Below are suggestions received by the Communication Committee from either the suggestion boxes or the
online Web form. Some suggestions have been summarized to save space or avoid repetition when more
than one person has commented about similar issues. We read and refer each suggestion. If the
suggestion
maps to the charge of one of the Communication Committee Task Forces, it is sent to that chairperson for
inclusion in the Task Force's deliberations. If a suggestion relates to a functional area of
SLAC, it is sent to
someone who can respond to that suggestion. Referrals are preceded by the word REFERRED.
RESPONSES from the people to whom a suggestion has been referred are included when available.
All the suggestions below are about general
communications issues and problems.
SUGGESTION: Have an anonymous suggestion email ID. For example, ask me for an 8-character ID and allow
me to look up a response by ID number.
My suggestion would benefit: ALL
REFERRED: Referred to Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A
(Line communication).
RESPONSE: We have extended the time the nine boxes will be in place and the
online form will be available until June 30th, 2000. We will recommend that the
Director establish a permanent conduit for suggestions when we write up our Committee report.
SUGGESTION: It is unclear to me whether the new suggestion boxes are just for suggestions
about how to improve communications, or general suggestions. Since they are supposed to be in by May 19, I suspect
they are just for communications. So here's a suggestion: It would help communications to have a permanent
mechanism like these suggestion boxes, in which staff can provide input on miscellaneous topics.
REFERRED: They were established as a way for the SLAC
community to make suggestions for improving communications but have already
expanded beyond that topic. We have extended the time the nine boxes will be in place and the online form will be available
until June 30th, 2000. We will recommend that the Director establish a permanent conduit for suggestions
when we write up our Committee report.
SUGGESTION: Institute suggestion boxes as a permanent idea. We used to have one
(suggest@slac.stanford.edu) back in the Tiger Team days -- but this was dropped. Also a Web interface
would be nice. My suggestion would benefit: ALL
SUGGESTION: Set up a permanent system to monitor them and respond to the
people making suggestions.
SUGGESTION: Create a newsgroup for ideas and suggestions and make all
postings anonymous.
REFERRED: To Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A (Line communication).
RESPONSE: We have extended the time the nine boxes will be in place and the online
form will be available until June 30th, 2000. We will recommend that the Director establish
a permanent conduit for suggestions when we write up our Committee report.
SUGGESTION: Continue the suggestion boxes. It is difficult to ask a question or make some suggestion but not
know where to take it -- i.e., how to find someone who would be both responsible and responsive...It
would be nice to have a central clearinghouse through which to channel a problem report when the originator
is unclear as to its destination. Another desirable feature of a suggestion box system would be feedback to
the originator. A critical component of successful communication is that the originator can know he or she is
being taken seriously, even if the suggestion is not feasible. Good models for how to run an email/list based
suggestion system can be found in SCS's systems for UNIX admin.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A (Line communication) and to Task Force B (Nan
Phinney, Chairperson, General SLAC communication).
RESPONSE: We have extended the time the nine boxes will be in place and the online form will be available
until June 30th, 2000. We will recommend that the Director establish a permanent conduit for suggestions
when we write up our Committee report.
SUGGESTION: In the area of one-way communication, I urge that,
following the lead of SCS, a computerized system (e.g.,
use of a newsgroup with a web page for archiving) be adopted for all announcements of significant outages in the non-SCS
related areas (e.g. utilities, roads, and so forth). I'm not suggesting abandoning the on-paper method (many will still prefer
that), but an enhancement. So far as I can tell, the present web-based SLAC announcements system doesn't encompass such areas.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A (Line communication--communication needed
for people to do their jobs)
SUGGESTION: Provide organization chart with names and area of responsibility -- so that to ask a question or
to get something done, one knows whom to contact.
REFERRED: To Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A (Line communication) with a cc to Lee Lyon,
Human Resources and J. Jobe, Business Services
RESPONSE: Lee Lyon talked to suggestor and concluded a Web page with basic data about the members
of the Directorate and the Associate Directors would be very helpful as an interim solution to part of this
problem. Suggestion referred to P.A. Moore, Director's Office.
SUGGESTION: Better employee orientation - available services and "how to" information -- purchase things,
arrange travel, schedule required training, etc. Offer refreshers when policy changes made.
My suggestion would benefit: All SLAC employees
REFERRED: Susan Hoerger, SLAC Human Resources Head of Employee Training and Development with a
cc to Roger Erickson, Chairperson, Task Force A (Line communication).
