenges of the 70's. were
summarized as follows:
1. With declining numbers of positions throughout the
Agency the Support positions will be highly vulnerable
and as usual subject to extreme pressure from all direc-
torate managers to reduce this built-in overhead. Hence,
a major challenge will be to justify. and defend the need
for general support officers in all components. We anti-
cipate a move on the part of some directorates to preempt
support positions and fill them with their own "managers".
2. The basic support functions will remain, however, there
will be a decreasing number of field support positions
not only in the "S" career service but in the sister
support services. Hence, the support officers in field
stations will be required to assume and perform the
functions of logistics, personnel, security, without
specialists from these offices. Result will be a need
for filling the field positions with flexible, well-
rounded support generalists.
3. The panel agreed that the "S" career service is up to the
challenge of the 70's and should remain the mechanism
to staff Agency-wide support/admin functions. However,
to preserve the integrity of the Support Career Service
in the face of manpower cuts in the directorates will
require thoughtful and aggressive statement of our case
and will not be justified on the grounds of emotion or
compassion.
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Sub-topI cs II, III, V and VII
What does the concept of "a competitive merit system" entail:
does our current system meet the requirements? What is the
role of the career service panel and how does it function?
What are the criteria for advancement in the service and how
are they communicated to its members? What are the advantages
and disadvantages of the current ranking policy?
Without going into great detail on the concept of a "competitive
merit system" we did agree that the essence of the system should
be fair and unbiased mechanism for making major personnel
decisions (i.e., promotion and assignment). We agreed that our
current system appears to be working well but that there is
room for considerable improvement.
A. There are segments of the Support Career Service that are
not competitive nor have they been treated as competitors
in the system. The records officers and the information
processing personnel carrying "S" designees, are really not
in competition with the normal support generalists and
these personnel have been managed on an ad hoc basis.
Some hard decisions are needed on how to fit this category
of specialists into the "S" career service structure.
After considerable discussion we concluded that the best
we could hope for would be a subpanel of the "S" career
service although ideally we should seek a new career
service mechanism which would broaden the base of these
specialists (now in the "S" career service) to include
all records and information processing personnel within
the Support Directorate and hopefully the Agency.
B. The ranking criteria used by the panels is not generally
known to the members of the career service. The two
handouts on this subject appear to cover the generally
accepted items for personnel evaluation, however, there
:was a strong feeling on the part of all panel members
that this criteria did not state what is apparently the
three major considerations in ranking. That is, age,
time in grade and overseas experience. There was general
agreement that these items should not be a significant
criteria for ranking but that unfortunately they appear
to be.
Panel Recommendations for Sub-Topics II, III, V and VII:
1. That it be made a clear statement of policy that ranking
criteria, in order to make it compe.titive)should exclude
considerations of age and time in grade.
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Panel Recommendations for Subtopics II, III, V and VII (cont'd)
2. Our present system lacks the capability to identify and
rapidly promote our really outstanding officers. There
are a few outstanding young officers in our service, we
must be able to identify them and move them to positions
of responsibility. There is no apparent reason why our
service should not now have a 30 year old GS-15 and a 32
year old GS-161 We had it in the past! We should have
it nowl
3. Concerning documentation used by the panels in their
ranking process:
A. Utilize five years of fitness reports rather than
the current practice of only three years.
B. Supplement fitness reports by having the panel
members contact rating officers when desired.
C. A copy of fitness reports prepared or reviewed by
the individual being ranked should be made avail-
able to the panel in order that they may better
judge an individual's performance as a supervisor
and a manager of personnel.
D. The anonymity of sub-panel membership should be
retained.
E. We should continue to exclude promotion recommenda-
tions from the documents reviewed by the panel
during the ranking exercise.
4. Every effort should be made to ensure annual rotation
of panel members, recognizing the limited number of
Super Grades available for duty on the Support Opera-
tions Panel, this may be a problem. However, member-
ship in sub-panels can be appointed to ensure each
annual ranking exercise is managed by "new panels."
5. There is a serious question as to whether or not "part-
time" panel members have sufficient time to devote to
the "ranking-exercise". Admittedly the numbers being
ranked are small in comparison to DDP, however, reviewing
FR's and bio profiles on 135 officers in Grades GS-11
through GS-14 represents a significant task. We there-
fore strongly endorse the use of sub-panels to rank 11's
and 12's and recommend sub-panels be established for
ranking GS-13's. We also suggest that panel members be
"relieved" of current duties one to two weeks during the
ranking exercise to ensure that they have sufficient time
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Panel Recommendations for Subtopics II, III, V and VII (cont'd)
6. In anticipation of a need for a fair and equitable
"selection-out" procedure, rankings should extend from
the top to the bottom. We should adopt DDP policy of
advising those personnel in bottom 5% of where they
stand and provide counselling services in an effort to
improve their performance or prepare them for "selection-
out."
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Subtopic IV
How adequate is the communication between the Career Management
Officer (CMO) and all the members of the Career Service, e.g.,
on vacancies, personnel policies and general career service
matters?
This panel and indeed every one at the conference, agreed that
the present CMO is doing an outstanding job in communicating
commendable! However, there is simply too much that needs to
be communicated to handle on a person-to-person basis.
We recommend more use of the written word to define policy,
procedures, as well as "news" of the "S" career service
personnel changes. Issues that should be made a'matter of
written record and communicated to all include:
"open-door" policy and frank responses to all queries is
with "S" careerists on.a person-to-person basis.
A. An explanation of how the present panels are constituted
and the instructions they receive as ranking criteria.
B. Advise on an individual basis the results of the annual
promotion ranking exercise. At least to the extent that
an individual is told he is in the top 10%, the middle
80% or the bottom 10%. In this regard, individuals should
be told the total headroom available at their grade level
and the total number of promotions effected in their grade
level.
C. The relationships, formal and informal, between the sub-
panels, the Support Operations Panel and the ADDS and DDS..
D. A bulletin or monthly newletter from the CMO announcing
all personnel promotions and assignments. This should be
extended to the field if possible. In the past this type
of news has been distributed in a variety of ways, i.e.,
the DDS office heads meeting, the SSA Support Officers
meetings and informal memos to support
officers. The CMO should be charged with undertaking
this type of communication and ensuring that each member
of the service receives a copy of what has to be said.
E. Regarding vacancy lists, we suggest that prior to
requesting individual submission of the annual Headquarters
Reassignment Questionnaires, the CMO circulate to all a
list of anticipated vacancies for the following year.
In making this recommendation we recognized that the
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system makes it extremely difficult to forecast vacancies
and they are always subject to change, however, whatever
information is known should be made available.
F. The panel also recommended that HRQ's be submitted through
command channels in the same manner that FRQ's are now
processed.
G. There was unanimous agreement that the Support Officers
Conference be made an annual affair even if it means
scheduling the conference over a weekend on our own time.
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SUBJECT : Support Conference, Panel 2B. Recommendations
In outline below are the principal recommendations presented
at the Support Conference by Panel 2B.
1. Management and Career Development
a. Every key position in the S Career Service (not necessarily
those associated with high grades) should be reviewed to deter-
mine the qualifications and experience needed to fill those jobs
as they become vacant through retirement or other reasons.
Concurrently, a comprehensive review should be made of the
personnel inventory in the S Career Service to determine present
qualifications and experience and the future training and work
experience necessary for those officers who will be filling
these key positions.
b. Officers qualified to fill key positions within the S Career
Service will be those who have had a variety of work and training
experience on a regular rotational basis, including headquarters
and field operational support assignments and headquarters staff
positions. Too often, for example, support officers are allowed
to spend the greater part of their careers in operational support
duties, thereby omitting headquarters staff assignments wherein
essential management and planning experience for future key
assignments could be obtained.
c. A minority within Panel 2B strongly recommends that the Support
Directorate take steps to gain control of its positions overseas
and elsewhere within the Agency. Unless this vital step is
taken, career and directorate development, through planned
assignments and training, will be stifled.
d.?. Consideration should be given to the designation of a Career
Development Officer for S careerists. This individual would
assist the Career Management Officer in his duties and plan for
appropriate internal and external training and assignments that
assist the career development of S careerists consistent with
the needs of the service. Alternatively, greater attention to
career development of S careerists could be given by the Staff
Operations Panel or designated subpanels.
