America's North Shore Journal

I think the reason we’re so valuable to the country is we have a set of resources, and whether I’ve got more or fewer than I had last year, the operational genius of the Coast Guard is how we allocate them.

That said, if you give me more resources, I could do more for the country, and I’ll still do that the same way, balancing risk, but I can cover more areas for the country if I have more resources.

On Thursday, November 19, and Saturday, November 21, 2009, I spent about five hours each day working as a volunteer at a vaccination clinic run by the Monroe County Public Health Department (DPH). It was one of five each day held to vaccinate at risk groups for pandemic H1N1, the Swine Flu. I worked at the one held at the former Medley Center Mall in Irondequoit.

I am currently involved with what may be the largest Public Health effort undertaken in Monroe County and Rochester, New York, in decades. I am volunteering for the H1N1 vaccine clinics being held by the county this week.

This, and my normal coverage of health issues, has brought to a head some thoughts on Public Health agencies and practices I have been mulling for some time.

Just a brief summary of various closings and other news about the swine flu pandemic.

America’s North Shore Journal has always supported the United States military’s efforts to publicize its efforts in the War on Terror. We are often the only non-military publication to report on a story.

Institutional memory is the collective recollection of facts, know-how, experiences and events within an organization or a connected group of people. It is the “why” to the “what”, “when” and “where”. It tells the members of the group how they got where they are and what the reasoning was behind the decisions that were made.

Good organizations attempt to document institutional memory, so that the context of their history can be seen and so that lessons once learned need not be relearned. In societies, institutional memory may not be in writing, but passed from parents to children or from teachers to students. If the passing on process is not faithful to the original, “memory” becomes distorted and may become entirely incorrect from the reality that existed.