One Big Team

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Today there was a summit meeting in Baton Rouge for all the leads of all phases of the planning program and for the National Guardsmen.

It was an opportunity for us all to see what others were doing and how our parts fit into the overall puzzle. There are four simultaneous planning efforts going on. We are doing the recovery plans which include projects that will be initiated and sometimes completed this fiscal year. Another firm is preparing a series of pattern books providing guidance to neighborhood / culturally appropriate styles for rebuilding. Andres Duaney (the big advocate for “New Urbanism”) is leading three charrets across the region to provide examples of good design for the surrounding areas. Finally, Calthorpe will be tying all of this together in developing and assessing alternative growth scenarios.

Duaney was the most enjoyable speaker. He purposefully tries to challenge people’s ideas and get a reaction. Many of his points are good creative solutions.

It was really a good day to get everyone on the same page in terms of where we are going, what are the limits of our work and when we need to be done.

One of the things I realized with this entire pause event is that FEMA is really a quasi-military operation. Many of the folks involved are retired military. They are given a mission and their job is to get it done and get out. Results are measured in quantifiable terms like cubic yards of debris removed or trailers installed. Communication with the media and the community is closely and centrally control. And when there is a problem like the pause, the first people to be demobilized are the community affairs folks effectively reducing communication with the media. Planning which by its nature needs to be inclusive, needs to involve maximum communication, is multi-disciplinary with no easy performance measures and with no definitive time frame for success is an odd duck in this world. It is little understood within the organization. While mayors and others sing the praises of this programs, there are people within FEMA questioning its value. They just look at the world from a different perspective.

A Living Plan

Thursday, February 16 and Friday, 17, 2006

Many planners talk about how any plan needs to be a living document that changes as new information becomes available and circumstances change. The reality, however, is that one a plan is printed and bound it becomes a stagnant document which will require an update or total re-write at some point years into the future.

Typically, the FEMA Long Term Community Recovery Planning function has produced attractive, professional looking documents with many photos and renderings. This is a major expense. So the word has come down that there may not be a printed plan. Instead, efforts are being initiated to develop an internet based “planning tool.” It will be designed to capture all of the work we are doing and leave the LRA with a tool which will allow them to add projects as they are identified, update existing projects as new information becomes available, and tracking implementation of the projects. It will also allow people to look at projects for a given parish or instead look statewide for a specific sector like housing. Since it will be a web-based data base application, standardized formats for describing the projects that will make enforcing consistency much easier.

The hardest part is that they will be creating this application as we start to use it. No alpha or beta testing. Well, that is not 100% true since the results will not be accessible by the public until the plan is done.

Changes

February 14, 2006

The upheaval of the past few days has had repercussions. Suddenly the program has its forth director and third sense I arrived. We will have fewer reporting requirements, we will be closed on Sundays, and the maximum weekly hours without prior authorization has been reduced to 60.

Another Valentine’s Day away from my Valentine. This makes two in a row. We had never missed one prior to this. I miss being away from home and family. We have been told we can approve staff rotations if it has been at least 30 days since the last one and it is over before the end of the month. We are expecting to be flat out for the month of March – unless something changes again.

Pausing the Pause

Monday, February 13th

At the very last moment, the pause was paused. It is not known how long we will continue – a couple of weeks or until the end of the project? I would estimate that this pause of a couple of days has actually cost us at least a week. Now we need to do damage control, re-establish trust and reschedule the meetings that had been cancelled.

Weekend of Uncertainty

Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February, 12, 2006

The team has been working hard preparing descriptions of key projects and organizing their notes. The suspicion is that we will not be demobilized since our Technical Assistance Contractor Coordinators have told us not to book flights until Monday just in case. We will see.

One positive out of this is that several of the Mayors have contacted FEMA and the Governor’s office to say that this has been one of the most positive relief programs they are a part of.

Black Hats

Friday, February 10, 2006

First thing in the morning, I filled in the Jeff Davis team via speakerphone and told them I would be down for a face-to-face meeting at 1:00 PM.

I once had a visiting professor who had worked for years for the EPA. He talked about, how there were times when the appropriate action was to firmly place the black hat on someone’s head. This morning I invited everyone to listen in to the 8:30 conference call and our National Guardsmen invited us to listen in on their conference call afterward.

The ESF 14 folks were very diplomatic. This was a joint decision, concerns were being addressed by the LRA & FEMA, they were not sure how long it would take to develop a workable approach, etc., etc.

In contrast, the LRA representative who spoke to the National Guardsmen said that FEMA felt they were spending too much money and had put a halt to things much to the surprise of the Governor and the LRA. H went on to say that the LRA was working on a proposal for the program to continue and hoped to have it done by the end of the day. In the mean-time the National Guardsmen were instructed to prepare to continue the program starting Tuesday on the assumption that we would be gone by then.

One of the National Guardsmen assigned to our team was a guy from Texas. He had a very rye sense of humor and keen sense of self. He was flabbergasted that after a month or so of working with planners for the first time in his life he was expected to take over. His response was great. He said, “After this I think I will go hang out at the hospital for a month and become a brain surgeon!”

The Pause

Friday, February 9, 2006

The day-to-day method of coordinating efforts across 19 Parishes is a series of conference calls. The operations unit conducts 8:00 AM calls – Mondays and Thursdays for Regional Leads and Tuesday and Friday for Parish and Regional leads. ESF-14 Senior Management also has a 5:00 PM daily meeting / conference call. Originally this was a meeting of Unit Chiefs. Then it grew to include Regional Leads. Then it became optional for Parish Leads to listen in.

As of Wednesday, the person in charge of day-to-day operations was scheduled to come visit both Allen and Jeff Davis on Thursday. In the morning I received an e-mail saying that the trip had to be cancelled – no explanation.