RESPONSE: Susan Hoerger has contacted the suggestor to let that person know of the newly-instituted
New Employee Training sessions that are offered. Her description of those sessions follows:
SLAC now offers orientation for new employees. The program, which is still in its pilot phase, is offered every 2-3 months, depending on the number of
new hires during the time period. The agenda generally includes introductions and welcome, a presentation on SLAC history and current
research, an overview of employee services available through SLAC and the
University, an overview of employee activities, an introduction to SLAC's main communication methods (e.g., The Interaction Point, The Beam Line, The
Bulletin Board) and useful web pages. Orientation is followed by an optional site tour. There is a brief presentation on "how to get things
paid/reimbursed" at SLAC.
The orientation program is a work in progress. Each time we conduct orientation, we learn new suggestions for how we can improve it in the
future. We will try to incorporate the ideas of including portions on how to purchase things,
arranged (and get reimbursed for) travel, schedule
required training, etc., as well as the suggestion about follow-up training when there are policy changes.
We have asked some employees to help us evaluate the pilot program. If you would like to come to the next orientation, please call (x2358) or e-mail
(shoerger@slac.stanford.edu) Susan Hoerger and we will add you to the invitation list.
(Editor's Note: There is not a fixed date/time for these as yet. Contact shoerger@slac.stanford.edu to be notified of the
schedule.)
SUGGESTION:
Job opportunities at SLAC, for which only SLAC employees/contractors are eligible to apply, are not well communicated.
They are sent to various points in the lab via paper copy, and then posted on
clipboards. An example is located in the first-floor hallway of the Central Lab. It is not clear whether the positions are currently
open, and there is not a confidential way to view them (i.e. imagine the awkward situation where a current employee is viewing one of
these clipboards, and their supervisor walks by). Job opportunities which are open to inside as well as outside candidates are
viewable in this manner, but are also listed on the web. The web listings are kept current, so applicants know if an opportunity is
really still available or not. Communicating these opportunities a little better may help improve employee
retention.
REFERRED: The Human Resources Website is being redesigned. This suggestion has been sent to
Lee Lyon, Director of Human Resources. It was also copied to Roger Erickson, Task Force A chairperson.
SUGGESTION: Communicating about Employment Opportunities at SLAC,
__________________________________________________
Helping SLAC Recruit in Today's Hot Job Market
_____________________________________________
Comparing SLAC's employment web pages
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/emp/emp-opp/emp-opp.html
(last change made was August 1996)
with the LBNL employment web pages
http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/employment.html
note their photographs of happy faces,
their sections on
-- benefits
-- career paths
-- international applicants and different visa processes for LBNL
-- relocation policies
-- opportunities for students and educators
In today's hot job market, how can we compare more favorably?
REFERRED: This has also been referred to Susan Hoerger who is responsible for the redesign
of the Human Resource's Employment Opportunities at SLAC web page.
SUGGESTION: School to Career Program, -- More synergy between Local
Schools and SLAC. LBNL launched a 'School to Career Program' a year ago at
their lab, concentrating on recruiting computer support, administrative,
engineering and technician staff from local colleges. (Article in LBNL
Currents, April 21 2000)
1) They surveyed local colleges to see who had the best practical training programs
2) They arranged for supervisors to speak to schools
3) They arranged college professors to tour the lab environment
Perhaps SLAC can also be more proactive, promoting education and science in schools
and at the same time also giving a bridge to practical training while
helping SLAC recruit in this hot job market. Another method to develop a
two-way street between SLAC and the local community.
REFERRED: This email was sent to Helen Quinn, Task Force C (External
Communications) Chairperson and SLAC's Education Program coordinator. She will share it
with her committee members.
SUGGESTION: SLAC needs a nicer, softer, more caring form letter than
the once sent to SLAC employees who apply for in-house jobs but are not
selected.
REFERRED: L. Lyon, Director of Human Resources.
RESPONSE: Human Resources will review the letters and make changes in
the language that we hope are consistent with the suggestor’s concerns.
SUGGESTION: Bring back the SLAC Photo Directory (Rogue's Gallery) in
digital form. To save printing costs put it online. (Editor's note:
remainder deleted, see email response below from D. Kreitz)
Suggestion would benefit: Everyone by letting them see the face that goes with
the name. The last printed book was 1981. It really helps when you know the
name, but don't know the face.
REFERRED: D. Blankenbecler, Communications Committee co-chair contacted suggestor about
the project described below.
