2004 Northern Chapter President’s Message

#CPRFromTheArchives

This post contains the text of the Northern Chapter President’s Message by Joe Surges, originally published in 2004.

The quickest two years of my life.

This will be my last article as Northern Chapter President for CPR. It’s time for someone else to take over. It seems like only yesterday I was given the honor of being elected Chapter President by the members of the Northern Chapter. And now today I have only three months left to serve out my second year in that office.

As I am involved in so many things, both in the “real job” I get paid for and in my CLEARS capacities, I must reassess my priorities daily. In doing so, I am reminded of an article in a management magazine that gave the busy manager tips on how to be more productive. One of the things the article discussed was how to deal with your “inbox”.

The main thing the article refers to is called the “TRAF Principle”. Here is an acronym that really intrigues me.

TRAF stands for:

‍ ‍Toss it

‍ ‍Refer it

‍ ‍Act on it

‍ ‍File it

Using the TRAF Principle, these four actions are all one needs to maintain order in the “inbox”.

Toss it! Ask yourself: Am I ever going to look at this again? Will I ever have a need for this product or service? Am I going to need this skill in the near future to achieve a goal? If you answer no to any of these, then it should be headed for the old “round file” or in my case, the rectangular file.

Refer it! Is the information something someone else in the organization can make use of? Should the info be passed on to someone who makes the decisions? If so, refer it off your desk and on to theirs.

Act on it! This is the one we all dread; we have to deal with it in some way, shape or form. The only way to get it off your desk is to take some sort of action: [write a memo], correct a report, or meet with the employee or your supervisor.

File it! Right now, you have no need for the information but you know, that some time down the road, you may. It might be some information on a Records Management System, or an imaging system, or a new way to do employee evaluations. Sooner or later, you might just need this information and this paper might just be the place to start.

I have been trying to use these [principles] for the last few years and I can tell you that I am fairly successful at it. I am usually able to move items off my desk in a quick manner. Now, sometimes I am just not able to get to things but that is more my fault than the “things” themselves. I would recommend you try this for a while and see if maybe it can help you be a little more organized.

Time for me to sail off into the sunset but don’t worry, I am not really going anywhere. I will still be the State Legislative Chair and will be a contributor to this magazine on a regular basis. Happy trails!

Joe L. Surges,

Concord PD