________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Q:
What about the whole scheduling process in the executive office. How is that handled? By
the Chief of Staff, pretty much?
A:
He runs the process of the staff. Scheduling, of course, is done with our respective
secretaries, or the Chief's exec. Different people need us for different things, and they call
the secretaries up directly. We interact with our secretaries to decide the priorities of who
needs to be where and what might need to get slipped because something else has occurred
that requires attention.
Travel is a place where each time you commit yourself to travel, then you're vulnerable to
whatever happens during that period. So, we weren't Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside. I've traveled
extensively--I haven't been to every division, but I've traveled to quite a number of them.
One of them, a far-reaching trip out through Pacific Ocean Division, took over 10 to 12 days.
When you schedule a trip like that, you're blocking out time, you pretty well have to look
within. At those points in time, the Chief of Staff, Al Genetti, who maintains a schedule of
general officer travel, tries to assure that we're all covered. When Bob Page was our
secretary, he wanted the Chief or me here, one or the other, and the Director of Civil Works
or the Chief here, one or the other.
So, we were always looking to see where there are conflicts before we accept things, or
before we lock the schedules. There is a lot of interactivity between the secretaries, the
Chief's exec, and Al Genetti and his Secretary of the General Staff people.
Q:
That sounds like you play a pretty active role in determining the schedule as well.
A:
For a long time I've always looked at a six-month block calendar for programming and major
things like leave and like trips. Then a two-week closer in focus, and then, of course, the day
by day.
In my six-month block, I don't know what the day by days are going to fill up with, but
Delores Green, my excellent secretary, takes care of filling those. If I'm in town, then she
works who gets there and who doesn't.
We have master calendars of what events are coming, and so the Secretary of the General
Staff folks tell her when the Monday staff meeting is going to be on Wednesday of this week,
can we schedule it; or my Friday automation executive committee meeting that often meets
on Monday or Tuesday. When we make all those changes, we call it around.
I found a long time ago that if you're in an executive position, you can't abrogate your own
schedule to somebody else or you lose control of yourself and the ability to put your time
where it needs to be put. So, every now and then I'm a little frustrated, and most of the time I
remember that I have not paid attention for two or three days and let it get away from me.
But, you know, you don't get down to the details. I just sort of keep tracking and watching
and knowing, and then trying to set aside days sufficiently in advance if I want to go and do
something. For instance, if somebody would like me to come and talk, then I look around,
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