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.SUBJECT: Support Conference, Panel 2B Recommendations
e. The Support Directorate should plan and administer its own
internal training program for all members of the directorate.
OTR could be utilized in the presentation of the various courses,
but the determination of the type of courses, and as much as
possible, the selecting of the courses should be a function of
the Support Directorate.
a. Position vacancy lists should be provided to S careerists
describing positions becoming available and their appropriate
dates.
b. To assist headquarters in its planning for future assignments
of S careerists, job and rotational preferences stated in FRQs
and HRQs should be made binding on the individual unless he has
a valid reason for requesting last minute changes. For example,
an individual who in his FRQ requests rotation at the end of
three years should not be allowed four months before rotation
to request and be approved for a fourth year in his present
assignment without a valid reason. Such valid reason would not
be that the Chief of Station suddenly decides that he wants the
support officer to remain. This recommendation will also
facilitate the publication of vacancy lists noted in a. above.
c. S careerists should be scheduled for periodic group meetings
by grade level (at least annually) with the CMO to discuss such
matters as promotion prospects, assignments (including training),
and the rating system criteria. Panel 2B recognized that
communication is a two-way street and that S careerists also
should initiate contact with the CMO whenever there is a
significant change in their personal situations that appropriately
may be brought to the CMO's attention.
3. Rating Process
a. "Specialists" within the S Career Service should be afforded
equal opportunity for advancement along with other S careerists
in the "generalist" category. This may require reserving promo-
tions exclusively for these specialists so that they will not
be forced to compete for the same headroom with the generalists.
Perhaps, those positions within the S Career Service that are
informally designated as specialist positions should be reviewed
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to determine if they all are truly specialist positions and
whether or not some personnel occupying these positions could
be rotated into other assignments that could broaden their
experience and increase their versatility. Likewise, certain
generalists could be rotated into specialist positions, such
as in Records Management.
b. Rotate members of the Staff Operations Panel to provide for a
complete turnover of personnel every three or four years.
c. Consideration should be given to making the CMO chairman of
the Staff Operations Panel.
d. Continue the subpanels of the Staff Operations Panel, and es-
tablish subpanels to rank S careerists of the same grade. Sub-
panel members should be two grades above those being rated.
e. Subpanel members should be rotated yearly to avoid having the
members rank the same candidates for promotion each year.
4. Lateral Entry
a. S careerists should be chosen mainly from among personnel already
assigned to other career services within the Support Directorate.
Minimum reliance should be placed on the CT program for candidates
to the SCareer Service. This will allow the Support Directorate
to evaluate the work performance and interest of candidates in
the S Career Service before they are chosen.
b. Perhaps, as with the earlier practice, the S Career Service
designation should not be given to officers below the grade of
GS-13. Selected junior officers could be rotated in and out of
their career specialties to fill vacancies at small overseas
posts and to perform other support generalist duties elsewhere
in the Agency while retaining their P, F, L, etc. career
designations. This procedure would provide an even better
opportunity to evaluate performance and interest in a career as
a support generalist. Careful attention would have to be given
early to career planning for younger officers in the Support
Directorate who show promise of becoming capable S careerists.
Chairman, Panel 2B
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PANEL 3A
Chairman,
D
THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF THE SUPPORT OFFICER
We recognized, as a Panel, that the 70's are going to be
lean years. Less people and money but with basically the
same types of functions. How can we assure ourselves that we
can meet the challenge? We must make the most of the personnel
and money that we have available to us. Although we now find
that our personnel requirements are not great in numbers we,
of course, must address ourselves as to how we should choose
our new personnel, and the type of training needed to give them
the tools to accomplish their jobs. On passing we will also
attempt to present an image of the Support Officer and we will
address ourselves to executive potential. We will end our
presentation presenting some few recommendations to the senior
managers in the Support Directorate.
The needs of the Career Service are paramount. What are
these needs? What are the guidelines to fulfilling these needs?
Nowhere can we find a set of norms that tells us there is a
method of selecting and training a Support Officer. We unanimously
agree that there should be some guidelines established within the
"S" Career Service that will incorporate some of the thinking
developed, through dialogue, by members of this panel.
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Selection In
In the past,. the needs of the Service were satisfied by
the utilization of the CT program and by the use of the lateral
entry system. As many as 50-60 CT personnel entered the "S"
Career Service at one time and because of this we find we have
head room problems for the first half of the 70's with the
second half offering some little relief. With the tight situation
facing us for the next decade, we do not believe we can afford
the luxury of participating further in the CT program. RATHER,
we should actively seek lateral transferees from within the other
DD/S components, other Directorates, other government agencies,
and in the private business sector if this is our only recourse.
The needs of the Service come first. If we have to have a
particular type of individual, we should include lateral entry
up to the GS-14 level. However, for the purposes of this
discussion, we recommend lateral entry at the GS-9 level.
The individual should have about 25 to 30 years of work
experience ahead of him. At this grade and age we would expect
the individual to have a specialty under his belt in one of the
sister career services; i.e., Finance, Logistics, Personnel, etc.
The individual should have a degree in either business or public
administration or equivalent on-the-job experience in a specialized
type job. In this instance we are looking for expertise and
believe with a concerted effort on the part of management we can
find the types of personnel we are looking for.
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The prospective "S" career candidate should have the
necessary educational and social levels comparable to those
officers he will be expected to support throughout the Agency.
He must have a genuine interest in being involved in Support-
type matters; in being a housekeeper, if need be, and clearing
the way for the functional and technical specialists. We want
a leader; one who fully understands the missions and functions
of the Agency and Directorate and one who will seek to accomplish
these goals. The individual should be made fully aware of the
types of jobs he will be performing: the good and the bad. The
individual should have a genuine interest in people. He should
help other people to get ahead and also understand their problems.
He should be able to express himself orally and in writing and
have high values-and ethical standards. He should also be an
action man, a doer; not one who sits around and complains.
Lastly he should be honest, mature and responsible and be willing
to work harder than the people he is supporting. Be humble!
For as long as we are Support Officers, we will be taking direction
from someone else. We are always responding to someone else's
requirements.
Selection Out!
We interpreted this to mean to give to management a tool,
or mechanism, which could be developed to identify those individuals
in the "S" Career Service who become stagnant and are referred to
as deadwood.
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This mechanism could very well be copied from other career
,services by identifying the lowest 2 or 5% in the panel rankings
for each grade level. If appropriate, the individuals in the
lower rankings should be encouraged to retire, voluntarily. Look
to see if the individual could revert to a specialist role within
the DDS, even if training is required. If this is not possible,
shop the file throughout the Agency or if this fails, look to
involuntary retirement. Lastly, prepare necessary papers and
dismiss him from the Agency for cause.
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THE CAREER TRAINING SCHEDULE FOR THE SUPPORT OFFICER
Assumption - Initial selection of an "S" careerist presumes
that he will have 25 to 30 years of service prior to retirement
.and an educational background or equivalent experience in public.
or business administration (EOD GS-09).
The career training program we propose would be based on
an ideal progression and would be comprised of four training
parts:
EOD
Career Provisional
Mid-Career Rotational
Executive Provisional
EOD Training
One week, the first, should be a familiarization with the
emphasis on the role of the Support Officer.
One month on-the-job Services orientation (one week each
Security, Commo, Medic, and Training).
Three months on-the-job Resources orientation (one month
each Personnel, Finance, Logistics).
Three weeks miscellaneous (one week management course; one
week ADP familiarization; one week records familiarization).
One month Directorate familiarization.
The EOD training program would also take advantage of
applicable OTR courses which could be scheduled as appropriate.
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The second phase of training for the "S" careerist
(career provisional) would comprise about 5 years of his
employment. During this period the candidate would be enrolled
in appropriate component training; e.g., DD/P Ops course or
maybe a writing workshop in DD/I. Part-time language training
would also be undertaken during this period.
