An infra-organizational dispatch is a simple thing. You can keep a copy if you wish, but only one copy (the original) goes and comes back.

When writing a dispatch, address it to the POST — NOT the person. (If a person changes post, or leaves, if you address the dispatch to the post, it will be received by the new occupant of the post, but if you address it to the person, then if the person leaves it may not be received and handled.)

A Staff Status is a number giving the value and promotion eligibility of a staff member in this organization.

Set up a dispatch as follows: (for information or advice)

The number appears after a person's name on the organization board in the Communication Centre.

Example:

The numbers run from zero to ten. They designate the type of post to which a person may be promoted or the status of the person.

Mimeograph Officer

It is important to have a higher status number. Therefore do all you can to increase yours.

Supply Officer (date)_________________

The status numbers most important to a new staff member are 0 (zero), 1 and 2.

Dear_________________,

Your order of ........ (message).

Above that are the promotional numbers which must be earned by study and experience in the organization.

There are also technical status numbers. These are not necessarily required of personnel in non-technical departments and are elsewhere described.

If you do your job in this org and study how to be a better staff member you will advance and will be secure.

or for a request or an order:

The first three status numbers and the states follow:

Mail Clerk

via Dir Comm(date)________________

A staff member who is newly hired is designated 0 (zero) status after his or her name on the organization board. The person is classed as TEMPORARY until he or she has been to Review after a few weeks on post. The TEMPORARY must obtain a slip from their immediate senior saying they are doing fine on post and present this to Review. Review may require they have a knowledge of the org board and comm lines and their own department before passing them. Review may give the person who bears a recommendation several interviews to pass the exam but after the 3rd exam is failed, must dismiss. If they have no recommending slip, Review notes their name and tells the person to get one from their senior and come back. Review keeps a close record of all persons calling on it. Review, when a recommendation slip is presented, then may examine the person concerning the org board, etc. as per current "provisional" check sheet.

HCO Area Sec

If the TEMPORARY is recommended and passes, Review assigns the person a PROVISIONAL Staff Status and advises Org Board and Personnel Files by sending them chits attesting the fact. The staff member also gets a copy.

Dear__________

While TEMPORARY a staff member may be dismissed with or without cause by his immediate superior or by Review or a Secretary or anyone senior to a Secretary.

Please see that . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (order or request).

If Review does not pass the Temporary, Review dismisses the person. However, if the person is to be dismissed, Review must inform the person what he must do to make himself more employable, get the person on a PE Course and processed, etc.

When Review tells a Temporary he or she did not pass or is dismissed, Review also informs Dept 1, Personnel Officer.

Any Temporary, dismissed, may apply again to the Personnel Officer for employment in another section or department of the org. Pay ceases while under dismissal. Therefore when Review dismisses a TEMPORARY, Review –

This form is used so that when it is ready to be returned, an arrow can be drawn pointing to the post to which it is to be returned, eliminating the need to write if. If the message is one that should go in your hat, either put it in your hat and acknowledge sender, or write it up for your hat, returning the original to sender. If the dispatch comes to you from a junior always insist the junior has attested "it is okay". If you in turn wish to send it on, you too must attest "it is okay" and send it on. If itis not OK return the dispatch to the originator stating briefly why it is not OK.

1. Tells the person he has not passed and no more chances will be given.

The receiver handles the dispatch and retains the dispatch until such time as it has been completely handled. If it is a matter which involves days or weeks, you can dispatch the sender stating that such and such is being attended to and expected to be complete within a certain time — but retain the original dispatch until job is done, thenreturn it to sender marked "DONE". Do not return the original with "It's beingattended to". Originals only return with "DONE" or "Can't be done". Otherwise the communication stays incomplete.

2. Tells the person how to become more employable.

When replying to a dispatch, put down the date of the message. Dispatches are handwritten. Executives, other than Exec Secs, should not have their dispatches typed by a secretary except where the dispatch contains large volume.

