, 

Present: 

Lt. Colonel H. G. P'rier 

Lt. Colonel J. w.. Libby 

Captain lt. R. Coombs 

Lt. Lucille J. Elwood 

Dr. A. Sinkov 

1 o &UNJJ'TES 

CQllif I 9ENidAL91 

CIVILIAN EMPLOIMEN'I BOARL e 

Minutes of Meeting Held 

6 September 19,6, Room 117 Hqo 

Mr. F. B. Rowlett 

Mr. H. L. Clark 

Mr. D. G. Starlin 

Yr. R. w. Rose 

Miss Gertrude E. Kirtlanc 

The minutes of the meeting held 16 Auguet 1946 ~er~ reviel":ed and approved. 

2. LT.OP FOR i,i., SHEPPARD 

Leave without pay for Mr, Sheppard has been approved. 

3. PRO?AOTIONAL ACTION FOR, MR. JAMP.S H. DOUGLAS 

Mr. Douglas' promotion is under way. 

4. tRAYEL A'E EXPENSE. QF EMPLOYEE 

--a--?-- - , .. 

Mr. Starlin stated thet information had been obtained from Civilian Personnel 

Division, War Depert~ent, regerding trevel at the expense of an employee, to conferences and meetings which would be beneficial to the -g•ncy. Leave for this puru 

pose is permiesible and will be charged to Adminietrative Leaveo The name or any 

person 'P.ho is to attend a meeting should be submitted with substantial reasons for 

requesting thet said individual be granted permission to take Administrative Leave. 

The requeet should originate in the Division and be addressed to the Adjutant, ASA, 

who, in turn, wjll forward the requeet to Personnel and Training Branch where a 

letter will be written authorizing Administrative Leave and copies of the letter 

sent to the individuel's 201 file and Payroll. 

5. ~~Ug;L RCTATIOtl POLICY 

As Colonel Hayes has indicated that he is in favor of personnel rotation in 

order to have a group of people specially trained with as wice a background as poe$ 

sible in the T.Ork of the Agency, the extent to which such a policy should be applied 

was discussed by the Board. Mr. Rowlett stated that the purpose of rotEtion is to 

pass around technical infoI'll'&tion to improve techniques in Iiivisions and to insure 

that fairly large groups of people can collaborate in case of an emergency. A dis~ 

CUS$ion was held as to the feeling with regard to rotation of administretive as well 

ae technical positions. ~r. Rowlett stated that on administrative positions it is 

more the responsibility of the Chief of the Agency to outline policy. There is not 

as much gain to the Agency from an efficiency point of view in rotation of administre• 

tive personnel as technical peopleo Shifts of personnel from one division to another 

will normally result in some loss of efficiency and if tivision and Branch Chiefs are 

CONFIDENTIAL Declassified and approved for release by 

NSA on 04-18-2014 pursuant to E.O. 

13526 
· ..,,N~ff"111Z I "'"• •• ,..,._., 11na.. 

rotated and an Adninis~tive Aseintant moves ~rom one a ision to another with them 

the degree of efficiency "DOUld suffer where both technical and administrative heads 

are removed. Dr. Sinkov moved that the Board recommend that administrative personnel 

not rotate from one division to another and Ur. Rowlett moved that the policy formulated tor technical personnel not apply to purely administrative personnel. The 

above recommendations were approved by the Boardo Dro Sinkov brought up the question 

ot how far down in the scale or pay the rotation will extendo It t.'8.S felt that a 

working committee should be set up to formulate policy. This committee could dater~ 

mi~e the type 0£ job and person that would be considered end submit such decisions 

to the Board tor review. There is an alterne.tive, to ccnsider each case on its own 

merits as it comes up. Ur. Starlin suggested setting up a committee of the three 

Division Chiefs to decide on a rotation policy that would be advantageous to the 

Agencyo Another responsibility of the proposed working committee will be to outline 

length of time rotation will lasto The estiC1ate given is approxilrately six months 

to a yearo This committee should include the Director of Communications Research 

and it wes recommended that Ur. Friedman be appointed Chairmano Ur. Rowlett said he 

would furnish the eecretaryo Mr. Sterlin stated thst he will recommend to the Chief 

of the Agency thct this committee be established to consider how far the rotation 

polic7 should extend. Dr. Sinkov stated thet in view of the fact that the personnel 

rotation policy was originally intended to apply to technical personnel it ie moved 

that purely administrative personnel be exemptc The board agreed unanimously that 

purely administrative personnel should be exempt from rotationo 

60 TRANSFl:RS EFFECTED IN ACCORDANCE \TITH P£RSONNEL ROTATION POLICY 

Mro Starlin reported that in accordance with the expressed present instructions 

of Colonel Hayes on personnel rotation policy Mr. J., H .. Dougll!ls has been transferred 

from Security tivision to Research and Development Division, Mr. A. Vi. SIT.all has been 

transferred from Operations tivision to Security Division, anc V.re R. O. Ferner baa 

been transferred fro~ research and Development Division to the Operations Division, 

in appropriate technical positions. 