The third phase of the employee's training, the mid-career
phase, would comprise approximately 5-20 years of his career and
would take the employee up to the GS-15 level. In addition to
the formal mid-career course, courses in advanced management
are recommended and the employee would be encouraged to continue
his language study. The employee would also be considered for
senior service schools, which this panel considered as required
and not as an optional requirement.
The fourth phase, executive provisional, would comprise
about the 20th-25th year of the employee's career, up to grade
GS-16. In this phase we would emphasize executive development
and management training programs. Look to Harvard, Stanford,
Pittsburgh for outside the Agency programs. Look also to
inter-Agency training programs; i.e., Department of State, Civil
Service Commission, and Department of Agriculture.
The first four phases, hopefully, would lead to the executive
assignment at about the 25th-30th years of the employee's career.
These assignments are as Director and Deputy Director of Support
Services and other appropriate super-grade assignments.
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The suggested periods of training for each of the
training phases are not as important as the concept of
outlining career progression for training and developmental
purposes.
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THE IMAGE AND EXECUTIVE POTENTIAL OF THE SUPPORT OFFICER
Administrator or housekeeper? Probably a combination of
both. At a small station overseas, early in his career, the
Support Officer will be involved personally in housekeeping
type of chores. Junior officers will tend to get involved more
in this type of Support but it will diminish as he progresses
in his career. The individual himself has a lot to do with
what kind of an image he portrays. If he has learned along
the way, he will convince his supervisors that he is truly a mana-
ger. This can only be done by demonstrating to those we are
supporting that we can assist them in getting their job done in
a more effective way. To insure that this image can be maintained,
the panels should strive to match the individual's personality,
skills, and other qualifications as much as possible to the
individuals he will be supporting.
We all agreed that Executive Potential is elusive. It
can be recognized and is done so now but more or less on an
informal basis. The Fitness Report does point out those individuals
who have this quality but not in a very positive way. Our
consensus of opinion is that the Fitness Report, or attachment
thereto, should provide the vehicle for rating the Executive
Potential of "S" careerists and should be addressed to all
individuals in grades 13 and above. The FR should be reviewed
by a senior "S" careerist closest to the individual being rated;
e.g., Chief of Support,
should be rated for Executive
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RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Formalize hiring procedures for new and lateral
entrance into SUPPORT Career Service.
2. Establish mechanism for the identification and
selection out of bottom 2 to 5%.
3. Match man, personality, and skills to the job to
be done.
4. CMO compile and maintain detailed job description
for support positions world-wide.
5. Formalize long-range training program at EOD.
6. FR's to be reviewed by "S" careerist and comment
made on Executive Potential.
ceoir I
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LU i 6ud'tII L
PANEL 3B REPORT
"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
The panel considered as the first part of this topic, the defi-
nition of a Support Officer. It was the panel's feeling that the Support
Officer is essentially a manager who coordinates the use of his person-
nel toward relieving line management of administrative duties. The
means to accomplish this end should be responsive team effort.
We did not consider the Support Officer as a housekeeper. We
felt that he needed "nuts -and -bolts" abilities and that there was certain
low-level work, which was titled "donkey" work, that existed and needed
to be done. In many cases it was the Support Officer who had to per-
form these functions.
Essentially, the thrust of the discussion was towards improving
the image of the Support Officer; certain means were suggested. The
first means would be to remide the Support Officer not to function as
a "cop". He is not a policeman, he is there to guide and counsel.
Secondly, he should join the management team and participate in de-
cision making. Thirdly, he must show resourcfulness and imagination
in accomplishing the goal of his unit, office, or base. Fourthly, we
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"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
Page Two
felt the Support Officer has to find his place and develop his role on
the management team. We acknowledge that the Support Officer's
role would vary by who his chief is, what the time frame is, and him-
self as an individual. Finally, we felt the Support Officer has to bal-
ance integrity with humility.
The panel spent much time discussing the qualifications for
entry into the Support General career Service. We felt that there
were a number of intangibles that had to be considered. The first
of these is versitility, followed by his attitude. We used attitude to
mean the ability to accomplish the job needed in the proper time frame.
The panel also felt some people have an inherent talent and interest
for managing. Their ability can be refined, but not instilled. People
with this ability should be chosen. The panel also felt that anyone
entering the Support General career service should have a specialty
or functional background in one or more of the support disciplines.
The Support Officer should also have a breadth of interest so that he
can see all ramifications of a problem and is able to perceive what
must be done. Finally, the panel considered that a degree at the
Bachelor level is desirable. The degree requirement generated much
discussion on the part of other participants at the Conference; many
feeling that a degree is unessential.
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"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
Page Three
The panel considered that there are two basic problems fac-
ing the Support General service at the present time. One is finding
meaningful jobs for junior officers and the other problem is filling
certain of the lower graded overseas jobs with qualified individuals.
To this end, we suggested certain levels in the professional life of the
Support Officer. The first level would be that of a trainee. The
trainee would be around a GS-10 and below level. He would be drawn
from a functional office, assigned on a rotational basis, and would
retain his functional career service designation during this trainee
level. By using these rotational officers for the junior grade jobs,
we feel openings would exist in the functional offices to allow assign-
ment of present junior graded Support Officers for a two to three year
tour so that they could gain some specialty knowledge. The second
professional level would be that of a journeyman. This would com-
prise Support Officers in GS grades 11 to 13. At this point, the offi-
cer would join the S career service. Entry would be drawn from his
functional offices, in most part, although direct entry would not be ex-
cluded. Entry would be based on assessment, qualifications, and the
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"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
Page Four
need for more career officers. The final level would be that of
executive, and these would be Support Officers GS-14 and above.
The panel felt that by distinguishing Support Officers into various
levels, the staffing of lower graded jobs would be solved and that
a home for the present GS-10/11 Support Officers would be found.
Further, the problem of overkill, where overqualified Support Of-
ficers are assigned to junior jobs, would be eliminated. By this
method, the Support services would have an opportunity to properly
assess and select future Support Officers and, thereby, would not
be faced with the selection out dilemma. We saw two problems in.
our approach. The major problem being available ceiling, and the
other, time required on the part of the trainee.
Training for the professional Support Officer should be geared
to the professional level. The panel saw trainee training as being a
function of the parent career development training program. It was also
suggested that prior to an overseas assignment to a more general job,
the trainee be afforded job introduction on a rotational basis to other
functional offices. We also felt that an OTR training program utiliz-
ing role planning for a two to three week period would be beneficial.
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"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
Page Five
Finally, on-the-job training, possible in a DDP Support Staff,
would be helpful prior to an overseas assignment. As a journey-
man, the Support Officer should attend the Trends and Highlights
Course. He should also be considered on a selective basis for the
Mid-Career Executive Development Course and the Advanced Manage-
ment Planning Course. We felt at this point in time, consideration
should be given to external training at the managerial and executive
development courses offered by various Universities. We see this
type of training as strengthening an individual's managerial analysis
ability and allowing an exchange of ideas with industry participants.
This would be viewed as mind-expanding training, not training for
expertise knowledge. At the executive level, the Support Officer
should be considered for senior schools. The reason for this would
be discipline training; discipline in writing, thinking, and gaining an
overview into other problems. Finally, we felt that language training
was essential for any overseas assignment. Language training should
be at least the courtesy level.
The term executive potential was an elusive term to the panel.
We felt that an executive is one who is able to bring a large team to-
gether to accomplish a given task. We felt, also, that potential should
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"Professionalism of the Support Officer"
Page Six
be defined as the ability to see beyond the problems at hand and a
willingness to solve these problems. It is the ability to perform at
a higher level and to utilize sharp judgement. The Support Officer' s
potential for executive level jobs would be assessed during the senior
journeyman level. Executive ability should be hightened by the ex-
ternal training mentioned and by rotational assignments, giving him
the breadth of background necessary to assume the various senior
jobs in the Support services.
The inter-Directorate exchange program into non-support
type jobs was not a favorable idea to this panel. We felt that it was
not useful when the exchange was into a substantive discipline area,
as it is doubtful that either the Support Officer or his career service
would gain from this experience. However, where jobs exist that a
manager is needed to pull together at the senior level, we feel the
exchange program could be beneficial. Examples of these types of
jobs would be an executive officer or a planning officer. The panel
offered that the exchange program should be used when it is of mu-
tual benefit to -the organization, the office, and the individual.
