Command And Staff

Here we go another attempt to keep my postings up. Today my Blog was linked to by.....another blog! Nice to know my readership is still up there! A couple more and I'll be able to retire off of the money google ads are making me. I have been doing this blog thing for a year now and made $6.55! Most of that in the last two months, Who'd have thought this Iraq thing could be so interesting? Please don't feel obligated to click on the ads at all, but I am saving up to buy a Harley when I redeploy (mid-life crisis thingy I guess).

Well on to WHAT I DID TODAY. Right now I am sitting on the back ramp of an MRAP (I told you to look it up) in the parking lot of a National Police Battalion headquarters somewhere in Baghdad. Our team chief, the Major is trying real hard to get the Iraqi battalion leadership to be as excited about his project, adviser wise, as he is. His idea is that they hold a "Command and Staff" meeting once a week. Now this is a grand tradition in our Army, because we have learned over two centuries of mostly kicking ass that the way to do it more effectively is by having a bunch of officers locked in a room together, trying hard not to look like the dumbest one in there. I, thank God, do not have to attend (a mix between there not being enough room and my flat-out refusing to). But I can imagine what is going on in there. Right now he is probably trying to teach them the way to have an effective meeting is to have an AGENDA. Agendas are to be followed strictly during a meeting because it allows participants the opportunity to track how close they are to getting the hell out of there. The Iraqis really don't have enough computers to be able to show them how to stream line the meetings using Power Point, but that is something we can work on with them later.

That is about all to tell about that, as I said before, I am not an attendee. I cannot imagine anything useful coming out of this first staff meeting, so don't expect me to write anything more to be written on this subject. All I can say that as this meeting is going on, the National Police are missing a valuable opportunity to be out patrolling their sectors, and collecting bribes at checkpoints.

END OF POST QUIZ

1. Have you ever attended a Command and Staff meeting? How long was it? Did it only seem like forever?

2. What do you get by briefing from a Power Point slide that couldn't be more effective by briefing from a handful of 3 by 5 cards?

3. Of all the evil Bill Gates has loosed upon the world, is Power Point the worst? Or is it Outlook?

4. Have you clicked through any ads yet? Why not? My Harley costs $13,000! Do you think I am posting to this blog as a hobby?