SUGGESTION: Publish a SLAC-wide Web-based staff picture book.
Inclusion would be voluntary but encouraged. This would benefit anyone who
wants to know (or verify) what "X" looks like.
REFERRED: (Editor's note: see email response below from D. Kreitz)
SUGGESTION: Please start up the picture books again!!! The last one
was published in 1981 and people still refer to it. While it would be nice
to have an online photo gallery, a picture book would be more useful and provide a history of SLAC. We have copies of all
the old picture books and they give a real sense of continuity. With such a
diverse population at SLAC that is spread out over such a large area, it would be especially helpful. And no matter how much we
turn to the computer, it cannot take the place of something so simple as a picture book.
Even if we just update it every five years, it would be better than
having to look at the 1981 copy to find people.
REFERRED:
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 17:52:30 -0700
From: Douglas Kreitz <dougkr@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Picture book progress?
Dear Suggestor:
The digital photo project that I am working on could fit nicely into the plans
of whomever spearheads a proposed picture book.
The same on-line photos we will use for web, ID badges, etc. should re-produce
well in the small format that SLAC used before. Once a person gives
permission to have his/her photo in the book, it could be accessed for
hard-copy printing of such a book if pursued.
(Editor's note: remainder went to specific individual and is deleted for
confidentiality's sake.)
Thanks,
Doug
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas P. Kreitz, Assistant Director for Business Services
SUGGESTION: I like ID cards not security tags. Our badges are bad
because the name is obscured. Can we
have a readable name tag for everyone? These can even be 'homemade' tags.
My suggestion would benefit: All, especially those of us recovering from
learning disabilities who need to
see and hear a name to remember it.
REFERRED: Referred to Rick Yeager (Badging) and Claudia Ransom (New
Employee Processing).
SUGGESTION: As this is for the Communications Committee I would like to
suggest that you make it more clear what the suggestions should be for.
REFERRED: P. Kreitz and D. Blankenbecler, co-chairs of the
Communications Committee.
RESPONSE: Each metal suggestion box has a sign on its face and
a larger sign attached to the back which label the boxes as 'Communications
Committee Suggestion Boxes'. Some people making suggestions are, in fact,
making suggestions that relate to one of the three Task Forces' charges.
However, we did not want to limit suggestions to just those that relate to a
specific charge. Part of the Committee's purpose is to encourage
communications. The boxes have certainly aided in meeting that purpose. As
you can see from the table of contents, we have received many suggestions on
diverse subjects. Many of these are valuable, implementable, and would
result in improvements we might all find beneficial.
SUGGESTION: Fermilab has it, (or used to) seems that this idea works
here too!
Let us get small pads of paper and keep a pad on each table in the cafeteria. This
will involve small expenses, and require cooperation from contract operator
of cafeteria. I know that printing houses used to have these available for really cheap
in random sizes made from leftover paper stock from customer orders. In any case, I am tired of having all of our good ideas (which were drawn on
the serving tray) going into the dishwasher to be sanitized away.
REFERRED: To P. Kreitz as co-chair, Communications Committee who is
working with the suggestor and the Cafeteria management to implement this.
SUGGESTION: Our group (Editor's note: name deleted to preserve
confidentiality) should have regularly scheduled meetings. Our (equivalent
of higher level management mentioned here) supports monthly meetings but our
supervisors resist.
REFERRED: This suggestion (without the deletions) was sent to
someone at the right level to explore the suggestion and improve communications
in that area.
SUGGESTION: Andrea Chan - SCS NT Support and Arla LeCount - SCS Help
Desk would like to discuss more details with representatives of the
Communications Committee. This suggestion would benefit better
communications between SLAC users and computer support staff in these two
departments. (Editor's note: names used with permission)
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Chairperson of Task Force A:
Line/Internal Communications. (Editor's note: the
suggestion above was submitted by A. Chan and A. LeCount, whose names are used
with their permission.)
SUGGESTION: I would suggest that a serious attempt be made in increasing communication
between the computer center, the help desk, and especially the users. If there were a way to
establish the health of the computing structure at slac (including networks, internet, unix, nt,
mail, etc.), then we can schedule our work around the predicted outages.
Specific suggestions include:
automatically updated system health page (Stanford has this) hotline number that is actually
updated when problems arise (there is one, never has information relevant to the current problem)
video link through the site. (We used to have this) and of course, and institutional
change perhaps, but establish a process where the help desk knows about current problems. About
50% of the time I call and they do not know about the current problem, but when the subject-matter
expert is put online, they were already working on it.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Chairperson of Task Force A:
Line/Internal Communications.
