White House Staff Dana
Power Background Sheets |
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Position Description What to read
What you will get: Before the
game: Most of the information in game is public, including most of your friends and allies. You work with these people, and their habits, preferences, and prejudices are known to you. It is assumed you will read the biographies of the other people you link to, at least, if not the whole staff. At the game: Level of Detail: Area of Expertise:
Character Importance: It's very easy to read the character list and get disappointed. "I'm only the Deputy this or that…" First bear in mind that these people are very important. When a "Deputy" OMB staffer says "jump" the rest of Washington says "how high." Still that's not a lot of consolation in game terms for playing a "number two" character. But the real breakdown is this. The Chief tends to make policy, but the Deputy does almost all the implementation. In game terms, the breakdown is that the Chief tends to be the person asking questions, and the Deputy tends to be the person supplying information and answers. So Chiefs start out with very little information. They have an overview of the situation, but for options and plans of action, they will have asked their Deputy to come up with suggestions. If there are multiple Deputies they may have different ideas. One exception is the Deputy Chief of Staff, Special Advisor to the President. Like Karl Rove, this person is a department head in their own right, ranking with the Chief of Communications, etc. They run the Office of Strategic Initiatives, and report directly to the President, not through the Office of the Chief of Staff. The Staff Secretary is also special. Though attached to the Office of Chief of Staff, the Secretary's job is to keep track of who said what, and keep everyone on track. Even the Chief of Staff should defer to the Staff Secretary in this regard – that's what he's paying him for. The GM will provide input as the The Deputy Staff Secretary, who acts as "timekeeper" for the Staff Secretary, but is not senior enough to voice policy opinions. Occasionally, the Deputy Staff Secretary may clarify matters from records of previous meetings, or give summaries on precdence (i.e. this is a way for the GM to give information without breaking the flow of the game) Resolution of the game: The Object: If everyone sits down and coldly calculates what is "best for the President," the game would go very quickly. But everyone has factional points of view that color the course of action they want to see taken. Playing your Rivalries: If you get a 'good' outcome for the Administration, but achieve it without being seen as a key player on your "side" that's not good. It's funny that this confuses people in a game, but we play it all the time at work. It's no good if your company is doing great, but they want to fire you because they don't think you're doing a good job. Obviously that isn't to say you shouldn't be selfless and give ground in the interest of the common good. But if you allow yourself to be walked on totally you weaken your future position at the office. Remember most of you are looking at a future political career, and going down with the Kent Administration is not your idea of the end of your career. Deputies of even a failed administration may become important in a later one (two of Nixon's top Staff serve in the Bush administration – Rumsfeld and Cheney), if they personally are seen as effective, beyond reproach, and contradictorily, loyal. Scoring: There is no "win/loss" in this game. The game ends when the staff reaches a solution and agrees on it. Technically what happens immediately after that is that Dennis Athey the Chief of Staff will call Michael Walker the Deputy Chief of Staff on Air Force One, while Judith Kanheman, the Press Secretary calls Denise Gainey - Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary on Air Force one, and briefs them on what to do when the President lands. Dana Power will decide whether or not to convene a special Press briefing in the White House Press Room, and Judith Kanheman will make a final decision on what is going to be said if there is a briefing. The briefings themselves do not fall into the scope of the game. The game ends with making a firm decision on what tack to take.
The game runs from an agenda typed up by the Chief of Staff. The Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary will furnish the basic briefing and help to keep the meeting on course.
2:00 hrs - Coffee Break for everyone to think and discuss. The Chief of Staff isn't goofing off in calling a break. There are going to be things at this point that need to be discussed that can't be discussed in formal meeting, because notes are kept. This will be a longish break. 2:30 hrs – from here the discussion can be relatively freeform. The Coffee Break can be shortened if things are woefully behind schedule. 3:30 – begin a round of the table for final recommendations 3:50 – Chief of Staff, Press Secretary and Communications Director summarize final decisions 4:00 – Game
ends as principals go to contact their opposite numbers on Air Force One.
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