Lost posts on Small Wars Council o/a Jan 8, 2011

[Bill Moore]

Same with my eloquent case study post on schools, development, and the tie-in to the law of requisite variety that had Bill thinking hard about moving on over to the CA side of things

I requested that the post be deleted

Steve, you know I'm a fan of Civil Affairs that is based on reality and the people's needs. I'm just not a fan of the endless of Kodak moments that aren't tied to any meaningful end. You guys are still heroes in my book, even if we disagree on execution. I think I put that in my post yesterday.

[Surferbeetle]

... I was just joking around with you in the above post Bill, I'll be glad to spring for beers/steaks sometime.

In the meantime consider that I do agree with your concerns on our execution issues. I often observe/consider/examine the organizational structure we field with respect to the skills and experience necessary to be successful in development/CA/diplomacy/security work.

Let's touch specifically upon education. In my experience education is a long term effort/pay-off (not short term) which requires a deliberate approach in order to be successful.

For example, we could think about if have we properly assessed the existing personalities and systemic capacities present in the area we are working in and the people we have/need working in it? Here are three things that I have been thinking about since we last spoke.

1. Does the Land (Germany)/State (US)/Provincial (ME)/Department (Latin America) Director General of Education have a demographic census, a current budget, plans for future budget requests, and functional staff?

2. Will he one day find a sticky bomb on his/families/friends/co-workers vehicles if he supports a new/refurbished school in a certain area/or fails to provide support for a new/refurbished school in that same area? What are the long-term security needs/issues which will shape his decisions?

3. Do we have the organizational capacity/patience/time to coach him on planning, budgeting, design, construction, operations & maintenance, training/retraining teachers, human resource issues for his staff, etc? What can we do about his long-term security needs?