SUGGESTION: Comment for Task Force A:
For many years the SCS has had a phoneline that is supposed to give out the status of the computers
in the SCS purview ( Ext COMP = 2667), since VM was closed down this line has not been well maintained.
When I can't log in to the web or reach any printers I suspect a system problem and I phone 2667 and expect
to hear what's going on - what the problem is and when it will be fixed by. I have been disappointed enough
in not hearing anything but "the system is working fine" when in fact there was a system problem, that I have
almost given up phoning 2667. I subscribe to the comp-out e-mail list, that tells you about planned outages,
I'm writing about the unexpected problems and requesting better communication on them- especially at the weekend
when there's no-one else in my building for me to enquire if they are having a computer problem too. A phone message
at an advertised number is a good idea - but it only works if someone remembers to update it within a few minutes of
the problem starting.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Task Force A (Line communication)
and R. Mount, head of SCS.
SUGGESTION: Establish a procedure or protocol to challenge guidelines,
directives, ESH, etc. Allow SLAC
employees to ask for a justification on demand, and if the subject matter expert
cannot defend the decision,
then the policy, guideline, etc. should be rescinded.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Chairperson of Task Force A:
Line/Internal Communications.
SUGGESTION: It would be helpful if employees were encouraged by
supervisors to change their voice mail greeting to reflect their absence from
SLAC, when they are to return, and who maybe be their backup.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Task Force A (Line communications);
S. Hoerger for inclusion in SLAC new employee orientation and R. Todaro for
announcing at the Senior Manager's Forum.
SUGGESTION: . Putting a display at the San Jose Tech museum -- or
other Bay area museum.
REFERRED: Helen Quinn, Task Force C (External communication and
education).
SUGGESTION: . Have each A.D. (Associate Director) submit
at least quarterly a "TIP" (The Interaction Point) article
discussing the current general, scientific, or business activities going on in
their division. The entire SLAC community would benefit, much like they do from
Dr. Dorfan's "TIP" column.
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION: There are too many SLAC handouts, the recycling bins get
full because of these. SLAC should consolidate the handouts to maybe once a
month, and if the lab needs to the message out send an email message to
everyone. My suggestion would benefit recycling and the SLAC site.
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION: The recent arrival of the May 2000 TIP prompts me to comment
that I think SLAC needs an organ like the IP to carry informal info on employees-- who's
getting which awards, who's died, outstanding volunteer activities, it helps employee
morale to have such an internal organ. I think the level at which these articles are
written presently is fine. Whether its best to mix such info with Safety reminders and
simple explanations of the physics we do in one newsletter is up to your committee to
decide, but I urge you not to lose the informal employee articles if you should
redesign our internal newsletters.
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION: Put general mailings and flyers (all-hands, ES&H
Bulletin, etc.) onto WEB and not on paper. Make an index page for new
publications so one can find the stuff.
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION: Comments on SLAC communications problems: With multiple
computer platforms, many departments (especially
SCS, Security, and SHA) seem to forget that not everyone can read documents generated in a
microsoft product (word, excel, etc). I am continually sent documents or find important
web links that I cannot access without first sending them to someone
who uses a MS windows product.
Email (even from the director's office) is often formatted to look nice in Eudora or other
graphics capable email reader. For users of text based email
readers, this often makes the email message unreadable. Many times, email will just make a
reference to a web link, without including the
relevant information. The reader then must write down the web link and remember to look
at it later when he is using a browser (not all mail programs can pop up a browser when a
message contains a web link).
Both of the above problems are made worse by the desire to limit paper copies of bulletins.
In a wide spread department, there is rarely a centralized area
that everyone passes to post single copies of bulletins, and many times only a single copy is
sent to a mail stop with the hope that someone at the mailstop
will duplicate the copy to give to all the other people at that mail stop. We have mail stops
without convenient nearby bulletin boards or photocopy machines, this renders these types of
mailings useless. A new problem is the reliance on the phone system to broadcast a message to
multiple people. This leaves the message in the voice mail box, but since most
phones have no visible indicator that a message is waiting, it can be hours to the next day
before such a message it retrieved.
