WEEKLY ACTIVITIES REPORT

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
C
Document Page Count: 
2
Document Creation Date: 
December 27, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 18, 2009
Sequence Number: 
181
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
January 21, 1959
Content Type: 
MEMO
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5.pdf126.87 KB
Body: 
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/18: CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5 Office Memorandum ? UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Chief, Language and Area School FROM : Deputy Chief, Area Training SUBJECT: Weekly Activities Report DATE: 21 January 1959 A. SIGNIFICANT ITEMS 1. Our first "Saturday Special" area briefing for dependents was run from 0830 to 1700 hours on the 17th and was success- ful beyond our hopes. A total of only two or three dozen dependents per year had been enrolled in these Americans Abroad orientations on week-days, while this single Saturday offering drew 16 dependents despite severe weather. These briefings are keyed to the particular foreign areas of as- signment and stress problems of personal adjustment to the new society for those entering it the first time. Despite three years of effort in improving and making known this program, however, it receives indifferent support or none at all in a large number of components. We believe this attitude is due either to a lack of appreciation by some supervisors of the critical importance of intercultural adjustment on the part of employees and dependents alike, or to a risky assumption that briefings given in the branches or in the home suffice. We believe that these non-QTR briefings are generally inadequate - if given at all - because they tend to be unsystematic and lack the broad experience of the teams of staff briefers and recent returnees which we use. cally on the 17th by six employees in various compone Especially gratifying was the help volunteered enthusiasti- including of Processing, and of LAS . B. OTHER ACTIVITIES 1. An additional offering of the full Americans Abroad Orienta- tion will be run the week of 13 April, followed by a Saturday Special" on the 18th on Western Europe (in- and Latin America. This follows a recom- men a on o nd is intended to take care of the peak season of PCS assignments. 25 YEAR RE-R Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/18: CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/18: CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5 2. deserves special mention for the highly effective part he played on two panels during the first s f the AAp His unusually broad experience and his sympathy for our "effective interpersonal rela ons overseas" theme make him an ideal recruit for the critical opening session of this course. 3. We still lack the first guest speaker for 5 and 6 March, in our Current Problems Seminar on Free Europe, but are still hopeful that the DD/I will succeed in obtaining a commitment from The DD/I Informed us on Monday that he was sorry he had not contacte during the previous week spent in New York. 4. We are about to request permission to cancel Free Europe - Regional Survey #3, scheduled to begin 2 February. As of the deadline, only 5 Agency and 3 non-Agency candidates had registered. Thus our best efforts to revise this course in order to fill a serious training need of many case officers and analysts at the Grade 9-13 level have been in vain. 5? discussions with supervisors in some components convince him that the regional perspective aimed for in this course is badly needed by personnel who have over-concentrated on one country or one functional specialty. This is our second dis- appointment with registration for this course, however, and we intend to drop it from our 2-year cycle of survey courses offered in the Western Department, believing that our meagre resources should be concentrated on high priority items such as the new course on effective interpersonal relations over- seas and an expansion of the senior-level Current Problems Seminars. structor were unsuccessful. Permission has been requested to cancel the Basic Country Survey course on the Balkan States, originally scheduled to run from 11 May 59 to 12 June 59. Cancellation is attributed to the fact that the extension of the course on East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia to ten weeks gives us insufficient time to prepare for the course on the "Balkan States" this spring. In addition, our attempts to "beg or borrow" an in- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/18: CIA-RDP61-00442A000200040181-5