Acting Chief, Support Branch
OSP/DD/S&T
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman, Agenda Committee
SUBJECT Support Officers Conference--Panel 4A
Report
PANEL 4A CAREER MANAGEMENT--WHAT IS
OUR CURRENT SYSTEM AND WHAT SHOULD IT BE?
1. Our first order of business was to examine
the modus operendi of the Staff Operations Panel. It
was our concensus that the Staff Operations Panel is
an effective and necessary managment tool. However,
to perhaps enhance its present effectiveness, we would
like to offer the following suggestions:
A. More Frequent Rotation of Members
We realize that this is a problem because
of the grade requirements and number of those
.available, but would it be feasible to lower
the grade requirement to GS-15? Also, a member
could serve more than once but only after a break
of two or three years. We feel that the rotation
of members would possibly. encourage new and fresh
ideas to the panel on a continuing basis.
B. Wider Base of Representation
We feel that every directorate should be
represented. For example, no one from DDS&T sits
on the Panel
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C. Ranking Subcommittees
This has been an excellent innovation
and we recommend its continuance. We feel
that the Subcommittees should be rotated and
that all available information, including the
official files, should be made available to
them.
D. Vote for the Career Management Officer
We feel that the Career Management
Officer, more than anyone else on the Panel,
is in a better position to evaluate us, and
therefore should have a vote on the Panel.
Subtopic 1: The "needs of the Service" versus the
individual's aspirations; what degree of personal choice
can the Career Service afford? It was the concensus of
this panel that we must never lose sight of our mission,
but at the same time we can't afford to just overlook
individual desires. The two must be aligned as closely
as possible. We feel that this can only be accomplished
through a strong Career Development Program. To do this,
we must strengthen the cultivation of our Support
Careerists both on and off the job. At the present,
the CMO is somewhat prohibited from fulfilling this
important aspect of career development because of the
various hats he wears. The same holds true for the
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Assistant CMO. Therefore, it is suggested that a Career
Development Officer'3(CDO).job be established under the
cognizance of the Career Management Officer. The CDO
would be responsible for: A. reviewing Support
Careerists records in order to evaluate possible areas
of career development both on and off the job. We must
seek to eliminate the connotation that everyone is his
own training officer and that the "squeaky wheel gets the
oil". B. Serve as an advisor to the CMO on matters of
assignments and career progression. C. On a regularly
continuing basislreview current assignments and career
plans with Support Careerists and to identify problems
which will limit assignments and training. D. The
strength of our Career Development Program will determine
managements degree of flexibility with regard to individual
aspirations. We realize that management reaches a point
when the "needs of the service" must be met and that
directed assignments are a necessary management tool.
Subtopic 2: What adjustments to current policies
are necessary in order for the Support Directorate to
make effective use of young, professionally trained
generalists equipped with new ideas and management
techniques?
1. Establishment of a 10-year Norm. Based
upon the premise that the ideal Support Officer
should be someone with a wide range of experience,
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both at Headquarters and in the field, plus
a solid framework of Agency training, the
Career Service should proceed to establish
"norms" which would apply and begin with young
support careerists upon EOD. The norms for
experience and training should not be so formal
as to constitute a career plan but which serve
as a guide to the Staff Operations Panel. We
feel that this planning should cover roughly a
ten-year time span. We suggest the following
as a proposed norm for experience and training:
A. Experience.
1. Two tours outside the
Headquarters area, three years of
which is at one post overseas, but
no more than 6 years in toto overseas.
2. Headquarters tour on a
rotational basis in either personnel,
finance, logistics, or security.
3. Headquarters tour in DDI
or DDS&T.
B. Training
1. CT training for certain individuals
2. Intelligence and World Affairs
3. Basic Operations Course
4. Field Finance and Logistics
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5. Supervision and Management Course,
6. Support Services Review
7. LangUage training as appropriate
2. Establishment of Third Support Support
Officer in Larger Divisions. Some of the larger
divisions of DDP would be ideal for the establish-
ment of assistants to the Support Chiefs.
3. Establishment of Junior Advisory Panel
Although.we did not completely thrash out, there
was evidence from Panel 4A that there would be
problems identified, but that the techniques for
solving them would be few. In this vein, it was
hoped that perhaps a junior panel of some type
could be charged to explore these identified
problems and perhaps recommend appropriate changes.
Subtopic 3: How can we overcome the deficiencies.
of our current assignment and job rotation policies?
1. Publish current policies.
2. Publish what vacancies are available.
3. Notify potential employees.
4. Insure effective and productive assignments.
5. Eliminate rotation for the sake of rotation.
Subtopic 4: How can we better reorient the returning
field officer to the Headquarters operating environment?
1. Better communications to the field
regarding matters concerning our career service.
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2. A minimum of six months prior to
the return of an employee from overseas we
should be able to tell him where he will be
assigned and to what job.
3. Training
a. Clandestine Service Review Course.
b. Support Service Review (Trends
and Highlights).
Subtopic 5: Is our personal rank assignment policy
being abused as a management tool? We feel that there
are two sides of the coin/ regarding PRA's.
Good Side:
A.
Competitive evaluation
B.
Cover crisis situations.
Bad Side:
A.
Holds back promotions
B.
Keeps the qualified employees
in lower grades from filling higher
positions.
C. The list of PRA's is growing fast.
We must either upgrade those positions or
fill them with personnel in the grades called
for.
Subtopic 6: What are the problems associated with
the management of specialists who compete within the "S"
Career Service? We felt that the specialists must be
ranked,-if for no other reasons, identity and morale.
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Perhaps periodic rotation of assignments with personnel
in the generalist field would help the ranking of the
specialist against the support generalist.
Subtopic 7: Should the performance evaluation of
the support generalist continue to be totally delegated
to program officers not responsible to the head of the
"S" Career Service? We feel that in order to maintain
the internal discipline necessary, the rating of support
generalists by program officers outside the "S" Career
Service must continue. We must satisfy our customer.
Summary :
It was the concensus of our panel that the
conference was a success. People suddenly became aware
of things that they really haven't given much thought
to in the past. II-was also evident to us that there
must be appreciable evidence by management that identi-
fied problem areas are being looked into and that results,
negative or positive, are passed down to us.
I hope that we have not conveyed to you that
all is bad, because that has not been our intent. This
is a good Career Service and it is rewarding to me that
we are seeking to better still improve it.
Thank you for the opportunity of participating
and the experience I obtained in chairing Panel 4A. I
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found it very stimulating and rewarding.
On behalf of Panel 4A,
_8-
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5aaitrskpyy,*`~~ utp a}s? j~, e a 9"Y. `%;L iwL.Y
F ^41~fli~m{MbYeA ~ i~li~ ~ it ld w
28 September 1971
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman, Support Conference Agenda
Committee
SUBJECT Panel 4B Recommendations
1. During the decade of the 70's, the Support
"Generalist must be prepared to perform an ever expanding
role in responding to the administrative needs of not only
the Support Directorate, but the other Directorates as
well. The Support Directorate must focus upon devising
a program designed to identify, develop and select highly
qualified generalists to fill responsible positions of
administrative management throughout the Agency.
2. Members of Panel 4B visualize the "S" Career
Service as forming the basis for a manpower pool of high
quality professionally trained and experienced managers.
Equipped with modern day managerial tools and techniques
through continued participation in the educative process
and well-rounded in job experience and knowledge through
rotational assignments to all Directorates in generalist,
functional and specialist duties, the "S" Careerist of
the 70's could be looked toward to fill many of the
administrative management oriented positions existing in
all components of the Agency. To this end, we submit
the attached recommendations for consideration and
additional study.
3. To insure continuity of the dialogue and the
reasoning underlying our recommendations, we urge that
at least one member of Panel 4B be assigned to any group
convened to pursue its recommendations.