I was planning to attend the Kinder Public Meeting Thursday night, but mid-afternoon while down in Jeff Davis, I was told that it was important for me to listen in to the 5:00 PM conference call so I had to make some quick staff reassignments.

While I was not sure why they wanted all Parish Leads on the 5:00 PM call, I was stunned by the announcement made. They are “pausing” the Long Term Community Recovery function and sending us all home next Tuesday or Wednesday. It seems that there are issues regarding the level of State and local participation in the process and the Louisiana Recovery Authority and FEMA want to take some time to rework how this is being done. They anticipate it could be a few weeks or longer before the program is restarted.

I am not sure exactly what that means. I think that the attendance at the Louisiana Planning Day Open Houses was significantly (less than half?) of what was hoped and I suspect that the cost per attendee was rather high. I also know that while our National Guardsmen have been doing a great job, when FEMA asked for state partners to be added to each team they did not expect those people to be National Guardsmen with know planning experience and little or no knowledge of state programs in the project areas we were developing. I do know that the Mayors and other local officials in both Allen & Jeff Davis Parishes are very happy with the level of local participation.

We are to cancel all meetings scheduled for next week, focus on completing the basic description of all projects we have on our list, and organizing our materials to turn over to the National Guard before we leave.

The first thing I did was call all the Allen Team people who where at the Public Meetings and tell them to come back for an 8:00 PM staff meeting. The second thing was to call Travelocity. Just last night I had booked a flight for my wife and daughter to join me during my daughter’s vacation week. Now I will be home for her vacation. Luckily, they let me cancel the ticket since it was within 24 hours of purchase. What a bummer. I am really enjoying this work. It is one of the rare occasions to look at the complete picture of what impacts community not just one slice. It has been fun and I am good at it. And having made a commitment to finish this through, I don’t have an alternative contract in the pipe line!

The 8:00 PM meeting was a downer. Folks returning from two well attended positive public meetings being told that the plug had been pulled. I particularly felt bad for the local hire. She had been doing a great job. She was learning and growing and stretching beyond what she had done before and she too needs the money.

The Plan production Deputy was scheduled to go home for a three day weekend and I asked her to stay and help us button things up.

Allen Public Input

Saturday, February 4 – Thursday, February 9, 2006

We decided that since so many of the people who came to the open house were from Oberlin we needed to do more. So we set up mini versions of the open houses in the four other communities. Two on Tuesday night and two on Thursday.

On Tuesday night some 20 folks attended the Reeves Public meeting. Now this is quite impressive given that the total population of Reeves is about 350. On the other hand, in the largest city in the Parish (Oakdale) only a handful of people attended. We discussed this at our Capacity Working Group on Wednesday evening. The Oakdale Mayor, cited an over all lack of public interest, but it is also the case that he had forgotten about it until the last minute. In contrast, the Mayor of Reeves actively promoted the meeting and arranged for Pizza and drinks to be served.

A very interesting thing happened. This inspired the Mayor of Kinder – population 2,000. He arranged for Faustoe’s Restaurant to donate a buffet of traditional Cajun foods (including alligator) and had city staff actively recruiting people to attend. As a result over 35 people attended the meeting in Kinder. Including the moderate turn-out in little Elizabeth, approximately 70 people attended the four meetings bringing our total up to around 150 and significantly improving the geographic distribution.

One of the planners in the last group to arrive has been of great help in all of this. I had her coordinate the Open house, these public meetings and be the Plan Production deputy. In that capacity she is also assisting the Plan Production Deputy for Jeff Davis. She is great at seeing the big picture and juggling multiple tasks. She also has very good leadership skill. That makes splitting my time possible.

From Zero to 60

Friday, January 27 – Thursday, February 2, 2006

I have to get things moving in Jeff Davis and moving quickly. I started with a staff meeting on Saturday. On Monday I had a planning & orientation meeting with both Parish Teams. We defined who was responsible for each sector and established and schedule page for Jeff Davis similar to the Allen Calendar. Then I asked each person from Jeff Davis to shadow his/her counter part in Allen for the rest of the day.

On Wednesday, the GIS group representative was already planning to come out and we scheduled a “Brain Dump” day so that everyone on the Allen Team could share with each other and with the Jeff Davis team the documents and information they have collected as well as where they found it and tips on finding similar information in Jeff Davis.

The Allen Team continues to do great work and the Jeff Davis team is coming up to speed quickly.

The Director of Economic Development for Jeff Davis – something that Allen Parish does not have and could use – has filled in some of the vacuum by establishing a committee to provide input and by scheduling a series of public meetings around the Parish. I met with him and attended one of the public meetings. Due to staff limitations and the type of agenda differences you would expect, his approach is not quite the same as we need to take. I need the process to be much more actively participatory and move more quickly. I have asked the team to establish a working group in each of their area’s and hold the first meeting next week. I told them to build on but not be limited by what has been done so far. We need to do this in a way that makes it clear we are appreciative of the efforts previously made, that we anticipate a product that will be useful to all and that we are interested in a good partnership. I think the lack of a confident relationship between the Economic Development Director and the previous Parish Lead is on part of the problem in getting things moving.

I also had the Administrative Assistant set up meetings next week with the 5 mayors and the Parish Police Jury President, and to get us on all the council agendas. It will make for a busy week but we have only weeks to do this. There is some resistance to trying to create working groups and hold a meeting by next week, but people are doing it.

A Vote of Confidence

Friday, January 26th

This afternoon, I received a phone call from the Regional Lead. He had been in Baton Rouge for a management meeting. The effort in Jefferson Davis Parish to our south has not been able to generate traction. There is a lack of leadership and a shortage of staff. So they are sending out a largely new team of FEMA Technical Assistance Contractors (TACs) and have asked me if I can taking on being the Parish Lead in Jeff Davis in addition to Allen.

