The purpose of the HCO offices is to act as stable terminals to an organization in any given area so as to provide immediate administrative assistance to L. Ron Hubbard when in that area and communications from operations to him and from him when he is not.

An HCO office is essentially a terminal. It should regard itself in company with other HCO terminals.

The foremost visible use of an HCO office is to act as a stable terminal for any area operation. An area operation can forward its communications to LRH and other operational areas through HCO terminals and should not forward communications in any other fashion than through HCO terminals, when these communications apply to other Scientology areas.

At present we have an HCO office in Washington, D.C., London, and HCOs are being set up now in South Africa and Australia, and France. These will be followed by additional HCO terminals as may be indicated.

If an HCO office considers itself primarily a unit which handles mail, it should disabuse itself at once. An HCO Secretary should be able to provide all necessary secretarial functions for LRH, but the activity of the terminal does not end there. The HCO Clerk receives all incoming communications and routes them to the proper hat terminal in the organization – i.e., if LRH receives a communication regarding an HPA course, it is referred by the HCO Clerk to the Registrar, who will handle the communication; a letter to LRH requesting processing fees, would be forwarded by the HCO Clerk to the Registrar; a question concerning memberships, to the Membership Secretary, etc. There was a time when LRH received and handled all manner of communications. But now we have definite organization posts established, and communications are referred to that post to which they are pertinent. It is the function of the HCO Clerk to determine proper routing of communications received in HCO.

The HCO is, in essence, a stable point to which can be communicated communications and difficulties in any area and these communications are forwarded to the proper terminal in the organization, or an analysis is made of the difficulty and communicated to another HCO terminal for clarification there. In addition to that, LRH may require reports on or about a given area and it is up to the HCO office to supply this information. The HCO should consider itself more of a trouble-shooting unit than a secretarial office. It is true that it is an office, and it must be conducted precisely as an office. It is true that it is secretarial and it is also true that it does have the function of being an extended pair of eyes for LRH.

The responsibility of being "an extended pair of eyes" continues into being able to evaluate what is right and what is wrong and saying so without introducing unnecessary turbulence on the communication lines. The HCO offices exist to permit good communication through to other areas and to LRH and this can easily be interrupted by too much turbulence.

An HCO office is essentially self-supporting. It is supported by royalties and other monies which come into being because of the existence of L. Ron Hubbard on a personal service basis to organizations and by reason of transcribing and creating material for use in such areas.

In use as a communication system from one area to another or from an area to LRH, the following procedure must be followed: The area must be instructed that any communications to any other Scientology area or to LRH must be forwarded through the HCO office. In this sense the HCO office in any area is a message center receiving from any other area and emanating to any other area in this network. Furthermore, the HCO receives materials from other areas and communicates these in their own area directly.

For example: A Dir of Tr dispatch which originates with the Dir of Tr London: It passes from D of T London to HCO London across the Atlantic to HCO Washington, and to D of T Washington. This same procedure would be followed from Washington. D of T. Washington, originates communication. It goes to HCO Washington, then crosses over to HCO London, and HCO London passes it on to D of T London.

In handling communications it will be found that when too bulky a packet of communications is made, something on the order of two ounces, that Customs often intercept the packet and inspect it, thus delaying the line considerably. Thus packets have to be broken up into smaller packets so that this does not interrupt our communication lines.

The preparation of the PABs comes under the HCO offices, under the hat of "PAB Liaison". PABs are printed and distributed from London. PAB copy comes from the HCO office where LRH is at the time, and all copy is ok'd by LRH before it is printed.

The various hats under HCO are: HCO Secretary, HCO Clerk, PAB Liaison, Manuscripts, Proof Reading, Tape Transcription, Ability Magazine (Writing – Editorial Director – Editor), Certainty Magazine (London), HCO Editorial, Public Relations, Advertising, HCO Board of Review, Advanced Clinical Courses, and Examining.

The financing of an HCO office is dependent upon the area in which it is located. This is done by utilizing Book Sale monies. At the end of any given year the expense an HCO has been to an area is deducted from a proper allocation of book fees to that HCO and this does not enter into the basic royalties due to LRH. For example, let us say that £2,000 worth of books have been sold in an area in a given year and HCO has cost £720 to maintain during that period. The Accountant then simply writes all HCO expenses under the heading of "Preparation of MSS" and so discharges it from his books.