STAT
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r In
Panel 4B Recommendations
1. Devise and implement an organized Career Develop-
ment Program, under which the Career Service and the
individual - in a participative process - could determine
immediate and long-range career goals.
a. Identify administrative management oriented
positions, irrespective of functional office or
Directorate affiliation, that may be filled by
qualified generalists and centralize the responsi-
bility for assignments to these positions in the DDS.
b. Analyze and define prerequisites of job
experience, overseas duty, education and training
for these positions.
c. Establish standards for progression in assign-
ments and grade, with emphsis upon inter-directorate
and intra-directorate rotation, continued education
and training, and familiarization in functional and
specialist assignments.
d. Devise - in broad terms - and communicate
alternative patterns of career development - in terms
of these prerequisites and standards - that would
allow for knowledgeable career direction and decisions,
which would meet with both the needs of the service
and personal preferences as to timing and location of
future assignments.
e. Require performance evaluations of all "S"
Careerists to be reviewed and commented upon by an
appropriate senior Support officer.
f. Provide opportunities for all grade levels to
participate in Directorate decision making or decision
recommending bodies.
g. Initiate positive action to resolve the
current PRA situation, to return its use to its
proper role as a management tool.
~~yd~9C d JS NN t r.
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177 01; T
~ILY
2. Investigate the feasibility of an inter-functional
and intra-directorate management career service at the
senior level.
3. Review the State Department's Macomber Report for
applicability of its conclusions and recommendations to
the "S" Career Service and the Support Directorate.
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 '21 September 1971
CONFERENCE WRAP;-UP
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Mr. Coffey opened our conference (on Sunday, 19 September 1971)
with a discussion of why we are meeting, and I think he called the turn when
he said he hoped that we would bridge the gaps caused by the dispersal of
our Support Officers and open up informal communications. He especially
mentioned giving the younger officers a chance to be heard. Well, I think
we all agree that they have had that chance and have taken full advantage of
it. At the same time, I think that they have had a chance to hear the view of
their older--not necessarily wiser, but older--colleagues. We went on from
that after I description of our conference format, and Bob
Wattles gave us a thoroughly informative rundown on the Career Service
PMMP for the 70's. We learned that things will be a lot tighter for the next
several years but over -all the picture wasn't as bleak as we all feared. The
opportunity (provided by this conference) to have an impact on personnel
planning for the 70's appealed to us all.
(After this introduction) we started with our panel work, of course,
and we had our first panel report yesterday afternoon. The theme of the
conference was participation and dialogue and I think we have had that in full
rewarding measure. As I proceed I hope I won't overlook too many of the
significant recommendations that have been made, but should I do so please
realize that each of the panel chairmen has agreed to provide me with a
written report on what was agreed to in each panel, so there will be in the
raw material for the final report of the conference a clear statement of
each of the recommendations made. We guarantee that each of those
w recommendations will certainly be in the final report and will go forward to
top management. Inevitably, as I structured this (I hope) brief report,
comments that were made later in the conference came to mind as I was
thinking about the things that were discussed first off. I'll talk about the
four subjects in the sequence in which we heard them, but there will be a
certain amount of cross reference to items which came up later and I hope
I don't leave out too many of the significant points of cross reference.
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jillrl~L
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25X1
On the subject of the future of the Support Directorate, perhaps a
significant thing to mention is a fact that pointed out: the two
workshops, without collusion or coordination, arrived at sets of proposals
that were amazingly similar. One spoke in terms of goals, the other in
terms of objectives; one in terms of objectives under the goals, the other
in terms of techniques, but the basic themes of both reports had to do with
the same subject. Panel A wanted to improve our professional. image and
spoke of Support participation in substantive decisions; Panel B spoke of
integrating managerial policy and involving the DD/S upper management in
Agency policy making. It is basically the same concept being discussed here.
Dissent was one of our topics and we put it into practice as we had
our discussions. A number of people said they presently do participate.
25X1 I remember Imtiking the point that he has very :fine accesss and
feels that he is fully a participant in the planning process. The panel. countered
these several comments about participation as it does exist by saying it's
perhaps not enough to rely totally upon the ability of the individual to build
a place for himself; we need some form of institutionalized access to the
planning process. Again to show the cross talk, there is a legitimate question
that was raised about how much we can legislate this sort of thing, but the
need has been explored in some depth here.
Both panels felt we had to have control over our Support positions
and we had a group go over that again this afternoon. The concern expressed
by Mr. Wattles over the fact that we budget by component and thus may have
problems of effectively bringing about such a change was answered in part
25X1
by I who pointed out that our ground rules on budgeting are
largely internally adopted. We do recognize there are some practical.
problems here, but this is one thing that has come up again and again in
the conference- -some way or other, if we are going to be able to plan our
future as a directorate we need to be able to know what positions we are
talking about and what jobs we'll be staffing.
H. G. 's remarks on the complexity of the assignment mechanism
have a bearing here. We agree that we can't and wouldn't want to cram
officers clown the throats of unwilling Chiefs of Station or, if we are talking
about Headquarters assignments which will perhaps be more numerous in
years to come, we don't want to force people into jobs where they are not
wanted. At the same time it is clear that some form of consultation is
going to be necessary even if we should be successful in obtaining control
over these individual positions.
25X1
An idea repeated by the first two panels had to do with the creation
of an environment to encourage innovation. I think we all would agree
with ho made the point that it's clear at the moment we have
ample evidence, in the existence of this conference if nothing else, that
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25X1
we have a top command which is willing to look for new ways to communicate.
It's not afraid of innovation. We're talking to them at this moment about
change in a climate which encourages new ideas and innovation. However,
the panel which addressed this specifically in our agenda felt that we needed
formal recognition of the individual officer's creative efforts in the process
of evaluating his performance and that we needed to find some way to
institutionalize access to the top management. Related to this, because
we are talking about access in order to bring about change or play a part
in that change, we had considerable discussion about dissent and we seem
to tie this to communications ---effective communications up and down within
the directorate. We have agreement that we have communications but that
we need more and better structured communications, up and down, not just
on career matters but on matters of management concern other than those
involving personnel.
The panels called for a formal means of evaluating and implementing
dissenting views and during a session at the bar one possible way of bringing 25X1
this about came up in discussion with Bob Wattles and and several
others. Suddenly Wattles turned to and said "Maybe you should be our
program management officer" and we all applauded. I was briefing Mr. 25X1
Coffey over lunch today about the way the Panel report yesterday afternoon
went and when I got to this comment he said, "Isn't that funny, because as
you've been talking about these other things I was thinking wouldn't that be
a good role for I I' I think perhaps we have in the making the
beginnings of a formalized access for all of us suggesting new ideas, new
ways of doing things, to the management of the directorate. One of the
suggestions that's been made is the establishment of a junior reference panel
through which ideas could flow. I personally see this panel as reporting to
~f this becomes the final decision about this. I'm not trying to load
it in any way but it seems to be building in that direction.
On this question of dissent, I think it important that we mention again
that there was general agreement in terms of the individual officer and his
grievances H. G. did a fine job in providing us with all the access we would
25X1 possibly need and use, tol the ADDS and the DD/S. He is given
plaudits for the way he keeps his door open and provides this connecting link
on individual problems. There was an expressed, felt need for feedback
from the top and in this regard we recall that Mr. Wattles mentioned the
possibility of periodic meetings at Headquarters in which Support Officers
would gather as, presently, Personnel Officers gather monthly to hear what the
latest thinking is in their Career Service.
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One specific suggestion by Panel 1 which really bears upon
career development matters more than on their assigned topic was an.
across -the -directorate suggestion and certainly worth recor.diug. It was
the idea that the evaluation panel from each of the other support offices,
the functional offices, should develop and then compare their criteria
for promotion, the idea being that we should work toward a greater degree
of comparability in the standards being used throughout the Career Services
(within the directorate).
In a long discussion of Organizational Development, once we got past
the fact that OD didn't mean "olive drab," we learned that it is a process of
looking at the human side of an organization with the purpose of diagnosing
whaf people see in their organization. I think it was who pointed
out that this conference has been an effort, although somewhat untutored and
clumsy, in just,that process of Organization Development. The concept of
making more use of the techniques of O. D. seem to appeal to all of us.
On the matter of external training, we don't have as much consensus
as perhaps would be ideal and I think all of us are anxious to hear what: Mr.
Coffey has to say about this point. He has participated in some of the
discussion on this matter today. There is clearly a large body of thought
that formal training is over. -rated. An equally vocal group sees training as good
for its own sake, for mindstretching, for what it does to provide access 1:o atc:~w
techniques needed to solve problems yet to be defined--and there has been in
several of the discussion, the suggestion that if we are to have full pr. idee in our
Career Service and have :full professional stature, we need formal education.
Again, we have no real consensus here. We seem to be talking on several
different levels and planes and I personally believe that it is an area that: needs
a great deal more exploration. I think that perhaps we learned something
interesting about practical deci.sions,regarding education and relative priorities
when H. G. told us that, faced with a choice between overseas assignment
and pursuing a Master's Degree, the employee who chose the Master's Degree
is no longer an employee. That I suspect says something about our priorities
regarding education.
On the subject of a critique of the "S" Career Service, again many
points were made that have come up as common threads in the conference.
We heard from H. G. that he felt that his, earn had been burning throughout this
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25X1
conference but--and I will repeat myself--there was a clear vote of
confidence in the way he handled the CMO job. The panels concluded that
the Support Career Service still makes sense as a way of organizing
people for the problems of the 70's, although this was left without detailed
response and I have a feeling that perhaps we haven't looked as deeply as
we should have done at the question of whether the "S" Career Service, as
presently structured, is valid. We were pursuing that point in our discussion
just a few minutes ago, asking questions about whether we ought to go back
.to the idea of a separate career service at the senior management level,
filling junior positions with people from the functional offices in the
directorate. Again this hasn't been explored perhaps as much as it should
have been but for the moment we have addressed ways of making the present
system work better. The panels assumed that we had a. competitive merit
system, again without really defining what they conceived of as a competitive
merit system --and the Agenda Committee had rather hoped that it might get
a little deeper attention than it did--but facing the question of improving the
system as it stands they expressed concern for the fair treatment of specialists
and pointed out that after all the number of specialists, given the development
of technology,. is likely to increase.
There was clear agreement that ranking criteria should be
publicized. I believe it was who voiced an uneasy feeling
that, even with the ranking criteria available to its from the two panels
that handled the GS-11 and GS-12 rankings, many feel that age and time
in grade and overseas experience play a larger part in the process than
the words in the published criteria would suggest. I wouldn't suggest this
as a credibility gap but we have seen, in times past, a great deal of
attention paid to these factors and I think we will all be watching with. interest
to see how quickly we arrive at the 30-year -old GS -15 that 25X1
suggested ought to be one of our goals. There was clear agreement we
ought to continue the use of subpanels; that rotation through those subpa.n.els
should be frequent; that the panels should have more time to do their work;
that perhaps there should be a special panel of GS -15's ranking the GS -13's.
There was some disagreement on whether the panel should be accessible to
the individuals getting ranked; one group thinking that the members should
be anonymous; another thinking that they should be available for consultation.
The., important thing here is that we do agree that we want to be participants,
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through this device, in the ranking process. One of the panels had the
rather novel idea -which has been discussed before but I've never heard
actually and seriously proposed in this faslion--that the quality of a man's
fitness reports (those he prepares) be considered at the time that he is
being considered for promotion. There are practical problems to be faced
here since fitness reports end up in the files, not of the person who writes
them but the.person about whom they are written. Still and all, there is
something to be said for considering the way a man performs this function
when you are judging him as a Support Officer. Over a very late drink on
Sunday night the, suggestion came out of one group that an extension of this
might be an inquiry, when a person is being considered for senior
managerial responsibilities, among his subordinates to see how he is viewed
e (official)
h
f
es
t
by the people who report to him. That did not come out o
conversation, I have to admit. However, the informal side is also an
important part of the conference. 25X1
Distribution of vacancy lists was endorsed and one panel, I think
it was 2a, suggested that they be distributed annually with the Headquarters
g
regarding the complications that you run into when you try to devise a
dependable list of vacancies, but there is 'a great deal of interest in knowing
more about what is available, what opportunities exist for assignment, not
only in the field but in Headquarters, in the next assignment period. There was
also the suggestion, which many thought had much merit, that the Headquarters
Reassignment Questionnaire, like the Field Reassignment Questionnaire, ought
to be processed through command channels, the idea being that the Support
Officer's supervisor should have a chance to comment, pro or con, on what
he would like to see done about the individual's expressed preferences. Some
of us felt that this would help support the idea that an individual should be
assigned for a specific period of time to a Headquarters component and not
be assigned there until he grows dusty in the chair.
There is a continuing interest in communications on promotions and
vacancies and, although H. G. said he had certainly been trying to get this
information out, he admitted that the fact that one whole panel didn't know
that such communications existed was an indication that we had to do more
along this line. There was also a suggestion, which has some prickles on it,
' I think, but is worth considering, that an individual, once the rankings are
complete, should be told where he fits in that ranking. In discussing this today
I've learned that there was further discussion about this last evening--I didn't
participate in it--and the idea has been modified to suggest that the person
'should know in which third he ranked, or in which quarter.
nment Questionnaire. You heard this afternoon from
Reassi
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There has been, on a number of occasions including this
at*ternoon, some expression of dissent on the question of the desirability
or need for overseas service. I think it is fair to say that the majority
opinion here seems to be that overseas service, even at a time when
overseas is perhaps becoming a little less important on balance than it
used to be, is very important qualifying service for a generalist Support
Officer. One panel felt that, in order to insure that people get this kind
of qualifying experience, tours should be limited to two tours or six years
overseas. On Panel 2, in Panel 3b on professionalism, and again this
afternoon on Panel 4, the source of young officers is seen as coming
largely through lateral entry from the functional offices, Personnel,
Logistics, Finance, etc., but at relatively junior grades.
This morning's session on professionalism focused on the profile
of the professional officer and we discovered as we progressed that we
hadn't had as much consensus on Monday afternoon as the silence of the
audience on these points had led us all to believe. The profile suggested
by the two panels included the need for expertise, perhaps through work
in one of the functional offices, perhaps because of the lateral entry already
referred to; education, referred to in one context as education in order to
make the officer compatible with the people he is working with and working
for; leadership qualities--honesty, maturity, responsibility, hardworking,
resourceful, imaginative--these are in some sense "motherhood" terms but
they are not insignificant as we try to define what we see the professional
Support Officer to be. It seems important that he not be a cop, not blowing
the whistle on people but helping to find ways to get the job done. The
emphasis on the part of the panel today was on service and much emphasis
on the need for humility, taking a role which isn't necessarily at all times
the one which one could consider ideal. The job of relieving the line of
administration ties in with this service concept. The picture emerges of
a kind of Service very different from the one described by the panel on
Monday afternoon. This as you know occasioned considerable cross talk.
On the subject of lateral entry, I should mention that there was the
thought expressed that this would solve one of our knottiest problems. 25X1
Lateral entries and the return of individuals to the functional offices for
experience would solve one of the problems, referred to
I think, among others, as "overkill" in small overseas stations. n in vidual,
once he's done "donkey" work, is placed in an awkward position in terms of
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his own pride in his progression when he's forced to go back to a second
or third post to do essentially the same kinds of things all over again.
There is at all levels, as several speakers today have said, "donkey"
work whether you are an 11 or a 14 or a supergrade. There is some
of this in every job. But I think it is hard to argue with the idea that an
individual shouldn't be forced. to taken on succession of jobs which have
nothing else. There was a. suggestion that one of the ways we might make
use of these officers (who otherwise would have to go back out to unrewarding
field positions) is in a third spot in area divisions; obviously there are slotting
problems here but it is worth exploring.