I see this as a vote of confidence and I am sure I can do it, but it is going to be a lot of work getting them caught up – even though they are starting very late they still have the same deadlines.

One great thing is that my Allen Team told me that they see this as a team assignment and anything they can do to help make the Jeff Davis team succeed and help me succeed, they are willing to do. That is a strong indication that I have a great bunch of people I am working with, that we have quickly formed into a functioning team and that they have confidence in me.

Jeff Davis is starting from a difficult place. They did have an Open House last weekend but only 18 people came.

In To Plan Production

Monday, January 22 – Thursday, January 25, 2006

Now the focus is on plan production. We have eight work groups set up and a schedule. The overall plan is to complete Plan Production by the end of February, do another Planning Day type set of Public Meetings on approximately March 11, and finish up the plans by around March 25th.

Communication is key. Lacking white boards, I have created a January, February and March calendar on flip chart paper. We have marked in the fixed dates like government meetings & holidays. For all of the FEMA deadlines and our own internal deadlines, we are putting them on square post-it notes so they can easily be shifted as things change.

I made up another one page Meeting schedule sheet and have asked folks to note any write any outside meetings other than work group meetings on a post-it and attach it to this sheet. Finally there is a forth sheet with a row for each of the work groups with columns for next meeting time / date and for meeting location.

These are all posted on the partitions at the back of the front conference area in the storefront. This seems to be helping keep everyone on track.

Another thing I have done is combine all the key information on day to day procedures from the multitude of e-mails and various documents into a field guide document complete with key phone-numbers, reporting deadlines & formats, etc. Again, trying to keep everyone on the same page with a minimum of communication. It seems to be working well and the folks in Baton Rouge seem happy with the work we are doing.

Recovery

Sunday January 21, 2006

Last night our Administrative Assistant had gotten tickets to Boxing Matches at the Casino. Several of us went over. I had never been to live boxing matches before. The card featured some bouts of different divisions including women and one championship fight. A few of us ended up sitting next to the Sheriff which made for an interesting and useful evening.

Sunday was supposed to be a day off, but most of the team came in anyway. They wanted to get their spaces set back up and get the results of the planning day completed. The results are very useful and interesting as to what people feel is a priority, what they treasure and what tough choices they would make.

Turns out that the average open house had about 100 people attend. We had 80, which is great for a small Parish like ours. My only concern is that almost all of the 80 were from the Oberlin area. We need better information from the other areas.

Open House Preparation

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Today we started at 7:00 AM. We finished inside, set up the tent and helped set up the area were the Gumbo was being cooked.

The input approach was very well planned and the various posters very well done. They were very organized with a setup manual and a conference call in advance to cover any questions.

I am very pleased with the setup we designed. Using the space itself and the dividers, we created this maze to control the flow of people. Individuals enter in the front door and are greeted at a welcome station where they are asked to sign in and place a pin on a map to indicate where the live. They are also asked to think big – going beyond individuals needs to community needs. Then they are directed to an information station with maps and lots of information they can take with them (every time I look at the Information Station sign I want to sing the Conjunction Junction from the School House Rock snippets that appeared between the Saturday morning cartoons when I was young!).

Next they get to use dots to vote for the three most important of the 20 or so Planning Principals displayed on three posters. Around the corner they get to write key issues in each of the five areas on sticky notes and place them on the appropriate poster.

In the back room they first come upon the Tough Choices station with three posters where they get to express an opinion on questions like should the levees be rebuilt stronger if that means there is not as much money for housing and economic development projects? Next they are invited to post what they treasure about the parish. Finally they are asked to share their vision of the Parish in 5 to 10 years. As they exit the back door they are thanked and given a coupon to go get gumbo. Especially in the back room the smell of gumbo fills the air and the sound of Zydeco can be heard

Just outside the door people sit at tables under the tent eating gumbo and listening to the band playing on the corner where they attract attention from passers by. Between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM 80 people work their way through and take one of the numbered food tickets.

[Later note: Louisiana Planning Day included open houses in all the Parishes developing a recovery plan plus in cities in and out of the state with large numbers of evacuees. There were approximately 35 events attended by a total of 3,500 – an average of 100 people per event. That Allen Parish with only 24,000 people had 80 people attend is a testament to the great job the team did.]

Open House Preparation

Monday, January 9 – Friday, January 20, 2006

Pam has done a great job getting contributions to our open house. Her mother is going to cook chicken and sausage gumbo and all the food has been donated. She also got a Zydeco band to play from Noon to 2:00. It should be a great time.

Erica has done a great job with the preparation, which is largely marketing. We have distributed thousands of flyers and put up a couple of hundred yard signs. Her real coup was getting the three major supermarkets in the parish to have their baggers place flyers in customer’s grocery bags. The Storefront Grand Opening and the upcoming Open House was the lead story of both the local weekly newspapers complete with a color photo.

All week supplies have been arriving from Baton Rouge. Terry has been tracking everything and coordinating with Erica to make sure we have everything we need. He also got a couple of tents from the National Guard to put up next to the building. And Garrick arrange for some of the “trustees” (inmates) and the prison to come and put up the tents.

Everyone was assigned a section of the parish and spent most of a day putting up posters and yard signs and delivering flyers to stores, post offices, libraries, beauty salons, etc.

And I finished my rounds of meeting all of the Mayors, the Parish President and the Sheriff.

