MINUTES OF 2 DECEMBER 1982 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING: LONG-RANGE PLANNING, PHASE IV, SUPPORT CAPABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-01114R000300040013-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 13, 1982
• Content Type: MF

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FXCOM 82-7061.
13 December 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Committee Members
Executive Assistant to the DDCI
SUBJECT: Minutes of 2 December 1982 Executive Coritteee
Meeting: Long-Range Planning, Phase IV, Support
Capabilities
1. The Executive Committee met on 2 December 1982 to review
the Phase IV long-range planning papers on personnel requirements
and research and development support capabilities.
chaired the session; participants included Messrs. McMahon
(DDCI); Hineman (DDS&T); Fitzwater (DDA); Stein (DDO); Gates
(DDI); Taylor (IG); Childs (Comptroller); and Glerum
(D/Personnel). (AIUO)
2. Personnel Planning. I reviewed events in the
planning cycle to date and outlined the next steps. He
highlighted papers submitted by the Comptroller and the General
Counsel for this phase of the planning process. He noted that
the personnel planning paper was a catalog of present and future
problems and the solutions suggested were tantamount to
continuing existing practices with slightly more resources.
Highlighting the paper, Mr. Glerum stated that more personnel
officers would be required for the components, recruiting and
retaining high quality employees would become increasingly
challenging, and offsets would be required to counter Government
service becoming less attractive. In response tol
questions, he acknowledged that suggested solutions to the at ter
included improved benefits and a special pay scale for hard-to-
get high technology specialists. He also noted that productivity
measurement programs would only be applicable in some areas. (U)
3. Mr. Gates stated that he was disappointed with the lack
of alternatives presented in the paper. He observed that
Congress probably would he more inclined to have CIA benefits
conform to those in the rest of the Government rather than to
improve CIA's benefit package. He noted the lack of any
differentiation among the problem sets facing the five career
services. He questioned the gains to be realized from
productivity measurement. Mr. Gates suggested a number of
significant issues on the horizon that should he addressed in the
Agency's personnel planning process: the changing character of
secretarial/clerical work in the wake of increasing office
automation, including SAFE and CRAFT;, the impact of slowed
promotion rates leaving many GS-15s with dim prospects for career
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advancement; the need to develop incentives other than money to
retain and motivate employees; the implications of an increased
percentage of specialists with narrow ranges of expertise; and
the impact of changing societal values on the work ethic of newer
employees. (AIUO)
4. Mr. Stein said that he had similar concerns. Be,
believed that many of the problems could he solved if they could
be broken down into their directorate parts. He acknowledged
that the "one-Agency concept" was valid in many areas to ensure
equity, but in others it could compound the problems of working
in a large bureaucracy and dilute the career satisfaction that
was more easily attained in smaller units. Mr. Hineman concurred
with the latter point. He objected to the negative tone of the
planning paper, noting that people worked at CIA because of their
interest in their work and loyalty to the organization, not just
for money and benefits. Mr. Fitzwater thought the problems
identified in the paper as well as those noted by Mr. Gates were
valid. He observed that the environment the paper projected for
the future was already here. (U)
5. Mr. Taylor concurred with the concept of employees being
less inclined to spend entire careers at the Agency as "portable"
benefits became more common (e.g. Medicare, IRAs). He suggested
that dual career families should be considered a potential asset,
not a problem. Given the relatively small percentage of
employees serving overseas, Mr. Taylor thought concerns about
attracting employees to overseas service were overblown, He
noted that much of the Agency's significant work is performed by
contractors, and the Agency has been unimagini.tive in tapping
this skilled pool of people. He suggested the possibility of
establishing wholly owned subsidiaries to do specialized tasks.
(C)
6. Mr. McMahon said that the discussion had been very
constructive. He agreed that the secretarial issue merited
attention and suggested the IMS conversion program as a model.
He stated that surfacing issues like this one would be one of the
tangible benefits of the planning process. Mr. McMahon agreed
that with some imagination and good management, dual career
families should be a plus for the Agency. He was dismayed by the
materialistic theme throughout the paper. He was disappointed
that the paper did not reflect what he considered to be the
spirit of CIA employees who derived great satisfaction from the
enormous challenge of their work. Given the Agency's inability
to compete with the private sector financially, he suggested
concentrating on competing in other ways. Mr. Glerum said that
CIA applicants were not motivated only by money, but for'ay's
economy did make money more of a factor than in other time
periods. I concluded that the personnel paper had
served as an excellent catalyst for surfacing many ideas worth
pursuing. (U)
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7. Research and Development Support Capabi 1. i t i es.. Mr .
highlighted the key judgments of the R&D paper and asked
the Cormranittee to consider if the Agency should focus its R&D
efforts in any particular areas, such as clandestine technical
collection; which areas held the greatest possibilities for
success; whether enough money could be invested in artificial
intelligence or microelectronics to make a difference; and what
areas the Agency could invest in that would make a difference.
Mr. Stein said that he would favor concentrating on clandestine
technical collection. Mr. Hineman explained that R&D was also
required to support analysts and improve security.
suggested the need to establish priorities and concentrate on
those areas unique to CIA. Mr. Cates advised that the work ORD
has been doing for the DDI in grain forecasting, oil forecasting
and political instability was critically important. He urged
that ORD continue to support both DDO and DDT. Mr. Gates
suggested that the projected modest growth in R&D funds was
probably insufficient. (S)
8. Mr. Fitzwater thought that if the Agency could not spend
more on R&D, it should invest its resources where they could do
the most good. Mr. Gates pointed out the need to recognize that
when dealing with future technologies, the Agency might pursue a
lot of blind alleys, but the probable one success out of ten
would be worthwhile. Mr. Taylor was disappointed that the R&D
paper did not generate more new ideas. He suggested that
artificial intelligence would become increasingly applicable to
analysis during the next ten years. Mr. Childs thought the parer
should do more in defining what was really important. He was
appalled by the Indication in one of the attachments that
preparations for handling the data to be obtained by COBRA JUDY
still had not been. made. (S)
9. Mr. McMahon pointed out that the Agency's track record
in R&D had been good, often on the cutting edge of the state of
the art. He believed, however, that the Agency was spending too
little in this important area. thanked the
participants for their suggestions and adjourned the meeting.
(U)
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Distribution:
DDCI (Subject File)
ExDir
DDI
DDS.
DDO
DDS&`I'
IG
Comptroller
D/Personnel
Planning Staff
EXCOM Minutes
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