The subject of the progression of the professional officer was
given a great deal of attention by the panels on prrofessiona,iization. They
were in substantial agreement on breaking the careers down into an EOI)
or trainee phase, although one panel saw this phase as longer than the other
did; a journeyman phase, which the first panel broke into two parts, career
provisional and midcareer; and finally an executive phase. Appropriate
training.was called for at all levels by both panels. It was significan.t. I
think that the external training that was alluded to seemed to be mainly
in conjunction with executive development and not in conjunction with the
development of the officer as a midcareer. ist, for example. Again we got
into this rather heated exchange on the subject of academic training and
again I think we are all anxious to hear what Mr. Coffey has to say about
that,
There was difficulty in defining executive potential. We all agreed
that we can't be too rigid in our selection of the people who are to be the
executives of the future. Somebody used the term "stay loose" on this, but
the emphasis throughout our discussions seemed to be on identifying the
executive of the future and I felt that there was not really sufficient attention
being given to the question of developing the executive of the future. I
would like to urge that we consider that as a specific topic for our next
conference, if indeed something isn't done about it between now and then.
The point was made in this context that you can't develop an executive over-
night with a six week course--no one, I'm sure, was seriously suggesting
that you could. My only point here is that our emphasis in our discussions
centered on. finding the man, not in. developing him. On a. related point., on
the question of potential, somebody asked the question at what point a
Support Officer became obsolescent. It occurred to me maybe that is our
ultimate solution of this executive thing; we could. turn all of our obsolescent
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to trained as a criterion for advancement, I may be slightly overstating
25X1
Support Officers into executives. I'll volunteer! But then we wouldn't end
up with one of those 30-year-old GS-15's that wants. (But
I shouldn't phrase it like that, because it isn't just something that Jim
ants us to have. The concept is a sound one. We sensed
approbation in the group at the idea that there has to be some way of
recognizing the kind of quality that would raise a man to GS-15 at age
30 or to supergrade at age 35.) The discussion of the professional--
and I've alluded to this already- -seemed to founder finally on a basic
dichotomy between two fairly definable camps here at the conference--
two basic views of what support is all about. It would be oversimplification
to say that it is management versus service because obviously those who
emphasize the management side realize that management can serve, and
you can manage services, so it is not a black and white thing. One of the
panels saw certain levels, grade levels, applying to this in sort of a vertical
continuum. I don't know what the answer is, I don't know what the common
ground will finally be. But I believe we need to look very hard at this
question about how we see ourselves; what our image is of ourselves.
Panel 4b on career management stated as their objective one which
I think no one would be prepared to quarrel with: to develop a career
management program to develop qualified generalists to meet the
administrative needs of the Agency--not just the DD/S, the point was made,
but a larger constituency, the Agency itself. Here I felt that this last panel
was bringing us full circle, and we began talking about the Career Service,
the Support Officer, in. terms far more similar to the ideas presented by
Panel I on Monday afternoon. Addressing the question of balancing needs
against personal aspirations, the present system is seen to need an emphasis
on long term needs, the idea being that with planning and with such emphasis
we can assure that personal aspirations will be met. Again, the idea carne
up that we would be filling junior jobs with people from the functional offices,
but it went beyond that at this point, to talk about identifying positions in
which generalists could serve in positions other than the jobs to which we
have previously been assigned, other than those now identified as "S" jobs.
.They, in this context, emphasized--and seemed to be taking one side of
one of our principal controversies --continual formal training of all types
in order to qualify for the problems of a decade hence, and in what I thought
was a rather significant addition, pointed out the impoftance of the willingness
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what was said by the panel but this seems to be the implication of what
they were suggesting. The panel saw a broader arena than just Support
and talked about "S" Careerists in management jobs at all levels and in
all Directorates. And, as you know, because it is relatively fresh in
mind, the panel just completed had a number of suggestions as to how to
go about this. I won't repeat them here.
25X1
,25X1
In some additional comments made by members of this final
panel, a couple of ideas seem worth emphasizing again. The idea that
we could be considered in due course as Chiefs of Station is perhaps a
little bit unrealistic but certainly it is legitimate to prepare ourselves
for the role of executive officer in almost any specialized activity. And
there was a reference to the need for an image as amore rounded and
qualified administrator.
I think I would be remisce if I didn't refer to one of the most
provocative suggestions from hat, in order to insure the
quality of people working in the specialty that he is concerned with,
and in order to insure that people functioning later on in positions of
responsibility, creating records and manipulating records in all forms,
we consider directed assignments to what he euphemistically referred to
as "certain specialties. " But it may be that records in all their forms, I
repeat--and here we are speaking to omments as well--will 25X1
become so important to us (the computerized records, the computerized
data, the paper data) that unless we are willing to take this kind of a
step, draconian though it may seem, we may be left out in the cold. I
feel I can speak with a little bit more assurance on this point since I was
once directed into the Regulations job, as pointed out, and 25X1
although I at first thought that this was going to be a purgatorial sort of
assignment it proved to be -a very instructive one and a very appealing
one when all is said and done, and I worked with some very interesting
people at the same time.
There was in our discussion of the last panel's presentation a
good bit of expressed concern over PRA and clearly we are asking that a
new look be made at the way our slots are graded. I've. already alluded to
the question of how we deal with those components in which we are asked to
serve. The question of who should make the final decision about where a
Support Officer serves is clearly of concern to many. I think I would
have to take issue withi hat we can simply direct an individual
to take another individual as his primary advisor on Support matters --but
clearly we need more control over the process than we have now.
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And there we have it. It didn't take quite as long as I feared it
would. I hope I haven't left out too many of the things which each of you
had focused on as the most important elements. All things considered
I think we can look back on what we have done during these days with
considerable satisfaction. Certainly that is my feeling. We have learned
a lot about our Career Service; a lot of things that perhaps we thought we
know, we found we didn't know. We've learned a lot about each other and
a lot of each other's views. Some of us who have gotten too close to the
grindstone have found out it can be quite refreshing to take a new and
perhaps searching look at old problems. And I hope that some of our
younger officers have found that there is more willingness to listen than
they might have expected there to be, but that perhaps the older colleagues
that they have been dealing with here have had ideas worth listening to as
well.
We seem to be unanimous on one point and I will speak directly
to Mr. Coffey on this. We think that periodic conferences are an excellent
way to augment the kind of communications that we're seeking and we are
very grateful to you for having made this one possible. The possibility
of repeating this sort of confrontation, however frequently seems practical,
appeals to us all, even to the extent that one panel suggested that the affair
be allocated a weekend of personal time to have this kind of dialogue. So
we hope that you are pleased with what has been accomplished, Mr. Coffey,
and we eagerly await your comments.
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MR. COFFEY'S CLOSING REMARKS
I wish I could be as well organized at this point as Bruce was and
summarize for you the events of the two and a half days. My summary
comment I think is one word--WOW. Bob Wattles, in talking to me a little
bit last evening when I came down, expressed views that I can only reiterate
and amplify. Let me start with appreciation, and there are numerous
appreciations very well deserved: to Bruce particularly for the time and
attention which he's devoted in addition to his other duties; to H. G. ; George
concentrated form and with too little time, this Directorate and especially
our Career Service--the "S" general Career Service.
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Bob Wattles and I both come away with a certain humility at the intense
loyalty which has been demonstrated by one and all regardless of age,
regardless of experience--intense loyalty to Support as a career and to the
activities which constitute our Support work. So, appreciations are well
deserved and we certainly wish you to know that they are very sincerely given.
If you'll excuse me, I'll be hopping back and forth over two pages of note-
book. I was sufficiently stimulated last evening when I was finally allowed to
go back to my room (it was not too early) that I couldn't let it stop there. I
felt that I had to try and put down some of the good thoughts that were expressed.
I can't repeat all those that I thought were good because my text would be longer
than you and I have time to review. If I may, I'll pick up a few points that are,
I think, appropriate to mention as we are closing out this particular conference.
Again, Bob Wattles said, and I can repeat for myself as well as for him,
that we are somewhat chagrined to find out that we have learned some things
about the Support Career Service that we didn't know. I would like you to know
that we are frank in saying this. For example, this morning we heard that in
our Support panels we are not ranking all the way through--that we are not
ranking to the bottom of the list. I found this to be rather surprising because
I remembered that not very many weeks ago I asked the Office Directors, the
Career Service Heads of the functional components, as we sat in so-called
executive session, to be certain that in their rankings they went from top to
the bottom. I obviously did not communicate very well with the Support
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Career Service to be sure that we too are ranking in this fashion. It appears,
parenthetically, that this is essential to our dealing with problems of possible
surpluses and if we are to achieve our new size in terms of total number of
positions that are available to fill.