Tonight, we basically cleared out the office, and start setting up. Ingenuity reigns. In one of the “rooms” near the bathroom door, there is a water heater. Not the professional looking site we are trying to achieve. With two Aluminum folding tables standing on end and a bit of duck-tape, the water heater disappears behind a reasonably attractive divider. We continue to set up all we can before the cleaning lady kicked us out so she could wax the floors.

The Advisory Council

Monday, January 16 � Thursday, January 19, 2006

Several teams have established steering committees and sub-committees. While I agree with this approach, I had a slightly different and very clear idea of how I wanted to structure our public participation.

This is to be the Parish community�s plan. It is not the Parish Government�s plan or the cities� plan � and it is definitely not the plan of a bunch of outside consultants. It needs to be reflective of all sectors of the community. We need to provide technical expertise and support, but in many ways we are just the scribes and the people need to create the plan.

With such a short time frame, active participation is a must. I have asked each of the now seven topical area leads to find at least 6 and hopefully more people who will serve on their advisory council work group. They are to meet with there work group at least once a week for the month of February, working through each piece of the plan as it is developed. We cannot afford the possibility of getting far off-track -- we do not have the time. It is not assumed that government will implement all of the projects. I have asked each lead to work to ensure that his or her group is representative of the parish geographically, economically, etc. � that there be elected officials, government employees, people from the not for profit and for profit sectors and some key citizens and influencers.

And I am also creating an eighth group on Government and organizational capacity. I have invited all the Mayors, the Parish President, the Chambers of Commerce and the United Way. This groups job will be to help prioritize, provide feedback to the other groups and determine if the human and financial resources exist to implement the proposed projects.

By Wednesday, over 70 people had agreed to serve on one of the eight working group. Approximately 40 people attended our first meeting Wednesday night. Officers were elected and each working group met briefly to establish a time date and location for their first meeting and to suggest additional people for the group.

A very hopeful start.

The Advisory Council

Monday, January 16 � Thursday, January 19, 2006

Several teams have established steering committees and sub-committees. While I agree with this approach, I had a slightly different and very clear idea of how I wanted to structure our public participation.

This is to be the Parish community�s plan. It is not the Parish Government�s plan or the cities� plan � and it is definitely not the plan of a bunch of outside consultants. It needs to be reflective of all sectors of the community. We need to provide technical expertise and support, but in many ways we are just the scribes and the people need to create the plan.

With such a short time frame, active participation is a must. I have asked each of the now seven topical area leads to find at least 6 and hopefully more people who will serve on their advisory council work group. They are to meet with there work group at least once a week for the month of February, working through each piece of the plan as it is developed. We cannot afford the possibility of getting far off-track -- we do not have the time. It is not assumed that government will implement all of the projects. I have asked each lead to work to ensure that his or her group is representative of the parish geographically, economically, etc. � that there be elected officials, government employees, people from the not for profit and for profit sectors and some key citizens and influencers.

And I am also creating an eighth group on Government and organizational capacity. I have invited all the Mayors, the Parish President, the Chambers of Commerce and the United Way. This groups job will be to help prioritize, provide feedback to the other groups and determine if the human and financial resources exist to implement the proposed projects.

By Wednesday, over 70 people had agreed to serve on one of the eight working group. Approximately 40 people attended our first meeting Wednesday night. Officers were elected and each working group met briefly to establish a time date and location for their first meeting and to suggest additional people for the group.

A very hopeful start.

The Advisory Council

Monday, January 16 – Thursday, January 19, 2006

Several teams have established steering committees and sub-committees. While I agree with this approach, I had a slightly different and very clear idea of how I wanted to structure our public participation.

This is to be the Parish community’s plan. It is not the Parish Government’s plan or the cities’ plan – and it is definitely not the plan of a bunch of outside consultants. It needs to be reflective of all sectors of the community. We need to provide technical expertise and support, but in many ways we are just the scribes and the people need to create the plan.

With such a short time frame, active participation is a must. I have asked each of the now seven topical area leads to find at least 6 and hopefully more people who will serve on their advisory council work group. They are to meet with there work group at least once a week for the month of February, working through each piece of the plan as it is developed. We cannot afford the possibility of getting far off-track -- we do not have the time. It is not assumed that government will implement all of the projects. I have asked each lead to work to ensure that his or her group is representative of the parish geographically, economically, etc. – that there be elected officials, government employees, people from the not for profit and for profit sectors and some key citizens and influencers.

And I am also creating an eighth group on Government and organizational capacity. I have invited all the Mayors, the Parish President, the Chambers of Commerce and the United Way. This groups job will be to help prioritize, provide feedback to the other groups and determine if the human and financial resources exist to implement the proposed projects.

By Wednesday, over 70 people had agreed to serve on one of the eight working group. Approximately 40 people attended our first meeting Wednesday night. Officers were elected and each working group met briefly to establish a time date and location for their first meeting and to suggest additional people for the group.

A very hopeful start.

Grand Opening

Friday, January 13 – Saturday, January 14, 2006

The focus of the last two days has been our Storefront Grand Opening. Some teams have put a lot of emphasis on getting officials out for this event. While we have invited many officials, it has not bee as high a priority for me. All I wanted was at least 15 people, some good photo opportunities and some good press coverage. It seems we achieved all three goals.

Mac and Erica are great additions and although more reserved, I think Nicolas will be a big help also. Erica threw herself into helping Pam with the Grand Opening preparations. Minutes before the event, Terry and Mac were up on the roof hanging the Louisiana Speaks banner over the door. The mayor of Oberlin and the President of the Parish Police Jury cut the ribbon and the cake. It was a good day.

I am impressed with Erica’s leadership ability. I asked her to take the lead on the Open House preparations next week.

Surprises

Tuesday, January 10 – Thursday, January 12, 2006

Tuesday I received an e-mail stating that some new people who had arrived last week were about to be badged and two more people would be added to my team later in the week. I was surprised since I had not asked for additional staffing thinking they would be needed elsewhere.

Over the course of the last month I had been receiving e-mails and documents describing what was expected of team leads and members, who to contact for what, when reports were due, etc. In order to get my team on the same page I had decided to prepare a field guide putting all the information I thought was important in one brief document. With new folks coming in soon, I stayed late on Tuesday to prepare the document. It would make orienting them easier.

It is definitely a small world. When I got back to my room Tuesday night, there was an e-mail from Jennifer – the woman from New York who had been the facilitator a the two government planning workshops I was part of in December. Another planner friend of hers from Florida had e-mailed her to say she had quit her job and taken a contract to work on the recovery planning and had just been told she was assigned to Allen Parish. It was nice to know that Jennifer had e-mailed her back to say how happy she was that she had been assigned to Allen and that she was sure that she would really enjoy working with me.

The next day I received a phone call officially telling me that Erica had been added to my team – along with two other people! Nicolas is an environmental engineer and Mac is a rural development specialist with the US Department of Agriculture. Soon after, I received a call from Erica. She and Mac were ready to go and would be out to the Parish in the afternoon. I had a meeting with the Tribal Council and on my way back there was a message from Nicolas. The connection was not very good and he had an accent (French?) that made it difficult to understand. Back in the office I got in touch with Nicolas. He would be out on Thursday.

Then I received another phone call from a fellow named Bob who said Steve had told him to call – a fourth person? We talked, I gave him guidance on where to stay, how to find us, etc. Only toward the end of the conversation did he say that his role was the regional lead for Vernon, Beauregard, Allen and Jefferson Davis parishes – that made more sense and I was happy to have a lead to help facilitate our needs.

When Erica and Mac arrived I gave them a quick introduction and the field guide.

Today, once Nicolas arrived (he is Haitian), we had a staff meeting. We reassigned some of the tasks. I put Erica in charge of Housing and Community Design since she has more domestic experience than Chris and so is more familiar with Community Development Block Grants, etc. I assigned Nicolas to work with Cliff and divided up Transportation & Infrastructure into Transportation and Public Buildings (Cliff’s interest) and Utilities (Nicolas’s interest). I asked Mac to work with me on Capacity and to be the liaison with State and Federal partners identifying potential funding sources for the projects we would likely be identifying. It seems like we have a great team.

The Weekend

Saturday, January 7 – Sunday, January 8, 2006

I held a long team meeting on Saturday – a mini version of the summit. We went through the Game Plan and the Playbook. The approach is to divide the issues up into five topical areas: Housing and Community Design, Economic Development, Transportation and Infrastructure, Human Services and Environment. To fully evaluate each of these areas we will need the assistance of all members of the team including the two National Guardsmen and the Administrative Assistant. I assigned the Housing and Economic Development areas to our planner Chris, Transportation and Infrastructure to our engineer Cliff, Environment to one of the National Guardsmen Terry and I split Human Services in two with the other National Guardsmen Garrick dealing with Public Health and Safety and the Administrative Assistant Pam with Education and Family Services.

We agree to a basic schedule for the Storefront Hours (Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sunday Noon to 4:00 PM) and the minimum hours each person will work. The three outside professionals will work at least all of the hours Monday through Saturday and then rotate Sunday afternoons (we are authorized to work up to 70 hours without additional approval). The National Guardsmen and Administrative Assistant will work approximately 40 hours per week – I ask them to establish there own schedule with the only constraint being that at least one of the three of them be in the Storefront whenever it is open. We establish a regular Friday Staff meeting and I ask that everyone try not to schedule meetings between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM so we can have as needed staff meetings just before or after lunch.

We also created a January/February calendar. On it we write the dates of meetings with City Councils, organizations, etc. We also write the tentative dates for the major milestones on post it notes and attach them to the calendar. The Grand Opening of the Storefront will be next Saturday, the first Advisory Council meeting the following Thursday night and the Louisiana Planning Day Open house will be the following Saturday. A busy two weeks and we are ready to hit the ground running on Monday. Since the Storefront is not officially open and given the work a head of us I tell everyone to take Sunday off.

Sunday morning I slept in a bit late. I headed out mid-morning to use the golf gift certificate my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. It is $65 for unlimited play and I hope to get 36 holes in. I don’t play enough to be at all good, but I enjoy getting outside and getting some exercise. As I head for the car the cell phone rings. It is my wife and she is upset. Given the poor cell phone connection, I tell her to call the room number and head back in.

It has snowed and it is supposed to snow some more. She has spent a lot of time trying to get fully on top of our expenses that has resulted in other things not getting done. She is unhappy about the bank fees and interest we ended up paying while waiting for the payment from my work in London. I have been gone less than a week and she is already feeling overwhelmed. We talk for about an hour. I think she feels a touch better but is far from happy.

I head out for the golf course – I need even more to clear my head. This is quite an upscale place for a public course. You pull up to the club unloading point and an attendant takes your clubs out of the trunk and places them on a cart. She then followed me to the parking lot and brought me around to the pro shop. The cart comes equipped with a computerized score card, computerized maps of the holes and a GPS system that lets you know how far from the hole you are. A few holes before the end of the round you can even order lunch and it will be waiting for you. I end up playing with a gentleman from Texas whose wife is busy in the casino. He needs to finish in time to catch the bus that will be leaving at 4:00 PM. Along the way we catch up to another single and become a threesome. He is a local. It is a very nice afternoon and I enjoy the company. They stop after 18 holes while I continue on and play another 9. After a salad in the beautiful clubhouse, I head back to the hotel ready to really get started on this project.

