Learn All You Can so You Can Forget It

The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of ACUPA or Purdue University.

“Jack of all trades, master of none.” That saying is one I use frequently to describe my job. As a policy administrator, I need to learn all that I can about whichever policy or policies are being developed or revised at a given time. The more I know, the better support I can provide to the policy owner with regard to language, organization of information, and stakeholder input. Researching policy topics is what makes me a jack of all trades.

One of the main ways I learn more on a topic is to look at other institutions’ policies. Benchmarking allows me to identify commonalities with regard to scope, affected groups, exclusions, definitions, etc. ACUPA forums are an easy way to get a handful of policies to review. I also have the policy websites of peer institutions bookmarked, so I can search for topics.

Often, there are relevant laws or regulations that need to be considered. I have the U.S. Code, the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, and the Indiana General Assembly websites bookmarked – talk about some dry reading! Government agency and institute websites provide a fair amount of information in the form of brochures and FAQs, which makes it much easier to get an understanding of the main points.

Once a policy is approved, I move on to the next one. It’s a cycle that has both pros and cons. I enjoy learning new things, so researching policy topics gives me an opportunity to do that. What I don’t enjoy is realizing a year later that most of the information I packed into my brain has disappeared. That is what makes me a master of none. I’m OK with that, because what never changes in this cycle is that drafting and editing policies is like putting together a puzzle. I am continuously gathering all the pieces and figuring out how to put them together so that they create a cohesive image. Maybe that makes me a master of puzzles.