There is no reason for conflicts amongst HCO Offices and HASIs.
If the functions of organizations and hats are well understood, there is no reason for confusion.
An HCO Continental Office has these basic functions: To broadly disseminate Scientology to masses of people not connected or not yet connected with Scientology. This is done by magazines and preparing proper literature.
Continental legal representative for Scientology is an HCO National function.
Broadly, the technology and dissemination of Scientology and its awards and good name are an HCO Continental function.
Supervision of all HCO Offices on the continent and their activities is an HCO Continental activity.
An HCO Continental Office does not pin down on one Central Organization to the exclusion of broad dissemination and the conduct of other HCO Offices.
An HCO Area Office has in its keeping the library of Scientology Information for the use of the Central Org to which it is attached. It takes care of collections. It makes sure that HCO Bulletins and HCO Policy Letters are read and understood by the Central Org and its personnel. It keeps the Org Board. (There is no change here from the HCO Policy Letter that recently laid down the duties of an HCO Area Office.) It can security check any Scientologist or Central Org personnel.
An HCO Area Office does not run the Central Org or hire or fire its personnel but in case of emergency and in the absence of competent Central Org personnel may find it necessary to take charge temporarily. This has happened now and again in the past.
The Association Secretary or Organization Secretary has full authority over his or her organization and personnel. It is his or her task to cope when policy does not exist, to hold the form of the organization, to keep it busy and prosperous and its morale high.
In times of expansion I find it necessary, as Executive Director of a Central Org, to shift its form and activities toward a greater reality. At such times my orders are relayed through the Comm Lines of HCO or, in rare cases, directly to the Assn (or Org) Secretary or the Organization's personnel. I try to stay on command lines but I sometimes have to have data from staff members directly. I always try to info the Association Secretary when this happens. A by-pass of this character happens usually in times when command lines have broken or when emergencies of magnitude threaten an Org's existence or when I am hunting for new Org patterns that will work.
In short, an HCO Continental Secretary is supposed to see that more people hear about Scientology on a mass basis — that better handouts and write-ups exist, that Scientology stays firm on that continent or part of the world and that HCO Area Offices function well with well-staffed personnel.
An HCO Area Secretary is supposed to see that technology stays high, that awards are issued properly, that people in Central Orgs know their HCO Bulletins and HCO Policy Letters and that the Org Board stays straight and that Communication first and foremost occurs and that HCO remains solvent.
On most Continents or in large areas the HCO Continental and the HCO Area Office of a Central Org are together. This makes for confusion, perhaps, but for the time being, is an economic measure. But although they double up personnel they should not be too duplicative in their duties. HCO Area rates its own office, even if it's small, its own access to files and facilities. As things expand, HCO Continental should establish separate quarters as feasible economically, but that's mostly future and depends on Central Orgs really making money.
This HCO Policy Letter is not laying down policy, it is only seeking to clarify functions. None of it has any force of law, it only seeks to promote a good understanding at a time when expansion heightens confusions and at times even tempers.
It is my task to establish a new form for Central Orgs. It is the HCO Secretary's task to make it understood and to make sure it takes form in fact. It is the Association (or Organization) Secretary's task to cope if necessary, to make the Org and its personnel get the job done and to run the whole service activity of Scientology, and to keep up staff morale. It's the HCO Continental Secretary's task to make more people hear about Scientology, to guarantee the quality of presentation, to make sure HCO Area Offices are effective, to conduct special events and, of course, as in the case of all HCO Offices, to make my postulates stick.
If we do just these things we can expand with a minimum of strain and a maximum of effectiveness.