It depends on what information you are after, certain pieces are commercially sensitive, some are ideas that need to be discussed at various levels before being released to the "great unwashed", some is information that may only relate to some individuals - sections (payed staff for example) & finally some is just not for public release (i.e politically sensitive).
Thats why you get the "need to know", & while I agree that some like to use information as a source of power, a lot of the time its just for the above reasons - nothing sinister! And with the flow of information & the amazing amount of info, sometimes people just can't absorb it all let alone distribute it to all of those people who may be interested. In my pay job for example we get emails about everthing! & if the subject line doesn't create an interest, guess what? its deleted! And on top of that there is all of those meetings, discussions & working groups. So if every single set of minutes, meeting notes or discusion paper was distributed to every vollie, would they really be read & understood?
And then sometimes what is written needs to be explained, so that the receiver of that information has a clear picture of what is being discussed.
There are two things people need to remember a) that you will never be told everything b) most of us are not interested in what the latest "brain wave" that is being tossed about in Wayemouth st! We are just too busy with our real lives
I pass on every bit of info to the guys in my unit, strangely enough they are not interested most of the time (the latest discussion on future requirements for responding to tasks however created a robust discussion & a very lively debate!)They don't care about grievance reports, who is who in the zoo or what the metro units/ CFS/ SAMFS are up to. They don't even give a toss about the minister (or her assistant Brad). They just want to get on with the job, without being stuffed about & when they are not happy they soon let me know so I can pass it up the chain (i.e. courses being cancelled at short notice, our chainsaw bid being canned etc).
So while I don't want to appear to agree with Fox (heaven forbid
), he is quite right on one point - use the chain of command (UMAGS, Group meetings are one forum for info exchange), if your not happy tell you association (which means THEY need to consult their filtered members prior to meetings instead of making decisions for us). And as someone said previously if the chain ain't working replace the links
(we are one of the few organisations who vote for our bosses) & if you are still not happy - you can always leave if enough members vote with their feet then I'm sure that someone will take notice!.
cheers
