Memorandum for Victor A. Schroeder
January 6, 1983
Page Eleven

staff involvement, while providing most opportunities for
substantive direction and support.* In each instance, the
Board Lead designated below is to provide over-all direction
to the particular constituency unit's activities, whereas
the Staff Lead is responsible for insuring that all required
support is made available by other members of the Corpora-
tion. The mix of Board and Staff Leads shown is also
designed to insure that the development and execution of
particular unit activities will benefit from the shared
experiences of Directors and Officers most familiar with
the constituency involved.

*No specific assignments are recommended for the Chairman, President, and Executive Vice President so that they may be available to any unit. **Contact persons are to be responsible for the monitoring of all information generated or received by that unit.

Because of the diversity of Directors' views as to
specifically which approaches should be used to provide
better communication of the Corporation's image and position
to our various and differing constituencies, no detailed
agenda for unit activities is suggested here. In that
regard, it should be noted, moreover, that each unit is
to function not only as an information disseminator, but
also as an intelligence gatherer. Hence, although the
communications activities of each unit can be expected
to include such common options as conferences, meetings,
correspondence, publications, telephone calls, and in-
formal gatherings and briefings, it is preferred that each
activity be tailored insofar as possible to particular
individuals and audiences and be based on a continually
improving awareness and understanding of our constituencies
and their needs.

It should also be noted here that all of the activities
of all of the constituency units must be integrated in
terms of content, packaging, timing, and approach. Hence
it will be required that a close and continued relationship
with the Coordinator be maintained by all Task Force parti-
cipants for the duration of the Task Force activity.

PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT

CLOSED MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
U.S. SYNTHETIC FUELS CORPORATION

January 20, 1983
Houston, Texas

INTRODUCTION

I will now discuss what I believe to be important considerations pertaining to two key areas with which all of us are concerned, namely, the need for improving Corporate communications and our intention to monitor more closely the development of the comprehensive strategy we are to submit to the Congress in only 17 months. At this time, I want to thank you again for making interview time available and for the forthrightness of your discussions with Bob Coughlan.

I have devoted considerable study to the concerns you expressed during those interviews -- concerns with which I concur, as I'm sure you know. A lot of work remains to be done before I can come to you with a fully developed plan for solving all of those problems; but I think it will be useful if I share with you now some of the approaches I am working on approaches which I believe will assist us in achieving more discernible progress toward timely accomplishment of our goals both as a Board and as a Corporation.

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First, regarding communications between and among members of the Board and, most particularly, between the "outside" Directors and the Chairman and it is clear that there is an urgent need to improve matters. As I see it, the problems are chiefly -

me

1.

2.

A requirement for more attention to the interests of all Directors by the "inside" Directors, and

A need for improvement in the mechanics of communication.

I think you will see that both of those deficiencies will be overcome by the measures I will propose for your consideration later in this presentation.

Second, regarding the Corporation's communications with our external Constituencies, I am proposing that we, as a Board, with the assistance of selected Corporation staff, make a concerted effort within the next 60 days to develop and implement a very comprehensive and carefully orchestrated communications process. I will outline for you today considerations I believe most important to the success of such a program. (To insure its effectiveness, the program will also address improvements in the Corporation's internal communications.)

President's Statement
Page Two

January 20, 1983

Third, I want to bring you up to date on what's being done relative to the recommended comprehensive strategy. As you may recall, I with your permission assumed direct responsibility for making an in-depth review of that activity; and I have made several important changes in how the staff is approaching that task.

Now, I will proceed to address some of the specific concerns we have.

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN AND AMONG DIRECTORS

At the Board level, as I mentioned, certainly there must be more attention at Corporation headquarters in making sure that all Directors are kept fully informed at all times. We on the "inside" are committed to doing a better job at that.

Another important step we can take not only will help us keep everyone better informed, but also will provide us with the means for facilitating communications between Board members, as well as with the Corporation staff and with our constituencies. I'm talking now about a secretariat-type function as the focal point for the Corporation's communications network. The unit need not be -- and will not be large. No new staff will be required, nor will any major reorganization. Such a unit can be implemented with the reassignment of very few personnel and the institution of limited procedural changes. Once installed, however, communications can be coordinated and expedited very effectively.

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I have available for you a more detailed description of the functions and staffing of the secretariat unit I recommend. If you agree with me that such a unit should be installed, I will initiate action immediately to insure that the unit is operational before the next Board meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS WITH OUR CONSTITUENCIES

Another major concern we all share, of course, is the matter of our communications with our constituencies. I am developing a comprehensive and, I believe, practical program for improving such communications, a program which I intend to propose for your adoption at the next Board meeting. However, I believe there is one other consideration we must also address that impacts directly on the whole matter of communications. Specifically -- although we must be concerned about how and what we communicate as a Corporation, we also must concern ourselves with what our

President's Statement
Page Three

January 20, 1983

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message is to be from a programmatic standpoint. All of us here recognize very well the difficulties we face even with our supporters because we have not yet been able to put project money at risk as rapidly as the developers of the Energy Security Act may have intended. Perhaps part of that problem has been the internal processes we have used a matter which all of us have been working on in recent months. But, equally important as a message is what can -- and should -- be expected by the Congress and our other constituencies insofar as our activities for the next 1-1/2 years are concerned. We must decide which national resources, reserves, and technologies we are going to pursue, and the extent and priorities of their development; and we must be able to substantiate clearly and definitively our reasons for so doing. (Such was my intent in sending you the "what" scenario earlier this month. I assume we will be discussing that later today.)

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The message we give must be convincing to everyone supporters or detractors alike. But we must agree among ourselves first and, having done so, we must speak with one voice, at least insofar as our public utterances are concerned. (I probably have more problems with that requirement that any in that I am a total believer in the delegation of authority, responsibility, and accountability -- each interconnected. But I do ask for specific input on means for avoiding conflict and implementing a damage control mechanism, particularly in the outreach initiatives and speeches, lest public utterances be treated improperly by the industry and have exacerbated effects on the pride, confidence, boldness, and understanding of SFC officers and staff.)

To get back to other aspects of our communications situation, I'll just cover briefly some of the principal elements of the communications program now being developed:

1.

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I intend to propose that we use a carefully coordinated and integrated approach insofar as the use of all of our personnel resources is concerned and that includes all of us. I suggest that each Director participate in a scheduled program that addresses all constituencies in an orchestrated series of communications activities. Corporation staff will base the program on a careful assessment of the interests and needs of our constituencies and of the most effective means for establishing and maintaining a meaningful dialogue with them all.

As the program is being developed at present, it will be suggested that each "outside" Director be tasked to participate in at least two scheduled events per month, other than the necessary Board meeting, as well as to be available for ad hoc requirements which