3. Puts the person in the files for possible future employment if the conditions are met (2 above).

4. Informs Dept 1. Dept 1, being advised of a dismissal:

The colour flashes for paper for divisions are as follows:

(1a) Informs Accounts at once.

• HCO Division 1 - Gold

(2a) Makes a note of it in the person's file noting also Accounts is informed.

(3a) Notifies the person's immediate superior whether the superior is otherwise informed or not.

If a Temporary dismissed is upset about it, he or she is sent to the Chaplain.

The Chaplain, on any dismissed person coming to him should ascertain if the above lines were followed properly, that no ethics policy or order was violated by superiors or org officers and that the person follows the advice to become more employable if the dismissal is in good order. If the Chaplain finds a gross irregularity in a dismissal he should bring the person to Ethics.

TEMPORARY is designated as 0 status on the org board.

Every quarter the HCO Exec Sec of an org must dismiss all persons who have Temporary Status and have not become Provisionals. Such persons are sent to Review for dismissal.

A staff member given a PROVISIONAL rating may have recourse to Ethics and have an Ethics hearing if dismissed. He may be transferred to other divisions without a hearing if his division is over-manned.

A person, after one year, may apply for permanent status.

White paper is also used for letters to the field, business houses, Board minutes,and for manuscripts and research notes.

A PROVISIONAL is designated as "1" on the org board after his or her name.

Copies of letters written are on the colour flash of the division writing the letter.

To obtain permanent status a PROVISIONAL must obtain his or her Basic Staff Certificate. This has a check sheet for which the HCO EXEC SEC is responsible for compiling. This is covered in earlier Policy Letters.

The certificate is examined for by Review and issued by Certs and Awards. The requirements are relatively elementary but are quite firm.

If you have a request, put it in writing. Do not go to the person and expect him toc arry your request around in his head. Personnel are not supposed to present theirbody, nor their body with a dispatch to other personnel except for actual conferences which are kept to a minimum. Few things need conferences. Dispatches take care of 99% of organizational business.

Ethics chits issued while the person was employed are taken into consideration.

The Secretary of the person's division must recommend permanent status in writing to Review before an exam may be given.

The Comm Centre contains a basket for each staff member. Each basket is tagged with the person's name and underneath the name is their post or posts. Each person is responsible for delivering his own dispatches to the proper baskets and for picking updaily his own dispatches. Do not fail to pick up your dispatches at least twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon — make your own schedule). But do not let dispatches pile up in your basket.

In larger orgs a Comm Centre and separate Divisional Comm Centres may be instituted. The Comm Centre would consist of one basket for each division plus abasket for L. Ron Hubbard and an outer org OUT basket. Each divisional commcentre is placed in the divisional working area with a basket for each staff member in that division plus a divisional in-basket and a divisional out-basket. An HCO dispatch courier would be responsible for delivering dispatches into the divisional in-baskets and from the divisional out-baskets into the comm centre baskets. The sec sec is responsible for the distribution of dispatches from the divisional in-basket to staff members' baskets.

A PERMANENT STAFF MEMBER may not be demoted, transferred or dismissed without a full Committee of Evidence being held. The person may himself request a change of status or another post or may resign without a Committee of Evidence being convened. (The Evidence and findings of a Committee of Evidence are taken by a Committee composed of one's co-workers and to be valid and put into effect must be passed by LRH personally.)

No person may be paid as permanent or posted until the person's name appears in a SEC ED. LRH Executive Director may not at his own discretion wish to make the permanent award and if not included in a Sec Ed it is not awarded.

Keep abreast of all post changes. As the Org Board is changed, the Comm Centre baskets are changed. Always know who is occupying what post so that when you deliver a dispatch you will always know whose basket it goes in. If you are not sure, check the Org Board.

PERMANENT status is then designated on the Org Board by the numeral "2" after a person's name.

Certs and Awards issues the Permanent Certificate, but only after a SEC ED so declaring has been issued.

