Colorful years

"Xiao Zhang, didn't I tell you yesterday that training correspondents is a very important responsibility of our county party committee's communications and reporting team and news specialists!" The next morning, sunlight streamed through the window into the office as the mentor and apprentice entered the room one after the other.

Man Guoliang noticed that Zhang Cong was carrying two water bottles filled with hot water into the office.

After he put the water bottle away properly, Teacher Man began to talk about work with a serious expression.

Teacher Man took a deep breath and continued, "The county committee is very supportive of our group, allocating 30,000 yuan every year as operating expenses. But for the past two years, they haven't transferred anyone, just waiting for you to come."

I'm really struggling to manage everything on my own; I can't keep up with everything at once. This year I've been busy with exemplary reporting, and I've only completed four out of the eight training sessions for correspondents—there are still four left to do!

Training hasn't been arranged in the three rural districts of Maogang, Jiaoziya, and Yuanguping yet, and there's been no movement even in the county seat. Xiao Zhang, think carefully about how we should proceed with this follow-up work.

Hearing what Teacher Man said, Zhang Cong understood that this was actually the teacher testing his ability to deal with and solve problems.

He subconsciously raised his hand to touch his head, and after thinking for a moment, he replied, "Teacher, in my opinion, since the county committee attaches so much importance to news reporting, we must ensure that all the tasks are carried out properly and absolutely cannot let this funding sit idle or be wasted."

There are still more than three months left, so we must treat training the correspondents as our top priority and push it forward with all our might! I'm also participating in the training. Through this training, I'll gradually become familiar with and adapt to this new job, and take this opportunity to improve my professional skills and abilities!

At this moment, Teacher Man stared intently at Zhang Cong and asked, "So tell me, when exactly will this training program officially start? And in which region should it begin first?"

After a moment's thought, Zhang Cong replied, "Teacher, in my opinion, we should start with Jiaoziya District. Then, we can proceed in the order of Maogang District, Yuanguping District, and finally our county seat."

You see, currently, rural areas make up the majority of the workforce, but they are also a relatively weak link. Therefore, as long as the training of rural correspondents is successfully completed, if time becomes too tight, the training in the county seat can be postponed slightly.

Hearing this well-organized analysis, Teacher Man couldn't help but show her appreciation, smiling and praising:

"Hey, Zhang, I really didn't expect your thinking to be so clear! It seems that Teacher Li and I were right about you! Okay, let's do it your way!"

Today we'll split up. You go to the finance office and borrow the necessary funds, while I'll be responsible for sending relevant notices to each district.

Once everything is ready, tomorrow we'll head straight to Jiaoziya District to officially begin this first leg of our training journey!

Zhang Cong quickly nodded and replied, "Okay, teacher! How much funding do you need? I'll go to the finance office to process it right away."

"The funding allocated for each training session is a fixed amount of three thousand yuan. This amount will be specifically used to cover the food and lodging expenses of the participating farmer correspondents, as well as corresponding compensation for lost work time," Teacher Man answered readily.

The master and apprentice acted swiftly and decisively. After clarifying their tasks, they immediately took action without hesitation, each proceeding with their respective tasks according to the established plan.

During his in-depth conversation with his teacher, Zhang Cong understood several key points: First, the county party committee paid close attention to and attached great importance to news reporting, and allocated a total of 30,000 yuan as special funds for the communications team.

Secondly, every year, we carefully organize and plan up to eight different batches of amateur correspondent training courses. The training work is carried out in an orderly manner in the vast rural areas with districts as the basic unit. Each of the seven rural district offices holds a training activity, and at the same time, a centralized training activity is held separately in the county seat.

Furthermore, the funding required for each training session is strictly limited to 3,000 RMB, and this amount will be entirely used to cover the food and lodging expenses of the farmer correspondents, as well as compensation for lost work time incurred due to participation in the training.

Zhang Cong rushed to the county finance office and successfully withdrew 3,000 yuan in cash from the cashier, Li Yun. As he embarked on his return journey with this hefty sum of money in his hand, his mind began racing:

Since the total budget for this training is strictly limited to less than 3,000 yuan, it means that I must be careful with my money and make reasonable plans. Both the overall scale of the training and the specific schedule need to be carefully and scientifically controlled.

Only in this way can we ensure that all expenditures do not exceed the budget, thus enabling the entire training activity to be implemented smoothly and achieve good results.

When Zhang Cong rushed back to his office with the precious funds, he found that Man Guoliang had already completed an important task—accurately conveying the detailed requirements for conducting correspondent training to the district office by telephone.

Going back to before the 1980s, during that period, the Party and the government paid unprecedented attention to and attached great importance to news and propaganda work.

Both central and local party newspapers and periodicals, as well as radio stations, regarded communication work as a top priority. Faced with a relatively weak professional news team and a severe shortage of news articles at the time, they adopted an effective method: