ATLANTIC SEA BEE BATTALION

USNSCC Atlantic Sea Bee Battalion Unit Communication Structure Peter Rose - pmr20001206

Content

PURPOSE
UNIT FUNCTIONAL AREA CATEGORIES
MAJOR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
     Broadcast to Everyone
     Cadets and Staff
     Parents/Other
CO AS CENTRAL COMMUNICATION CLEARINGHOUSE
     Types of Messages
     Communication Tools
     Getting the Information
FLASH ALERT EMAIL LIST
     Flash Alert Content
     Information Security
     Flash Alert Program Structure



PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to establish an organized and efficient method of communication between all unit functional areas (i.e. categories). Many times, members of a category wish/need to broadcast information to either all other unit members, or members of certain select categories within the unit.
[Document Top]


UNIT FUNCTIONAL AREA CATEGORIES
These unit functional areas/categories are as follows:

• CO
• Unit Officers
• Unit Staff
• Cadet Leaders
• Cadets
• Parents/Other

[Document Top]


MAJOR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
There are three distinct needs within the unit for communication:

• Broadcast to Everyone
• Cadets and Staff
• Parents/Other

[Document Top]

Broadcast to Everyone
All cadets and parents are encouraged to check the eGroups website daily for new postings to the Message Board. This is the arena for all general communication among unit members.

There is an option in each member's eGroups Profile to enable or disable email. If email is enabled, every posting to the Message Board, whether it be an initial post or reply to a post, will be emailed to you. If you disable this feature, you will need to manually log in and check for new message postings to the eGroups Message Board.

To obtain more information on a particular issue discussed in the Message Board, you can participate in the eGroups site chat room, post a reply email message to the Message Board, or email or call the member directly.
[Document Top]

Cadets and Staff
Cadets and Staff include the following categories:

• CO
• Unit Officers
• Unit Staff
• Cadet Leaders
• Cadets

Military units are controlled through the Chain of Command. The unit's Chain of Command is as follows:

1. CO
2. XO
3. Operations Officer (and all Unit Officers)
4. On Site Supervisor
5. Lead Cadet
6. Squad Leaders
7. Fire Team Leaders

Critical communication is distributed by the CO through the Chain of Command. It is the responsibility of all members in the Chain of Command to not only transmit the message to those below them, but to receive verification from each member that the message was, in fact, received by all those below their level of responsibility and to report this verification upline.

Without this verification component, the message transfer responsibility of the member is deemed to be incomplete. Without each member in the Chain of Command taking responsibility to be sure the information is properly disbursed and verified, the CO has no way of knowing if all intended members have been notified.

All communication to the Cadets will be done through the Chain of Command. It is their responsibility to make sure they act accordingly to the information they receive.
[Document Top]

Parents/Other
Because this is a cadet program, a critical component of this process to successful fulfillment of communications passed down through the Chain of Command is parent awareness. For this reason, the CO has allowed parent access to the secure areas of the cadet eGroups website and will also issue relevant copies of communications passed through the Chain of Command to the parents via a Flash Alert email. This will be discussed in detail later in this document.
[Document Top]


CO AS CENTRAL COMMUNICATION CLEARINGHOUSE
To better facilitate coordination of communication, the CO will be the central clearinghouse for all unit communication to both the Chain of Command (for cadets and officers) and to the parents, but not for general broadcast messages on the eGroups Message Board. It will be the CO who determines the communication channel the message is to be sent through.

Messages not sent through the CO will be deemed not received by anyone the message is intended for.

It will be the responsibility of the message sender to route the message through the CO, and to indicate the appropriate message channel(s). It will be the CO, however, who makes the final determination of the message channel(s) to be used, and in fact, if the message should be sent at all.

Do not send the CO messages that are geared for general broadcast on the eGroups Message Board.

Unit members wishing to have a message posted must pass the message up their Chain of Command. Do NOT submit your message directly to the CO as this will only create a message traffic jam. Please allow the system to work and use the Chain of Command. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation!
[Document Top]

Types of Messages
There are many types of messages that the unit deals with.

• Military Orders
• Plan of the Month (POM)
• Notices
• Memos
• Updates/Corrections
• Reminders

[Document Top]

Communication Tools
The unit uses the following tools to communicate with its members:

• Verbal Notification
• Written Handouts
• Telephone
• Email
• Unit Website
• Unit Website Flash Alerts
• eGroups Website Message Board

[Document Top]

Getting the Information
All information is relevant to all cadets, but only some information is relevant to parents. In order to keep the volume of communication and messaging to parents to a minimum, parents are requested to refer to the current POM for information on the month's planned activities.