SLAC needs to develop lab wide standards for communicating information. For example: All
documents posted to the web be in plain text, postscript, or pdf
format (not word, excel, etc); All mail messages be in plain text and contain sufficient
information outside of any web links to convey the ideas behind the
message; Any attached documents to email messages be in plain text, postscript, or pdf;
Perhaps develop some way to identify people who need their
own paper copy of bulletins/memos...perhaps a web page where they can register their name
and mail stop, then others use the database behind that web page to
generate mailing lists.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Task Force A (Internal
Communications/job related) and Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION: Establishment of a SLAC LECTURE SERIES, with a lecture at
the start of each quarter. Open to the public. Topics in high-energy
particle/astrophysics/cosmology. Popular science level. Benefit: our public
relations with the community. Inform the public about the importance and the
meaning of work done at SLAC an other facilities. Contribute to public
scientific education.
REFERRED: Helen Quinn, Task Force C (External communication and
education).
SUGGESTION: The people responsible for computer security at the Lab need various ways to
contact people ... sometimes it's an emergency affecting users of particular
platforms, sometimes it's to tell people about a policy change they should know
about. I've certainly been frustrated when no matter what forums I use to announce things, someone says .."Oh, I never read THAT; if out had just
announced it in X then I would have known about it." I would be happy with several
such places to publish the info if I had a chance of getting reasonable coverage.
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge)
SUGGESTION:. Two currently proposed database projects would greatly increase the
effectiveness of communications regarding certain facility-wide operating issues (in my opinion).
These two projects are:
1) SEM Buildings Database Upgrade - a joint project between SEM, SCS, and Ros
Pennacchi, SLAC's new Space Planning Czar.
2) SLAC Chemical Information Management System - a 15 member Working Group, comprised of representatives from all divisions,
recently completed a draft Scoping Plan that calls for a brand-new system patterned after those in use at DOE Sandia (Livermore)
and SRI (Menlo Park). The plan is scheduled to be presented to lab management later this month, and the system would
be designed and implemented in FY01-FY02.
Note that project #1 is a necessary precursor to project #2.
For more info re: project #1 I suggest you call Pete Budrunas at x2271.
For more info re: project #2 you are welcome to contact me (Butch Byers, EPR) at x2465.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Task Force A (Internal
Communications/job related)
SUGGESTION: This is a tentative suggestion directed to Task Force B (Lab-wide scientific and general communication).
The SLAC web site is a valuable resource, but locating information within the SLAC web pages is sometimes
rather difficult. An improvement of the search facility, which currently performs very poorly as compared to the
familiar commercial search engines on the web (Google, AltaVista, etc.) would help a lot. (This may not be
economically feasible, but I think it's worth looking into.)
REFERRED: Nan Phinney, Task Force B (General internal
communication and scientific knowledge). Copies sent also to R. McDunn, D.
Wisinski and B. White for a response to put in this page.
RESPONSE: The consensus of Bebo, Dennis and Ruth is that they need to
work on several fronts to improve the job this indexing tool does for the SLAC
website. They include working on the indexing tool itself and educating SLAC Web
authors in better use of metadata tags from which the indexing tool can better
characterize the pages' contents.
SUGGESTION: It was told that Stanford University was changing the classification
system for employees, as the Administrative Assistant catch-all is keeping professional
people in admin-salary ranges. In turn, we are losing these professionals to outside
companies who in some cases can double their salaries.
I was told that they were finally going to break down the classifications into three
categories, Faculty/Scientist, Professional, and Administrative or something to that
affect, assessing the current jobs being performed by staff here at SLAC. I think
this is a long time in coming, as the salary ranges based on admin-level work are
keeping a lot of hard working, NON-administrative professionals here at SLAC at a
severe financial disadvantage, particularly in regards to the Bay Area housing/rental
market.
I was told that SLAC was following suit and that we would be receiving something in
the mail informing us of the subsequent changes. To date, I have neither seen nor
heard anything about this. I received this information from a manager who announced it
at a staff meeting some time ago. They are at a loss to explain it now.
Our department lost half of its staff due to the poor salaries, and admin-status
pidgeon-holing that appears to have been Stanford/SLAC's
safeguard against fair and competitive salaries for professional staff.
I suggest that somebody "communicate" about this.
REFERRED: Roger Erickson, Task Force A (Line communication)
and to K. Lawrence and L. Lyon, Human Resources.
RESPONSE: Prepared by Karen Lawrence, Human Resources:
SLAC’s conversion to the University’s new
classification system has been significantly more complex than we expected and
we apologize for the extra time it has taken. It is our hope that doing a
careful job of conversion will minimize multiple changes.
