Every organisation has a version of the joke about the pecking order in which the secretary turns out to be more important than the boss. One suggests the boss thinks he is a god, but the secretary feels she controls her boss. Without her, he wouldn't be able to get out the door, let alone be a god. When it comes to getting things done, the reasons for this little joke may become obvious.
Important information (both formal and informal, recorded and common wisdom) often rests with secretaries, clerks, or assistants, who also prepare schedules, minutes of meetings, and reports of decisions. Unfortunately, in the voter education enterprise, there is a good chance that this person will not be around to ask when something is needed. In all likelihood, they will have moved on, together with their director or commissioner, to other ventures. If the education organisation was a very temporary one, the knowledge normally maintained by one or two key people may have been dispersed and then may be lost when those people leave.
So, good written and retrievable records need to be available that enable people coming in to the programme for the first time, or returning to it from another job, to get on board quickly and easily. Even where there is a core group that remains in place, for those people to quickly communicate with a rapidly-growing organisation, a book of logistical and managerial procedures is essential.
Such a book should include a comprehensive range of information, preferably collected so that it can be found easily. Secretaries' "where is it" index books or alphabetized lists are useful. Documents collected in a form that can be searched by key word may also be used. However this recording is done, the user and their needs should be borne in mind.
Suppliers of Goods and Services
Goods and services might vary from the very basic (what realty/estate agents provide property to lease) to the highly technical (who provides the demographic statistics for various radio stations). The list may include preferred suppliers of telephone systems, legal or notary services and educational institutions, through to the name of local fast food outlets and other necessary day-to-day resources.
Such lists will include not only the formal information but also the names of contacts who actually expedite the business. They may also include notes about the commercial relationship that previously existed and any special arrangements that had been made for special services or reductions in costs.
This is information that is taken for granted in larger more stable organisations and may be collected by permanent election authorities. But it is surprising how often even in those institutions, this knowledge is personalized and only exists while certain key staff remain in position. This cannot be guaranteed in educational programmes; and is a particular problem in the NGOs who are likely to be closely associated with such educational endeavours.
The Civil Society Network
A second area of record keeping is to have available the details of all civil society organisations that have provided support to the educational programme. Here, lists should be computerized if possible so they can retain a range of information about each organisation and be easily updated. In particular, educators will want to record the details, including the personal contact details, of all those who were involved in coalitions and consortia. NGO staff may move on, and it may be necessary to involve individuals as well as the previous organisation.
Who Has It?
Because of the likely dispersal of staff and resources, especially of materials prepared for previous programmes, there should be a fail-safe record of where such resources may be and how best to find them. Such a listing may include information about copyright and other libraries, research institutes and individual researchers.
How Do We Do Things?
During educational programmes, procedures are established that will protect assets, ensure fiscal responsibility and fair employment practices, reduce expenditure, and improve staff effectiveness. These procedures need to be written down and made available to people in advance of their falling foul of the procedure or having to go through the learning curve that led to the procedure being established in the first place. Because many of these procedures have legal or financial implications, they should be written in such a way that they cannot be misunderstood. They are designed to make people's lives easier, however, so they need to be accessible and simple rather than convoluted and under lock and key.