Updates and corrections will be posted to the eGroups calendar. Parents are also encouraged to read all postings on the eGroups Message Board to keep up to date with day to day activities. Note that any critical information posted via this Message Board will also be sent via a Flash Alert email (or other form of communication if email is not available- see the CO) .

Parents will be notified of all official updates and corrections as well as any other information the CO determines important via a Flash Alert email. Parents may go to the eGroups Files\Memos secure folder to view copies of all Flash Alert email notices.

Note that the Files folder has numerous subfolders.

• Admin - general administrative information for officers and staff.
• Memos - updates, corrections, notices, etc. of interest for parents. Cadets will receive this through their Chain of Command.
• Training - general information of interest to cadets regarding their training within the unit.
• POM - Plan of the Month is a critical communication entity for all staff, cadets, and parents.

[Document Top]


FLASH ALERT EMAIL LIST
The CO will establish, maintain, and administer a Flash Alert email list. Each cadet must provide to the CO the name, address, telephone, email address, and relationship of their designated Flash Alert recipient. Any other interested and approved party may receive Flash Alerts, however they must contact the CO to be put on this list.

All Flash Alert messages will contain the words "FLASH ALERT" as part of the email subject line. A short title will follow to better identify the message content. For example, the subject line may look something like the following:

Subject: FLASH ALERT! Memo059: Change of drill meeting location.
[Document Top]

Flash Alert Content
The Flash Alert will contain the full text of information the CO wants the parent to be aware of. It will reference the document or entry in a general update document stored on the web via a clickable hyperlink. In most instances, this link will take you to a secure area of the site that will require a login password.

All Flash Alerts will contain a clickable email link to the On Site Supervisor in the event more information is required. The CO asks that the parent first check with their cadet and/or the website for information clarification before contacting the On Site Supervisor.

In the unlikely event that you need more information than the On Site Supervisor is able to give or if you are unable to reach the On Site Supervisor and your issue is critical, you can contact the unit's Operations Officer or XO, or even the CO himself. Again, the CO asks that you avoid this step if possible. Not only do we not want to flood the parent with communication, we do not want to overburden the officers either! Please only contact these officers when all other avenues can not provide you with sufficient information. However, after having said all of this, we encourage you to either email or call the CO regarding any personal concerns or issues relating to unit activities or your cadet child. We leave it to the parent's discretion to determine when contact with the CO is the best resource.
[Document Top]

Information Security
The Flash Alert list will be periodically reviewed for security purposes. Inactive cadets and their recipients will be deleted from the list and access to the eGroups site terminated.

It is important to note that security of this information is critical. It is the responsibility of each member of the unit and their Flash Alert members to hold in strictest confidence all material shared with them and of which they have access to. This includes information contained in the POM.

Cadets are not to share their personal access password with anyone, including their Flash Alert members who are not parents or direct relatives. USNSCC security guidelines concerning infractions of any unit security issue can be quite severe.

It is absolutely critical that no one with out the express approval of the CO have access to any secure area of the site.
[Document Top]

Flash Alert Program Structure
Basically, the Flash Alert system is a secure mailing list run out of a separate account. Only the CO may post messages to this account. This means that only messages specifically of interest to all parents will be emailed to you.

However, you still have access to the eGroups site database, chat room, calendar, and all other features of the unit's eGroups site. If you wish to email other members of the group, you may do so through your own email program so that messages are prevented from being broadcast to the entire group. We encourage you all to use this as the master parent contact list to communicate among each other.

Flash Alerts containing topics of interest to cadets will also be posted to the cadet's eGroups site for their review. They have the option of turning off broadcast email, but if they do they must then be responsible to check for messages.

We have the two systems in order to form a backup support system for cadets who many times fail to communicate unit activities in a timely manner to their parents and then miss out on important events, information, or opportunities. It is important that you, as the parent, help support this effort by going over all Flash Alerts affecting cadet performance with your cadet child to ensure the unit's smooth and efficient operation.

As a parent, you automatically have access to the cadet's eGroups system and can opt to have messages broadcast to you from that group as well. At first glance, this may appear to be a duplication of effort. The CO and officers all feel that the two sites provide the opportunity for a parent to paticipate in the unit's activities to as little or as great an amount as they choose. We hope this meets with eveyones approval.

As always, your comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Please feel free to contact the CO at anytime.
[Document Top]