Handle your dispatches daily. Do not let them stack up on you. When someone sends you a dispatch let them hear from you. Do not get the reputation of 'I hesitate to send so and so a dispatch because I don't know when I'll hear from it, or if I'll everhear from it.' DO NOT LET YOUR DISPATCHES DEAD-END. When you let your dispatches (or letters) stack up on your desk, you are in actuality chopping the commlines of the organization and in so doing chopping your own pay cheque.

Review, passing a person for permanent must advise Dept 1 Personnel, and the AdCouncil to prepare a SEC ED for LRH Exec Dir issue.

The SEC ED advises Accounts and Org Board, and no pay may be changed or the permanent status posted until the SEC ED is issued.

Secretaries who type letters should always take care to staple the carbon copy ontop of the incoming letter — do not use a paper clip. In answering letters, answer their questions. Give them the information they are seeking. Use the gradient scale method. DO NOT FAIL TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS. If you don't know the answers, find out.

A person failing to get a permanent status remains provisional.

A person with PERMANENT status gets longevity pay according to the number of years employed, at so much for each year. This is backdated to first employment.

The purpose of the secretarial unit is to type answers to letters. Most all intra-organizational dispatches can be handwritten: this saves time in putting them on tape (when you could be writing them yourself) and saves the transcriber's time for replying to letters. Stay in communication with other staff members and with our correspondents. If you don't handle your dispatches properly don't reply to thesender, as I said before, you are cutting your own pay cheque.

The higher status numbers are given to staff members as earned by passing check sheets. Gaining a higher status does not mean promotion but eligibility for promotion, said eligibility being in plain view on the org board with higher status number.

No one may have a higher status than 2 after his or her name on any org board without meeting all requirements up to the new status sought, and passing the check sheet for each status in sequence. Items already passed are credited on any future check sheet where the items occur on the check sheet and have been passed.

[Note: The two earlier issues of 8 Apr '58 and 13 Dec '62 were the same basic issue as the abovePolicy Letter, with a few changes reflecting the evolution of the Comm System and the Org Board.

The HCO Exec Sec WW is responsible for all check sheets for staff status and the use and following of this Policy Letter via HCO Exec Secs in orgs.

13 Dec '62 was a straight reissue of 8 Apr '58 — as part of the Reissue Series (7) — with minor changessuch as the inclusion of a salutation in the dispatch example, and in the first paragraph under CommCentre Baskets, addition of a phrase, "(except in some larger Orgs, where there is a Communicator forthis purpose)" after the sentence saying each person is responsible for picking up and delivering hisown dispatches.

Staff quotas for Divisions and Sections are set by the Advisory Council.

4 Jan '66, Issue III (above) gave two dispatch examples instead of one as given in both earlier issues,showing the different routing for information or advice and for a request or an order; added thesecond half of the last paragraph on page 101 re including the attestation "it is okay" on a dispatch; updated the Colour Flash System in line with the 7 Division Org Board, which in the earlier twoissues had been based on type of dispatch, report, letter, carbon copy, etc. as opposed to Divisionalcolour flash; and deleted a second half of the paragraph entitled Written Requests, which read, "Wehave a Comm Centre where dispatches are to be placed. Place your dispatches in the person's basket,not in his hands. IT IS ANXIETY ABOUT COMMUNICATION ONLY THAT CAUSES PEOPLE TO JUMP THE LINES. There may be, however, a few exceptions: emergencies, or if you have a largearticle that would not fit into a Comm Centre basket. The point is, do not mn around all day handingpeople dispatches, nor put them down on someone's desk. This tends to intermpt their work andcauses confusion on the lines." It also added the second paragraph under Comm Centre Basketsre Divisional Comm Centres; and under the paragraph Answering Letters, after the sentence, "Givethem the information they are seeking," deleted " — but do not try to sell them a course and anintensive if all they want is some information concerning an ad we are running."]

No hiring, promotions, assignment of status or appointments are made except as made above.

[Modified by HCO P/L 5 January 1969, Staff Status Two, Volume 1 – page 136, Volume 5 – page 255, Volume 7 – page 503.]