Filing System used by HCO offices: The file "Dispatches To and From LRH" is set up by area – Washington, London, South Africa, etc. Within these area files are folders marked "Academy", "HGC", etc., filed by proper names – "Academy" (rather than the name of the individual). Under "Business Files" in HCO can be kept both proper names (company names) and subject names – projects. For instance, there can be a file titled, "Roneo", rather than filing under "John Jones Mimeograph Company", so that in future the file can be found by the subject name – a new person might or might not know that John Jones Mimeograph Company is the company from whom we order Roneo supplies, parts, etc. HCO files should be kept in a very orderly fashion. However, operational notes can be from time to time destroyed. These are only valid for a few months at best.

HCO also acts as a preparation and distribution area of HCO Bulletins and Policy Letters. These are Bulletins of instructions to operations in general, to staff auditors, and to other things very intimate in the Scientology areas. An HCO Bulletin will not be mailed from Washington to be distributed in London. It will be found a very much sounder policy is to send an HCO Bulletin COPY to London. London will cut a stencil and distribute. Thus London always has its own stencils and Washington has its own stencils. It is paramount that these stencils be cut and that extra material be cut since such situations arise as a post being vacated without the person on that post in a Scientology operation having saved the material relating to that post. It is up to the HCO office to furnish the material from HCO Bulletins and other sources. Any Bulletin or Policy Letter issued by HCO is distributed ONLY to organization personnel and our field offices; none are to be distributed to non-organization persons. The contents of these bulletins are intended for staff and staff should not release the information outside of staff, without express permission from LRH.

While the speed of handling, which is to say the order of priority, of messages is very difficult to ascertain and does depend in the main upon the good judgement of the HCO terminal itself, it will be observed that the following list of precedences should be given to communications going through HCO channels. Any communication labelled "Emergency" should be sent through with extraordinary speed and care. Anything not so labelled should go through routine. Packages of financial materials such as cheques and requests for cheques should be given the next priority. All green slip messages, which is to say operational messages, should then be given the next priority. Letters from the field, reports or data are given the last priority and may even be sent by regular mail to save postage.

The Colour Flash marking system originated some time ago wherein green means an operational message, pink means a financial message, etc., should be very closely followed by the HCO. The neatness and accuracy of an HCO terminal may very well influence the neatness and accuracy of administration carried on in a Scientology area and this at all times must be before the HCO terminal. Priorities of speed in terms of colour flash would be any green or pink message marked "Emergency" and then any pink message and then any routine green message and finally white (which is to say field letters, etc.) should be given last priority and even sent by regular mail.

Air letters should be used wherever possible.

It is up to the secretary in charge of an HCO office to keep the premises acceptably neat and orderly at all times since the appearance of the office is very likely to influence the caller's opinion of LRH personally, therefore it is highly probable that HCO offices, as finance accumulates and makes this possible, will become the better-looking offices of Scientology.

The occupation of spare time by an HCO Secretary should never be a problem. If she finds herself with spare time, it is only necessary for her to remember that we are doing an Encyclopedia of Dianetics and Scientology and we are transcribing many hundreds of hours of lecture tapes. It is very necessary that these tapes be transcribed so that they can come out in an eventual Encyclopedia. The transcription of these tapes is a very careful and painstaking job. It is necessary that the written script must be understandable, therefore it is necessary for the HCO Secretary to understand the material on the tape as she transcribes it on to a typewriter. Such tapes are available and will be made available and each HCO office will have a tape recorder with a foot pedal in order to put in such time. THE CONGRESS OF SCIENTOLOGISTS in Washington, D.C. has this Encyclopedia as a project. An HCO Secretary can contact Congress of Scientologists in Washington, D.C., to determine which tapes they should transcribe – C of S monitors this project. In addition to this project, there will be other materials to transcribe and a tape can be sent through by mail containing dispatches which can be received by an HCO office and the dispatches of that area can be taken off it directly and emanated into the area.

Tape Transcription post of HCO is to transcribe any and all tapes given them by LRH – manuscripts, articles, bulletins, letters, or anything else from LRH.

An HCO office is itself. It is a separate organization from all Scientology organizations. It works in conjunction and cooperation with Scientology organizations, but it is itself.