Team Lead Summit

Thursday, January 5 – Friday, January 6, 2006

The summit was very informative and invigorating. In a very collegial manner, the “Game Plan” (what the report will look like) and the “Play Book” (the tasks to create the report) were discussed. There were breakout sessions where we could provide input on ways to improve both documents and on the nature of and best means of promoting the planned public input session. After two long days, it was great to leave having a much clearer view of what was expected when.

It seems as though my take on things and strategy has placed my team in a good position. Some teams dashed ahead based on the early drafts of the still being designed approach. I was real clear that this was a more complex process than had ever been attempted before with over 20 recovery plans that had to be reflect the unique circumstances of the individual Parish and yet be similar in content and structure so they could be compared, contrasted and rolled up into a regional document. My typical approach was very well suited to this situation.

We spent our time setting up the office, getting our computers, etc. largely up and running. Introducing ourselves to leaders in the community and developing an extensive contact list. Not knowing exactly what the process would look like, we described our mission in general terms being careful not to set potentially false expectations. Although I personally think that shortening the target completion from the end of March to the end of February, I think that will be revisited. We are thus in a perfect position to move forward.

The teams that split their time between creating a foundation and trying to make substantive progress were the most frustrated by the summit. They are unhappy that the final product had changed over time. They are unhappy that the schedule had been changed and continued to be in a state of flux. And those who have done this before on smaller recovery efforts – one town or one or two counties – are frustrated by the project planning process required by the size of this effort. Some would prefer to just do it in a way that is familiar and get moving.

It was also great to have a chance to see many of the folks who were part of my starting “class.” I hope that we get a chance to get together again. I am really glad that I was called in that week right after Thanksgiving. It is from this class that most of the Team Leads were selected – and I am really enjoying this role and think it is how I can make my greatest contribution.

The Office Opens

Tuesday, January 3 – Wednesday, January 4, 2006

The day started in a rush. I set the clock for 6:45 am not realizing that the time on the clock was set 12 hours off. When I awoke and glanced at the clock I was stunned to see the number 8:15. I jumped out of bed quickly washed my hair and threw on some clothes. I then realized I couldn’t shave since my shaving cream was in the suitcase I had left at the office.

As I was packing my briefcase music emanated from the cell phone. Our National Guardsman Garrick was already at the storefront without keys and with the second person that had been assigned to the parish. I told him I would be there in about 15 minutes.

Downstairs I found Chris and told him I was going to simply grab a muffin and some juice and head up. He said he would follow soon.

Garrick and Terry were waiting in the beautiful sunshine next to their respective pickup trucks. Terry in camo and combat boots – not realizing that he could wear civilian clothes to this assignment.

The furniture was in place as we had sketched it out and the phones all worked. I called the IT folks and they said that they expected the DSL modem to arrive today or tomorrow and then they would come up to set things up. I then called Express Personnel. They said that our Administrative Assistants background check was completed very quickly and they would call her and tell her to report to work as soon as possible. Everything was starting off well.

We spent time putting the maps and such up on the walls. Then Pam arrived to start her new job. Her local knowledge was immediately put to work assisting us in developing the contacts database.

I had hoped to go back to the hotel at noontime with my left suitcase and shave. However, the folks in Sulfur informed me that they had received the modem and would be up within an hour. By 5:30 or so, the network, the printers, the fax machine and the three laptops in the office were all up and working. When we left after 6:00 pm it was with a feeling of solid progress.

Tuesday morning, Pam went down to Sulfur to pickup her badge, computer and cell phone. Unfortunately since Terry was a National Guardsman he had to drive all the way to Baton Rouge to get his things. Both were back shortly after noon.

Cliff arrived back mid morning and we were fully staffed. The IT folks were scheduled to come back Thursday to configure the three remaining laptops and then all we would be waiting on would be a copier.

We are already getting some walk-ins and following up on the letters sent out. Thursday and Friday there is a Parish Lead’s summit in Baton Rouge. Once that is over we can schedule the formal opening of the Store Front and the first public meeting.

One Season to the Next

January 2, 2005

Twelve hours after leaving home I reached the Best Western Hotel in Kinder. I expected that the Christmas decorations would have been taken down and the lobby would be back to “normal.’ To my surprise the tree and garland were still in place. But things had changed. The red ribbons and bows were gone, replaced with green and purple Mardi Gras equivalents, the gold balls on the tree matching the gold trim on the new accessories.

Back home the decorations had immediately shifted from Christmas and New Year’s to Valentine’s Day. Here they skipped right past Valentine’s to Mardi Gras. I will be here for the celebrations. While not as hedonistic as in New Orleans, from what I understand each town and each parish – especially in Cajun country – has a celebration.

I did reach the hotel in time to witness the disappointing second half of Notre Dame’s loss in the Fiesta Bowl and get unpacked and turn in.

A New Year

December 31, 2005 – January 2, 2006

It was a traditional New Year’s for our family. New Year’s Eve at a friends house party in Lexington, MA and then Sunday Brunch in Marshfield, MA with families we vacation with each summer. The snow frosted trees on the drive to Marshfield created a beautiful winter wonderland. It was fun and relaxing visiting with old friends.

I had hoped to get everything I wanted to have done completed by mid afternoon New Year’s Eve – including packing, but there were far too many things to do. And it was important to get done the thinks that would make the coming weeks a bit easier on my wife. So last night I was scrambling through things including clearing the snow from the driveway and sitting with my daughter to go through the portfolio of work she had done over the last four months. Thus, I was in bed latter than I hoped and the early alarm found me tired, but satisfied that there weren’t any important loose ends left to tie up.

