The question was recently asked, "Why don't the EMCOMM Bulletins focus more on operations instead of management?"
- The fundamental problems of establishing and maintaining an EMCOMM unit have to do with unit management. When management fails, so do operations, but not often the reverse.
- Operations and involvement help in maintaining the unit, but operations cannot overcome poor management.
- Operations can vary widely, and tend to be highly customized according to what part of the country in which the unit is located, the type of local sponsor, and the purpose of the unit.
For these reasons, it seems important to provide as much help and information on management as possible. That said, if readers want more on operations, please e-mail the writer as to what aspects of operations you want covered and why, along with ideas to get the process clearly in mind for this writer. Better yet, if you can write a bulletin on operations, please do so. I look forward to receiving it.
As to the bulletin management focus, perhaps it is time to restate something covered in the bulletins in the l980's and l990's; that is, to WHOM they should be DELIVERED, and with WHOM they should be DISCUSSED.
They are intended to be placed in the hands of, and discussed with, the paid staff officials responsible for the life of the unit, as well as the unpaid (volunteer) leadership. If they do not get them, then someone in the unit can take the responsibility to do so and get them into discussion as idea stimulators.
Prior to the World Wide Web, feedback from government officials indicated that few radio officers (or unit leaders) had brought them to their attention or discussed the material with them. With the advent of the Web page, the bulletins became available in a way that any searcher could find them. However, local unit personnel should NOT assume their leaders utilize them, although a great many do. So, if they are not in use in your unit, try to take the initiative and introduce them so they become useful.
As the primary bulletin writer, I try to keep a multiple focus in mind: the paid staff coordinator and the unpaid managerial staff, as well as those who will become future leaders as the principles and ideas are learned, tested, and discarded or absorbed.
Notwithstanding the Internet and the World Wide Web, it is still quite important that someone (usually in senior unit management) takes the time and effort to put the bulletins into the hands of the unit paid-staff coordinator unless you KNOW FOR CERTAIN that he/she gets (and reads) them regularly via the Bulletin Server or the ACS Newsletter Server.
What is equally important is that someone in senior unit management has the opportunity to discuss applicable topics from the bulletins with that coordinator. Where the coordinator declines that help, the bulletins can be passed higher up as appropriate. That process must be diplomatic, but should not be overlooked, as it may become essential to unit continued existence.
Cary Mangum, W6WWW - E-mail: [email protected]