No one in an area in authority in Scientology has any right to dismiss or change an HCO Secretary or other HCO personnel. This can only be done by LRH himself. Therefore, an HCO Secretary should not feel any qualms about remarking on the conduct of an office or its general appearance or activity. The HCO Secretary is not there as a spy but is often asked about the state of an operation. She should give a true and factual, not a coloured, picture of it, but at the same time, she should not withhold an opinion for fear that it will influence her own status which it will not.

It is paramount that traffic to LRH be held to a minimum. The reason for this is that correspondence actually cuts into LRH's origin time on mss and books. His job is not, first and foremost, an administrative job in Scientology. Therefore, the HCO offices have been created to do this job for him as much as possible in order to salvage writing and research time. Thus, an HCO office should feel bound to handle routine or uninteresting material and to handle it in such a way that it will be in all ways satisfactory to the people originating it. To waste time and postage on much of the material which is received at an HCO terminal office is not included. Therefore, the HCO office should pleasantly acknowledge communications received which have no particular influence on the operation and file them without further referral to them than perhaps a remark in a report to the HCO terminal near which LRH is that letters from so and so and so were received and acknowledged.

This will do much to cut down weight. In other words, an HCO terminal has the right to acknowledge and file without forwarding, at its own discretion. It does not, however, have this right on green and pink operational messages.

An HCO office must be open during the routine business hours of the day customary in that area. It must open at a precise time in the morning, there must be an exact lunch hour which is followed and it must close officially at a certain time, no matter how long the HCO personnel stays there in the evening. By keeping regular office hours it is possible then for an area to be secure in its ability to contact the HCO terminal. If the HCO cannot be contacted or if it is sporadically out of communication it will be found that the area will begin to get a little restive about contacting LRH.

HCO offices doing extra work for the area: It may sometimes be found feasible to implement the expenses and occupy time in an HCO office by taking on additional work in an area which is not immediately concerned to the HCO terminal. However, it will be considered in a very poor light if this work is undertaken to the cost of the HCO terminal's actual line of work.

HCO offices should keep painstakingly accurate accounts of petty cash, postage, receipts and disbursements in general.

HCO offices are always liable in the accounting field to inspection by the Accountant of any Scientology area.

HCO offices exist to expedite Scientology communications. If they fail to actually speed the communication line it will be discovered that they will become by-passed, when they are by-passed an enturbulance will result. It is, therefore, up to an HCO terminal to give communications every possible expedition and to reassure people wondering about this and being anxious about communications that every means has been taken. HCO offices should have regular pick-up and delivery schedules to area offices in order to seem even more stable.

The first principle of an HCO terminal is to be stable. Stability is built on good scheduling, proper dispatch and relaying of communications and an orderly set of communication lines. LRH's reputation is to a marked degree in the hands of HCO terminals.

I maintain a Communications Office which is devoted to specific interests and which should be used for those interests and which should not be used for any other purpose by the organization. Its use for other purposes inhibits the work for which this office was designed and has a tendency to clog my writing communication line. Thus, the indulgence of the operation in general is requested so as to keep this communication center well within its own functions.

The functions of this center are:

1. The receipt and answering of correspondence addressed to myself, some of which is personal, much of which is to the interest of the general operation.

2. The answering and delivering of telephone communications relating specifically to communications addressed to me or proceeding from me.

3. The typing of manuscripts and investigation material from my Dimaphon records or personal dictation.

4. Compilation of investigation and case information submitted to me by auditors.

5. Assistance to the Treasurer in receiving bills and expediting their payment.

6. The care of social and Governmental matters in which I happen to be concerned.

7. Maintaining my Comm lines in good order.

Casual communication with this office inhibits its efficiency and involves it in concerns which inhibit a swift expedition of my work.

The office is not concerned with the activities of the central staff beyond acting as a communications relay point from myself to these operations and from these operations to myself.

This memorandum is issued because various parts of the operation have involved my office in concerns beyond its scope, the first effect of which is to cause my correspondence to receive secondary attention. A secondary concern is involving the office petty cash and stationery materials with those of the remaining operation which should have their own, procured by proper vouchers through proper channels.

I have no feeling about this beyond the attitude I always exhibit: when my communications lines or any part of them are challenged, or when personnel who work very close to me have their time employed on duties which are beyond the immediate scope of my office.