When the airport limo arrived at 6:45 am, the teary-eyed good-bys took place. My daughter bravely smiled as she told me how much she loved me. My wife could not manage the smile. And as soon as I was headed out the door, the were sobbing in each other’s arms.

I feel torn apart. On the one hand what I am doing is important and is helping people who have had a difficult time. It is also earning the money we need to pay our bills. It is also something I am good at and I like making a difference. On the other hand, it is hard to find a job with these characteristics that does not involve extensive travel and the pain that causes is heart breaking.

Long Distance

December 27 – December 30, 2005

Each day I check the e-mails, receive updates and send out responses.

The final report wasn’t received from Baton Rouge in time to be mailed last week and so was mailed Monday night when Chris returned from San Francisco. They worked on the network and installed the phone lines on Tuesday. The DSL modem was the wrong type so they need to get a new one. One e-mail said that the furniture would be delivered in-time to open the office on Tuesday, January 10 – I couldn’t believe but counted to ten and then wrote an I am confused – this isn’t what you said last week message to logistics. Turned out it was a typo and it was supposed to say Tuesday, January 3. The furniture was delivered on time today. The IT guys are suppose to come out on Tuesday to finish hooking us all up and we will be good to go. Our logistics guy even called to thank Chris and the rest of us for being so responsive and helpful – I think that is why we are up and running while others complain.

There have also been e-mails from Baton Rouge. I have tried to be helpful and supportive, volunteering to take on what ever they need me to take on. If I am going to be away from home and working 6 days per week, I want to be as fully utilized as possible.

My paycheck never arrived. Turns out that the reason they didn’t do direct deposit is that they need a voided check and did not tell me when the form showed up without one. Then somewhere along the line this check got lost. They have cancelled it and are sending another by FedEx but it will likely arrive after I leave on Monday and some payments will need to be delayed a few days – the life of an independent contractor.

I am not getting paid while I am home but spending a half hour or so each day on work related things anyway. I am trying to get some rest but have not made it to the gym and feel like there is a lot that it would be nice to do before I leave Monday. But we have plans for New Years Eve and New Years day so if it is not done by Saturday afternoon it will not get done.

Christmas

December 23, - December 26, 2005

Friday Amanda has several house-calls to do and afternoon becomes a dad and Madeline shopping event. First a trip to Dodge Grain for food for the ducks and rabbits, and then we are off to the mall to shop for Mom and to get an outfit for Christmas. It is important together time for Madeleine and I.

We circle the mall several times. The gifts for Mom are easy, the outfit for Madeleine takes more intense shopping. And then there is the stop at the Pet shop to pet the puppies and other detours. The clothes purchased, the last thing to buy is a pair of shoes. The pants are long and require a heal. None of the stores have anything that looks good except for a store with dressy cowboy boots. That is what she wants. At first Dad says no. But they aren’t that expensive, they are on sale, they look better than anything else we have seen, she really wants them, and it is Christmas. I leave the mall with a smiling daughter and Cowboy Boots.

Saturday, Amanda has another house call and we devote the day to wrapping gifts and other chores. Madeleine and I got to midnight mass that is now held at 10:30 with a choir concert starting at 9:45. Home at 11:45, Madeleine is quickly asleep and so are we.

Although she is quickly developing into a young woman, Madeleine is still a child. She wakes up at 4:30 am and can’t go back to sleep. At 5:30 she crawls into bed with us. After a half hour of fidgeting we send her back to her room and tell her to wait until 7:00.

Stockings, breakfast and then gifts – all a great success. Then we dress and head over to my sister’s for Christmas dinner with my late mother’s second family: my stepfather, two sisters, brothers-in-law, a brother, a sister-in-law, two nephews and four nieces. We haven’t all been together in a while and this is my first time in my sister’s new home. It is Christmas and the 3-year-old twins are having a wonderful time. Everyone likes their presents. It could not have been better. Finally late afternoon we stop by the house to let the dogs out and then head down to Cambridge for an annual party with friends. More turkey, lots of good talk, a chance to relax. We get home late and sleep late – Madeleine doesn’t wake up until 10:45 this time.

Now it is off to my step-mother’s house for “Christmas” with my late father’s second family: my step mother, two sisters, two brother’s in law, two nephews and three nieces (all combined I have a large family – Amanda has but one sister, brother-in-law and nephew). We start by opening gifts, then play games and around 4:00, another turkey dinner. Our third turkey dinner in 28 hours, each different, each delicious and each made special by those we share with. We head home at about 7:00.

Christmas is over. It has been long, tiring and merry.

Changes

December 23, 2005

The morning e-mail finally brings the new “Gameplan.” The target date is now February 28 not March 31. There will be a big Parish leaders meeting / workshop / brainstorming session on January 5. There will be a new regional lead for our area. There will be more contractors coming in the first of the year. There may be some changes to the Parish Teams. Not surprising, likely for the good, it will make for an intense 60 days.

Homecoming

December 22 – December 23, 2005

As I come up the walk the door flies open and a beautiful 12 year old girl in stocking feet jumps into my arms. Madeleine was too excited to see me to go to bed. Amanda is waiting at the door and give me a quick kiss and a welcome home. She is still cleaning the house and although it is close to 11:00 pm she has more to do before she can go to bed.

It has been a tough month for the family. Although my departure was toughest on my daughter, I think the entire experience was toughest on my wife. Soon after I left there was 16 inches of snow to clear. Then there was the driving to and from Madeleine’s school – 40-minutes each way. Even with a car pool there is a lot of driving. Her veterinary business takes another chunk of time and house calls are not very efficient and are hard on the body carrying bags in and out. All this left little time for housework and almost no time for going to the gym and doing other things to take care of herself.