Beginning June 12th, individual letters
will be going out to employees who are covered by the new program. Most jobs
will be converted to the new titles and ranges, but engineers and physicists
will not be converted at this time. Letters will be accompanied by a brochure
which describes the classification/pay system, and there is a reference to the
HRWEB (Editor's note: Human Resources website at: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/per/personnel.html)
, where more information from the University is available.
In addition, we have four meetings planned for employees to come and learn
more about the new program. They will be held in the TRAINING CENTER as follows:
THURSDAY, JUNE 15th (side A/B)
8:30 – 9:30 am (focus: Administrative);
10:00 – 11:00 am (focus: Professional/Managerial)
FRIDAY, JUNE 16th (side C/D)
2:00 – 3:00 pm (General);
3:30 - 4:30 pm (General;
Given the magnitude of the conversion, neither the Campus nor SLAC is
"assessing the current jobs being performed by staff." The University
provides an automatic mapping of most of our jobs to the new titles and ranges,
and we have worked with management to slot the remaining jobs to the new system
based on their relationship to other SLAC and University jobs. We have not moved
engineers and physicists to the new system at this time.
The three ROLES defined for the new classification system are:
Administrative, Professional, and Managerial. The terminology was chosen by the
University, and is HR jargon. The terms are not meant to imply that only
"Professional" roles are "professional" in the general
sense. We expect to have professional staff in all of our classifications.
The salary issues are extremely difficult. The conversion was intended to be
‘cost neutral’ – that is, with few exceptions, the conversion was not
supposed to result in more money being spent on salaries. We hope and expect
that the new system will provide impetus for salaries that are closer to the
market over time, but we don’t expect that to happen immediately. We all know
that the housing market is absurd, and we are open to creative suggestions.
However, given the limitations of budget and the realities of how people are
paid, it is unlikely that salary increases could ever adequately address the
spiraling housing costs.
SUGGESTION: Here's the perfect example of how communications fail at
SLAC. Many of us filled out your survey and are eagerly awaiting the
announcement of the winning number for the beam tree. The paper survey said the
winner would be announced May 30th. On May 30th, your web site was updated with
a new announcement date of June 2nd. Now it's June 5th and the winning
number still isn't posted on your site.
REFERRED: It is
important in communications, as in other work activities, to keep promises, and
be accurate and reliable. The Editor will be sending this email to D.
Blankenbecler and P. Kreitz to ensure they acknowledge those key principles of
communication in their Communications Committee report.
RESPONSE: Yes, you're right that the announcement day was moved from
Tuesday to Friday of that same week. The Friday, June 2nd date on which the
announcement was promised wasn't kept. Instead the announcement was made on the
next working day, Monday June 5th. We apologize.
On June 5th it was posted as a SLAC announcement and on the 'Win a Beam Tree'
Web page. It was also sent as a SLAC-wide as a flyer and is posted on many
bulletin boards. The Task Force volunteers doing this tried their best, but
weren't able to do it as quickly as they'd originally estimated.
SUGGESTION: ES&H writing team needs to be better
integrated with other SLAC writing professionals. (Editor's Note: Suggestion summarized
to preserve space and confidentiality.)
REFERRED: D. Blankenbecler will contact the person making the
suggestion and discuss the needs and issues further. After which this
suggestion will be referred on to the proper individual.
SUGGESTION: Suggestions for Improving Communications: (Editor's Note:
Suggestion summarized to preserve space.)
1). Hire professional technical communicators to produce laboratory
communications. The people currently doing this are, mostly, not trained to
complete such tasks.
2). Consolidate the various SLAC publications, publish in a new biweekly
publication. Use technical communicators to do this.
3). Route laboratory communications through the Technical Publications
department so that proper document management guidelines can be followed.
4). Transfer writers from the ES&H Division into the Technical
Publications department.
5). Staff the Public Affairs Office with at least one technical communicator.
REFERRED: (Editor's note: a great deal of thoughtful detail
was omitted.) The full text of this suggestion has been distributed to the
Communications Committee co-chairs, D. Blankenbecler and P. Kreitz as well as to
the chairs of the three Task Forces: R. Erickson (Task Force A: Internal,
job-related communication); N. Phinney (Task Force B: Internal general
communication); and H. Quinn (Task Force C: External communication).
SUGGESTION:
