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Roger that thank you12/25/2023 ![]() Until he retired earlier this month, Roger Dixon was a DSA with the Times-Standard for - wait for it - 35 years! He’s done everything from driving the night truck to delivering routes when we didn’t have a regular carrier. I have a lot of respect for the folks who get the paper out every day. And I can tell you that the DSA gig is tough. When I first came on at the Times-Standard, I spent some time with every employee to get a sense of their jobs. It’s a lot to get done in a short amount of time, always in the middle of the night and in all kinds of weather. They’re also available to help a carrier if they have a question or concern, or, in some cases, are even in need of a substitute driver. These DSAs make sure that any notes from readers about lost papers, requests to drop on the front porch instead of the paper box, vacation holds, etc. Once at CR, our “District Service Advisors” as we call them, pull the bundles off the truck, sort them for our mail routes and stage them for our carrier-staffed routes. We then print and truck the papers to a halfway point where our local driver then brings them up to our warehouse at College of the Redwoods. We transmit that content to our sister press in Chico. First, our reporters from right here in Eureka write their stories - averaging two original, local pieces per day. Let’s start with a little background on newspaper delivery itself. To that end, I’ve got a story to tell you about Roger Dixon. But every so often it is important to stop and learn a little more about the people who labor to get you your paper. If you’re taking us for granted, we’re doing it right. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that’s pretty great. Frankly, most of us just take it for granted. And with something that happens so regularly, it’s easy to gloss over all the processes and people that go into making it happen. This is good news for the ETC in Yemen, as it will be used as an ETC security telecommunications back-up in case the inter-agency UNDSS COMCEN stops being functional.For most folks, especially long-time readers, getting the newspaper every day is nearly as predictable as the sunrise. ![]() After putting their lives on the line commuting from home to work as the situation on the streets was still fragile, the team successfully activated the COMCEN at the WFP Field Office in Aden in July. The WFP IT unit in Aden then focused on refurbishing the COMCEN equipment itself, as they understood the importance of security telecommunications when it comes to staff security and safety. This would allow WFP colleagues to resume their work from the office again as they had been working from home. So at the start of May 2016, during a slight improvement in the security situation in this coastal city, Hani and the rest of the WFP IT team worked around the clock to restore the ICT infrastructure in the office. ![]() This COMCEN in the field office was used mainly by the security officer to communicate with WFP staff carrying out field missions but the war left staff without any reliable means of communication. “Most of the communications devices in the Communications Centre (COMCEN) such as High Frequency (HF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) base stations and the telephone system were inoperative.” ![]() “Vital IT equipment, such as satellite kits and generators were unusable,” Hani explains. Hani Mohammed, WFP ICT officer and ETC’s focal point in Aden, has seen first-hand how all the IT infrastructure they worked so hard to build in the WFP Field Office was buried under rubble after an airstrike struck the building next to the field office in mid-2015. Aden is one of the six locations identified by the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster- led by WFP- as a priority for the deployment of live-saving communications services in the country. The ongoing war has had an impact on a large number of facilities in the city, including World Food Programme’s premises, as well as on infrastructure. Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen in 2015, Aden, the fourth largest city in the country, has been severely affected. ![]()
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