While it would have been nice to return to a relaxed week of R&R and TLC with the family, this was not our current reality. Instead my return brought a touch of relief that there was another pair of hands to help get things caught up before I was gone again.

A big issue for a contract consultant and especially a contract consultant’s family is the lack of financial security. This contract provides enough to cover us into April but will there be another contract in time to carry past tax day? Can we find a reasonably priced health insurance policy that covers more than what our present policy does?

Today, what I need and want are not the same as what they need, want and are capable of providing. On the other hand, I have not yet built my consulting practice up enough to provide the resources for what they want and need in order to provide what I want and need. It is not that we want something different or do not want to be there for each other. We are just not at a point this year where that is possible.

I am hopeful that the work I have done and the relationships I have built will bare fruit with a prosperous 2006. But hope is not security. And the work that people want me to do often means travel. How do you balance these needs? A regular 9:00 to 5:00 local job would provide security but not the interesting challenges and opportunity to make a difference that my current work brings. And while there would be a regular paycheck there is likely less opportunity for building some wealth. We have had to deplete some of our retirement funds to get to this point. Will next year bring more of the same or be the turning point. If I settle for less will I have changed paths just before the investment is to pay off or wil I have stopped throwing good money after bad? Only God knows. All I can do is let go and put it is his hands.

The New Dodge Charger

December 23, 2005

Yesterday, I returned the Dodge Charger to the rental company. As I related in one of my first posts, this was a free upgrade when I discovered the temporary plates on the first car they had given me had expired. Not being a car person, I was not really aware that Dodge had recently re-introduced the Charger or that it was a big deal. This amazed the young black woman at the rental agency.

About a week after I arrived a colleague and I were on the way to pick up our badges. Short on time we headed through the Burger King drive through line. A woman two cars in front of us rolled down her window and asked “is that the new charger?”

A few days later when I drove out to Allen Parish to look at storefronts with the fellow from the Government Services Administration and a woman realtor, both commented on the car.

My first Saturday in Allen Parish, I stopped at a Christmas Tree Farm in Grant. There were a group of teenage boys helping to trim, bag and load the Christmas trees cut down by the customers. As I was walking back toward the car, two had wandered over to give it a closer look. They were both leaning over to give it a side-ways glance. Their pose was right out of a car commercial. As I walked up they quietly asked if it was my car. I told them it was a rental and they responded, “how fast have you gotten it up too?”

One day, I was in the Parish Offices when the Parish Treasurer / Office Manager and the Secretary came over. She asked me if that was my car out front. I told her it was a rental and she said that she and the secretary had been admiring it and had said “wow, he gets to drive the new Charger.”

Even the young men who came by the storefront this week to string the network cables were a bit awed that I had the chance to drive such a cool car. And these were just the more memorable comments I received not to mention the many long looks as I drove by.

In all honesty, it was a pretty nice car. It was comfortable, handled well, and it was powerful. I can’t say I am really into the muscle car design and the low roof line that made me have to bend down to see stop lights was a nuisance. All in all, however, driving the “new Dodge Charger” for a month was an interesting experience. Somehow I doubt I will be driving a celebrity car next month.

Be careful what you suggest

December 22, 2005

Earlier in the week I suggested that the Parish Team leads send thank you notes with the summary documents to those who attended the workshops and send letters to those who had not attended inviting them to add their thoughts. This morning at about 9:00 am, I received an e-mail saying that the folks back in Baton Rouge think that is a grand idea and would like us to send out the letters today with a request that comments be returned by Friday, January 5.

This would be fine, except I have a plane to catch at 2:30 and the Baton Rouge airport is at least a 2-hour drive away! It is a good thing that I teach courses in how to use Microsoft Office. We have a spreadsheet with all the information we currently have on the government officials in Allen Parish and another spreadsheet with information on those who attended the meeting. I quickly prepare two mail merge letters, one linked to each spreadsheet and generate two documents – one with 13 individualized letters to those who attended the meeting and one with 58 letters to those who did not. I tell the folks in Baton Rouge to e-mail the final version of the Summary Report to Chris as soon as it is completed, leave the letters with him to print and ask him to work with Cliff to address envelopes and get them out.

At 11:00 am I head for the airport. By 1:15 I am returning my car and I even have time to pick up a personal pan Pizza on my way to the gate – the last thing of substance I will eat before I reach home at 11:00 pm by way of Chicago.

Start-up Beginning

December 21, 2005

Just as we arrived in DeRidder for the meeting, I got a call from the IT folks saying they wanted to meet me at the storefront this morning so they could string the cable for our computer network. The meeting itself was more a Holiday breakfast, information sharing event at a local restaurant. Rich was amazed that we have been as successful as we have been in making progress on opening our storefront and wondered out loud why, when his information had been submitted before ours, they were not as far along.

Upon leaving I phoned back the IT folks and finalized the time to meet. We got the keys to the storefront and guided the Chris and Ron in their stringing of cable. They were simply looking to get a head start so that things could move smoothly when the telephone folks arrive next Tuesday.

I sent out e-mails informing everyone of where things stood with regard to the storefront and who would be available on which days over the holidays – including contact information. My objective was to both keep everyone informed and to continue to prod folks to insure progress does not slow.

I also had to complete all of the weekly progress reports, timesheets, etc. since I had to leave for the airport in the morning. I am looking forward to a week with my family and friends.

Housecleaning

December 20, 2005

Today was spent finalizing the summary to our Government Planning Workshop and continuing to document Parish Government and Non-governmental leaders. Christmas is upon us, and we hope the storefront will be ready to open when we all return on January 3rd, so today is a day of tying up loose ends.

In his role as interim – acting Region Manager, Rich has called another 3 parish meeting for tomorrow morning in DeRidder.