7. fiOMOTIONAL ACTION FOR :.m. F. C, AUSTIN 

The request for promotion of Mro F. C. Austin from P-4 Research Analyst (Cry-pt), 

os .. ~METH ... 41, to position p ... 5, Research Analyst (Crypt), os ... llETH ... 42, was considered by 

the Boerdo Prior to reviewing all incumbents in P-4 and P-5 positions Dr. Sinkov 

stated that with regard to the general problem of Division efficiency, rotational pro~ 

gram changes introduced have taken ~r. Douglas from Methods Branch and as a consequence a much bigger load is falling on the shoulders of Mr. Austin and the efficiency 

of Methods Branch would be complicated, perhaps seriously, if Mro Austin were to be 

replaced nowo Mr. Starlin read the names of those incumbents in P0 4 and P~5 positions 

and after due consideration of those eligible for the position it wae requested that 

Mr. Austin be promoted from P-4.,, os ... METH .. U, to position os ... METHn42, p .... 50 After 

receiving a majority vote it was decided to forward this recomwendation for the ap= 

proval of the Chief, ASA. 

8. PRC~OTIONAL ACTION .FOR MR. RICHARD A. LIBOS 

Dr. Sinkov brought up the case of Mr. Richard A. tibos, Electrical Engineer in 

Security ~ivieion. Mr. Diboe was hired es a P0 J on the basie of a letter in which he 

was informed that though he did not qualify for a higher gre.de, a 1•equest 1 ..or a;~ce:pticn 

would be submitted to the Civil Service Com111iesio11 sftt:11' thirty a.sys r6commending that; 

he be pl'omoted to a P-4 grade. Arter thirty days the requE:at .S:or ar1 e.xception in the 

case of fl,r. Libos us submitted tc the Civil Service Comn!issicn with the recor.m.eraciation 

-CONFIDENTIAL 
-iOON~W:!. that he be promoted to.4. The request was denied and returnee DISAPPROVEDo Dro 

S,inkov stated that he would like to add the name of Mra Dibos to the special list of 

appeals thet is being prepared for forwarding to the U a S .. Civil Service Commission 

and requested that the case of Mr. Diboe be submitted in greater detail with a statement that his work up to now is of outstanding quality. ~ro Starlin stated that the 

special list had been discussed with the Regional Of~ice of the Civil Service Commission and that every single request had been disapproved. 

9. ANNQU:RCEMEJil OF Cl!Jli SERVICE ~XAMINATIONS 

Mr. Starlin informed the group tbet the Board of U. So Civil Service Enminers, 

or which t~·is Agenc;y is a member, will try to get approval from the Civil Service 

Commission to announQe examinations for probational appointments in several occupational areaso ASA will ~ork to get priority for certain critical positions of both 

a technical and administrative nature that are now held by employees with War Service 

or temporary appointments. 

I 

lOe §TANLARtS OF EXAJtINA.TION FOR CB.IPTOORArJ!IC POSITIONS 

Mr. Starlin indicated that a week or ten days ago the Civil Service Examination 

Unit called this Agency to say that they were considering announcing e:xaminations for 

c17ptogrephic positions. They had been referred here by the Office of the Secretary 

or War who said that we might be able to give some help with regard to the type or 

examinetion required for cryptographic clerks. They are th:ink1ng in terms of opening 

such positions to competition and ASA personnel will have to obtain permanent status 

through passing an e:xaminationa A representative of the Fourth Regional Office or 

Civil Service has indicated that there is no hope for this Agency to continue with 

Schedule "A" authority. It will be necesssry to have a draft of the examination thet 

we want given for these types or positions to be approved by- the Coremissiono The 

decision ee to whether the individual ie eligible or ineligible will be in the hands 

of the Agency. Discussion followed regarding the advisability of carrying on an apti 0 

tude testing program et ASAo It ~~s thought that it would be well to draw up an exama 

ination and test people here before submitting th~ e:xaminstion to the Civil Service 

Bosrdo However, testing doesn't cover everything thet appears to contrjbute to success in the cryptanalytic fieldo ~ritten examinations could be given up to CAF·,.5 or 

CAF-? and for grades above that experience, background, and interview method is much 

better. A Technical Consultant from Office of the Secretary of ~sr would be available 

to put any examinations in a form that the Commission would accept. Uiss Kirtland 

suggeete<! giving examinations to a group of people fror- CAF0 2 to CAF~?, including comparable SP gradeso A basic test could be given in each one of a series and if personnel 

pass the test then basically they would be qual"i.fiE'do ln order to qualify for a higher 

grade more experience and background will be necessaryo Dr. Sinkov stated that Captain 

Callima.hos would be very good on such a project and suggested requesting hie release 

to act as consultant in developing these examinationso Mreo Coen in I & D Branch has 

a good background in testing and would be valuable in working on such a programo It 

was recommended by the Board that a testing program be initiated with Captain Callimahos 

and Mrs. Coen assigned to the projecto 

11 o LWOP FOR SEASONAL ILLNESS 

Mr 0 Starlin stated that he has received a number or requests for Leave Without Pay 

to cover seasonal illness euch as hay fever and asthmao Such requests usually cover 

a period of from six weeks to two montheo His question is whether an employee who suf• 

fers from a seasonal illness shonld be required to eeve his leave until this seasono 

CONFIDENTIAi: 
• 

It was the unanimous decision of the Board thst such leev~ should be granted on the · merite of the individual concerned and tbst no set rule could be laid downo 

~]J;:L Chairman, Civilian 

Employment Board 

CONFIDENTIAL