12:44 a.m. - 2004-06-11
Completion
My Automation Co-ordinator picked me up early today. That was because we wanted to get in and get some work completed before the constant interruptions of the work hours and also because my assistant had the day off. He had offered to come and take me over to the office but I wanted him to have a complete break.
I wanted to produce the two statutory documents I needed and also get the calculations for the number of ballots to produce completed that I had begun the evening before. Called Ottawa to find out why we couldn't get the results we wanted when producing the documents. A short discussion resolved the issues, but left me wondering why a lot of information wasn't made available to us with respect to the software. It shouldn't be necessary to work between four manuals to extract the pieces to the each puzzle with the final key piece only available when we call head office. We don't have the luxury of that kind of time.
My representative from Canada Post called and we swapped election horror/funny stories for a while. She told me I would be receiving a shipment tout de suite but that there had been a technical blunder on her staff's part when it came to securing the material. No harm done and no loss so it doesn't matter to me. She commented that she was surprised with how few of our Voter cards were being returned. She said some of the other areas had "buckets". That should be taken as an indication that our list of electors is pretty accurate. That's a heartening measure.
Next up received a call from security at Elections Canada with respect to the problems with our documents going missing. I asked one of my team leads to remain in the office to hear my end of the conversation while also shutting the door so no one else could. Extended conversation resulted in some suggestions for protection and also an offer for him to get on the next plane to Calgary if I called him and asked or if I reported further occurrences. I think that means he is taking this quite seriously. It made me feel better in some ways but worse in others, if you see what I mean. While it was in my court I could still dismiss the severity of the problem, his response validated my concerns and fears. Not long after the call I went into the photocopy room to fax something to Ottawa. There was some material sitting on the photocopy machine that should not have been out of my office. Checked to determine how many copies had been made and found that an extra set had been reproduced unknown to the person dealing with that material for me. Voter numbers and information about the polling stations. Later in the afternoon another key staff member also finding material hidden away that should not have been in his area at all. Do I call about that or not?
Worked with my Office Co-ordinator next, planning for the candidates meeting coming up at 2 pm. I had a lot of material I needed assembled and copied. We aren't allowed to purchase coffee supplies for staff but we do have an allowance to buy refreshments for the political people. We also discussed some of the supply issues we had to address. We are going through one entire unit of toner for our registration printer each day and this is our "light use" week. When we have to produce the voter's list the demand increases substantially. How do we deal with that. Next up the shortage of computers to accommodate the demand for revision. At that point our local liaison called and said one of the Returning Officers in Southern Alberta had surplus computers were we still in the market - you bet. Being government we can't just horse trade we have to account for all moves of equipment and fair enough. That's tax payer money we are using. Procedures were worked out and Ottawa was called. A call back shortly after from number two computer maven and we were debating how to make the acquisition work when we had run out of space with the hub we had been given. A four way debate over speaker phone with my two tech staff found a solution and we were good to go.
I was struggling through all of this to try and continue producing the documents I needed and get the ballot calculations done. Finally got the documents completed and faxed to Ottawa for approval then continued the counting. It was already after noon. The woman who will be co-ordinating my hospital ballot co-ordinators arrived with atkins wraps for both of us. A working lunch meant a lot of my concerns there wree addressed. She'll be back on Tuesday to complete the arrangements. She works at the hospital and is familiar with the peole and the routines so that should ease a lot of the difficulties there are dealing with a big institution and very vulnerable people.
Went back to my calculations after she left. The printer was on the phone asking for the diskettes of the art work we needed and checking to see if I'd done the count yet. I explained what was happening and promised him one of my staff would bring the material to him within the hour. Answered a stream of questions the meanwhile from staff who had been waiting to see me in the morning. Finally finished the calculations at about 1:30 pm and packaged everything up for delivery.
Cleared off my desk at that point, tidied up the office then brought in extra chairs for the candidates. Just finished that when they started arriving. Three on time, so we went through the spiel once. Just as we were finishing up a fourth person arrived so I sent the punctual ones on their way with the material they needed then started over again. The new arrival is an old hand at this so I could be less verbose while achieving the same level of education such as it was. The technical rules of the game this time, the timetable of events and explanations about our activities so far and the results we had achieved for each presentation. Four pm by the time we were done. Reasonable I guess and doughnuts enough left over to share with the office staff to boot. Bonus.
Worked on day to day responsibilities and assisted staff until about 7 pm. Ottawa had responded to the proof I had sent of the ballot. They rejected it because a peculiarity in the last name of one of the candidates hadn't been emphasized well enough for their satisfaction. They wanted it changed immediately. Called my printer and he was not pleased. They have to perforate all the sheets this time which adds a considerable amount of time to production. Creating a new dummy to send then waiting for a response once again from Ottawa means no room for error. He arrived at my office at 7 and asked me to expedite approval. I gave it conditionally but explained that if he proceeded before Ottawa said so he risked losing the fee he would be paid for the work. I told what my experiences had been even in this last assignment with how we are paid even when all the work is done. He agreed to wait until I called him with the go ahead but only very reluctantly. Can't blame him though. He doesn't like his staff working all night long either.
More software anomalies to address before going home and some problems with the way staff were processing the formw voters were submitting. Government paperwork in all it's glory. Then the day was done and we came home to lonely cats who felt we had deserted then. Cuddling and reassurance along with some nice tuna eased their pain somewhat. My youngest ordered groceries on-line and number four son made supper. He seemed rather stressed but didn't want to talk about it. Could just be that working for me then going to his job is exhausting him as well as us older folk. Time for bed.
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