It has been suggested, urged, asserted, that this is an ideal time, if
indeed it is not too late, for us to be examining ourselves. Certainly we've
done so, if only very very preliminarily thus far, each day at this conference.
As someone put it last evening, there is upcoming a significant adjustment--
perhaps several adjustments--in the power structure of the Agency (which may
be stating it a bit strongly). It is more than appropriate, therefore, that if we
have any ideas for adjustments in the role of Support this is a good time (perhaps
a bit late though) for us to be attempting to arrive at conclusions about a
restructured Support role.
I would say, I would recognize and I would acknowledge a signal which
came through very loudly--we all would have to grasp the idea that what was
one time the Agency, namely what we now call the Clandestine Service, is not
now the Agency. In fact we have within the DD/S&T structure overseas what
amounts, perhaps, to the most complicated Support job that we have to fill.
That says something, I believe, to all of us. H. G. was good enough to tell
me statistics a little while ago which indicate that we have an almost 50-50 split
of the general Support Officers between the numbers assigned to the Clandestine
Service and those assigned to positions outside the Clandestine Service.
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Another point, which frankly I had not considered before but which
I believe has considerable validity, is that the Support Officer outside the
Clandestine Service is better accepted as a professional than he is within the
Clandestine Service. I say again I had not ever really focused on that as a
factual statement but I believe it to be true. There is an important message
there for all of us for the future.
Now in specifics, some of the points that came through indicate that
we haven't done as well as perhaps we should have in disseminating infor-
mation about how our panels operate; procedures; make-up; perhaps basic
policy considerations that they have to use in reaching decisions and con-
clusions. Certainly we are taking very seriously what you said along these
lines. Nothing is set firmly and forever in concrete. We'll take seriously
and we'll make adjustments as we have an opportunity to sift out the variety
of comments and suggestions that were made during the several panel sessions
as well as in some of the less formal sessions outside of this room.
Now there has been a great deal said about the CS and the non-CS. I've
said some things myself. I would like, however, to suggest that we not consider
the Clandestine Service as being an arch enemy--either all good or all bad.
We need to attempt a balanced point of view and what I have said earlier, the
statistics and some of the facts and observations, would perhaps point a way
or give a reason why we shouldn't be charging the CS with everything that is bad.
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We have, I think, some semantic problems. I think we have demonstrated
these a couple of times in the panel discussions that I have heard--professional-
professionalism, manager- -managerial. I think we haven't been necessarily
clear, all of us, on what different individuals have meant when using these
words. As we look to the future, it seemed to me that it rather boiled out that
we may well be facing, or perhaps what we should be considering, is a two-
panel or two -level kind of Service. There is really no management career
service in the'Agency--I believe I will not be challenged on that although we,
perhaps, come as close to it as anyone else, but we have a managerial future,
and we seem to have somewhat of a mechanical future as well, in terms of types
of positions we are trying to describe as we are looking ahead. If you will
excuse me for going back to the Clandestine Service terminology, we have a
little bit of the Admin Assistant versus the Support Officer, It may well be
.that we can't get from one to the other in a logical, single career service
progression.
I am sorry that Bruce was anticipating that I was going to have many
things to say about external training. This is one subject on which frankly I
haven't focused particularly. That we need training for the professional
officer, for the executive to participate in training such as the Senior Schools,
Harvard, Cornell, Pittsburgh, I would hope we would all accept. That we need
additional training in some of the things, for example,
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suggest if he were still here, such as management seminars and conferences,
I believe is indicated, but nonetheless perhaps first we need to decide for sure
that that is the direction we are positively going to go -going to be able to go.
I personally think that it is the right direction. If you will let me off the hook.
on training at that point --.
As I mentioned on Sunday, the problem that faces this Career Service
is dispersion, and as we wind up today I find that word written in large capitals.
Once again, we have achieved a certain amount of momentum here in these
relatively few hours. I think we would all agree that we would like to see the
machine, once it is pushed off of dead center, continue to show some movement.
I find the prospect of each of us going back to his currently assigned niche and
having again to focus on the papers that have built up over these couple of days
in the in-basket and the stack of calls hanging from whenever you left, disturbing.
I find that dispersion again is a major enemy of progress toward fulfillment of
some of the things that we have pointed to during these hours.
How can we best make sure that we don't lose out completely, that we
don't a year from now find that we had a conference last year, and yes it was
interesting and yes it was stimulating and what happened--nothing. Or perhaps
we made sure that we published a list of those people who were promoted in the
meantime or something of that sort and that's about all. I didn't hear all of the'
discussions as to how the continued movement might be maintained. Suggestions,
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I gather, have been made as to how we might continue an agenda committee
kind of thing with adjustable membership and that we might convene
periodically, quarterly, semi-annually, and that we might have some kind
,of a written note sheet which would move around in the Headquarters area.
One of my concerns is that I think we've only noted some problems
noted some areas in which we haven't necessarily arrived at a consensus of
the need for study and action. I would like to see us be able to have a mechanic
for identifying ways of taking those that have been identified in these days and
has made the point a number of times that
this can only be the beginning and we couldn't expect to arrive at very weighty
and final, completely staffed out, completely thought out conclusions. Before
we quit I would be interested in your ideas so that perhaps as we leave today
we could know that we are going to have a group or something or we are going
to have another meeting now or three months from now at which we will come
back at the same type of problems. I would prefer that we not disperse and
then try desperately to catch up to get started again at some future time.
There has been plenty of talk about communications --up, down, sideways-
and on the slant- -again the worry is how best to keep the finger on the pulse,
the ear to the ground. I was a little worried when Bruce used the word dissent
(six times I think he said it) in his wrap-up. I hope we don't have that much.
Opportunity for some kind of interface or interrelationship or confrontation if
that is required--how best to go about this --I didn't come away with a sense
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that we had mechanics in mind and perhaps this is one of the problems that
we need to talk about. Maybe that's one of the ones that should be put
relatively high on the list. Do you agree--that there is money to be made--
to keep this ball rolling?
An idea suggested perhaps in this latter connection is that we should
create in the management of Support a management advisory group of some
kind. An idea that I had talked about a little bit was to have a relatively
youngish Support MAG- -I am not so sure that we should limit it to a junior
Support Officers panel but perhaps that we should take a broader cut and have
management advisors who don't necessarily have to be under age 30. Here
again I don't come away with a feeling of consensus on this point.
In summary I think I am going to suggest to you that I believe that we
have opened a few doors at least a crack and I am anxious that we take
advantage of this fact by establishing some mechanics which will ensure
that we gain a payoff on the deliberations of these days. I would like some
ideas if you don't mind spending another minute or two. Perhaps you feel
that you already have these down and if so we can scratch that question.
s here. I would like again to thank him for his attention
and use of his facility. As always Tomes out with full marks. Bill,
I don't know if you have any final points that you want to make as we leave.
If you have anything we would be glad to hear it. If not, I will come back to
this other question.
had a few words to say but they were
inaudible on the tape.)
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Now, are we going to do anything other than designate
as whatever the title was that Bruce made up for him?
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I "I would suggest that after you get your report that Bruce
and the Chairmen are getting together to identify some of these specific areas
or certain pieces of strong recommendations or stand-out recommendations,
that you might appoint a separate panel, and again I suggest that this run the
gamut of a cross section of grades on each panel, to study some of these
specific areas and to come up with some recommendations to you as to what
might be done to implement these points. "
Reaction- -Did everyone hear what he said, we should try and designate
people to work- -we have already had a couple of volunteers I might say to
write definitions of the ideal Support Officer in 1981 which I formally accept.
Are there any other thoughts on this business? Should we try and get together
in three month's time, in two month's time or six?
My own suggestion and my own thought would be that we should do it
shortly here. I presume that things like implementing suggestions about
panels--we are just going to go ahead and do those that we can sift out as
having practical application and an ending rather than some of the larger
and longer term items that need to have more time than a relatively few
hours than the panels have had to wrestle with them.
I declared the thing open and I declare it adjourned. I do most sincerely
appreciate your help. Thank you.
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