RE: Re: Operations Manual

["Debra Strauss" <dkstraus@swbell.net>]

Miss Anner...you are my hero.

Debbie 

Debbie Strauss
AIS Board of Directors
AIS Silent Auction Chair 
MIS Fundraising Chair
R17 Newsletter & Parliamentarian
PBIS Treasurer
2213 Hereford Blvd
Midland TX 79707-5012
432-352-5483
"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter
with another human being.  Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who
have rekindled this inner light."


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of John Jones
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 10:48 PM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: [AISdiscuss] Re: Operations Manual

Anner White head sends:

Friends, I want to speak, please, to this matter of the Operations Manual. I
consider this issue critically important.
 
I believe I have standing to offer useful comments because I have actually
contributed to the AIS Operations Manual. I think I was the first author of
the section on the workings and policies of the Membership Office, now much
revised, as well it should be. I also speak from experience as a new AIS
worker who had urgent and desperate need of such a Manual at a time when one
did not exist. 
 
I understand an Operations Manual to be the means by which the Society
promotes efficiency, improves communication, and insures against crisis in
the event of catastrophe, incompetence, or sudden change.
 
I further understand it to be the means by which each department learns the
importance of each other, and comes to understand how all the pieces of the
organization are related, and must support each other. Because all will read
the record of the practical workings of the Society, so all will better be
able to make enlightened decisions impacting their offices, and the
organization.
 
Properly, an Operations Manual is a how-to book, not a mission statement,
nor a catalog of the romantic desiderata of an ideal society, nor a
philosophical treatise on power and responsibility. The Bylaws exist to
define legally areas of responsibility and the limits of power. Their
purpose is to safeguard the rights of the entire membership, not protect the
privileges of the Board. They are not intended to provide specifics on
quotidian operational practicalities, and an Operations Manual is not
supposed to have the same legal force or purpose as they. Such a Manual will
necessarily involve reference to policy, but it cannot also serve as a
manual of all policy.
 
Obviously you need such a Manual so that if someone drops dead in their
tracks or looses their mind another can step into their shoes without undue
stress and confusion and carry on, but there is another reason other than
harkening to the call of duty--- who so often, as Ogden Nash correctly
lamented, "hath not the visage of a sweetie or a cutie"--- to embrace this
chore.
 
Writing your part of the Manual can be a very positive experience. I was
cutting back the liriope in the front yard the other day when it was sunny,
and a passerby said something simpleminded to me about how yardwork is a
such a total drag. I responded that it needed to be done, and if you did not
enjoy it, the process was yardwork, but if you did, it was gardening. I
invite you to consider doing your bit for the Manual not only a privilege,
but also a pleasure.
 
You will find documenting your office and its contribution to be a valuable
exercise. In writing up your job, you will think hard about it, and will
come to understand it better, and have insights which will enable you to do
it more efficiently. You will understand more clearly how it relates to all
the other AIS jobs, and you will appreciate exactly why what you do is
important. You will find you are very proud to do your best. This I promise
you, and I know first hand exactly what I am talking about. 
 
I suggest that compiling and maintaining a viable Operations Manual is best
understood as an ongoing process, not a goal. AIS cannot make an Operations
Manual for the ages. It must evolve and change with the AIS. At any given
time it must be clear, precise, complete, and authoritative, and the content
unambiguous and oriented toward practicalities and efficiency. Every job
description in it should contain the requirement to keep that office's
portion of the Manual current and correct. The established process by which
departments can independently revise or update their contribution should be
deliberately kept simple and transparent. 
 
You will need an appointee to manage the Manual, now and forever, to receive
updates, keep the lines of communication open when change occurs, initiate
discussion when that seems to be called for, bring problems to the attention
of the Board, and keep all the little bits and pieces in good order and the
whole presentable. No, I am not volunteering. I have other work to do for
AIS which is also important.  
 
I expect that you will find that when everyone knows what everyone else is
supposed to be doing, energies will be appropriately directed and more of
the right sorts of things will be accomplished in a timely manner, leaving
more time for fun and promoting the AIS mission. 
 
I have no idea what condition the extant Operations Manual is in now, but
from what I am hearing, and have been hearing for years, it sounds like you
should archive the current fragmentary document, and simply start over. You
appear to be fatally bogged down.
 
I encourage you to establish realistic and concrete new guidelines, inform
all parties that timely cooperation is mandatory, that their job depends on
their understanding that fact, and set a firm new deadline. Declare an
amnesty for past non-cooperation, announce the golden opportunity to do the
right thing for AIS, and move cheerfully forward. 
 
You need to set up a private dedicated email group like this one, make it so
it accepts attachments and simply have folks publish their Manual
contributions to the whole for comment, or direct their questions to other
departments about matters of mutual interest or responsibility. If anyone
now serving deems the material in the files for their department to be
current and beyond improvement, they can resubmit it.
 
When you get everything sorted out, then you can tart the document up for
pretty, and put the Manual on the AIS webpage, if you wish.
 
I encourage you to promise yourselves that the AIS Operations Manual is
going to be finished by the 2013 Fall Board Meeting, and to keep your
promise to yourself, and to AIS.
 
I have every faith you can do this, and do it well.  
 
Cordially,
 
Anner M. Whitehead 
"When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost
impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little,
suddenly the work will finish itself." Karen Blixen, (1885-1962), coffee
farmer and author.   

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