CONFERENCE DISCUSSIONS WITH RECORDS MANAGEMENT BOARD MODERATED BY CIA RECORDS ADMINISTRATION OFFICER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00099A000200180014-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2001
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: December 3, 1971
• Content Type: TRANS

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CONFERENCE DISCUSSION WITH RECORDS MANAGEMENT BOARD
Moderated by CIA Records Administration Officer
There are several things that we should get the comments
from our board on. I will now introduce our Board members:
is our DCI re resentative, but is not 25X1A
25X1A attendin the Conference; represents the DDI;
25X1A re resents the DDP; represents 25X1A
25X1A the DDS and represents the DDS&T. These are
Agency RMO's indicated by Col. White in 1968. The Records
Management Board was developed to consider Agency-wide
problems and to provide policies and solutions to "Top
25X1A Management". The Records Management Board Chairman is
myself, and is its secretary. The Board meets
on the 4th Tuesday of every month, and we furnish informa-
tion regarding our activities to the DDS.
We will begin by going into several things which have hit
us. First, I would like reaction from Board members regard-
ing Records Retention Plans. We are assuming that from what
has been said from "On High" concerning the fact that we
must find a solution to deciding who must be the Office of
Record, the members of the Board have decided that we had
better proceed with this... It has been suggested by one
of our panels that we call our Records Retention Plan an
inventory.
We will now have comments from Board members:
To begin the item of Records Retention Plan, identifying
records of permanent value are the words used in the Federal
Records Act. This has come to all Government activities.
In the DDI in August and September of this year we got
together our RMO's and discussed the problems we have been
discussing down here. At that time we tried to get our heads
together and figure out the best way to approach identifying
the Office of Record. We felt that we are compelled to have
an Office of Record and a Records Retention Plan since the
Agency went along with the National Archives conception that
all Agencies identify their records of permanent value. We
decided that we are going along automatically and that we
would have an Office of Record and Records Retention Plan.
Col. White's letter brought this to a head. He wanted the
Agency RMO people to consider two problems: The 1,000 cu. ft.
ceiling and Records Retention Plan with identification of
Office of Record. This was the basis on which we proceeded.
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25X1A
25X1A
Based on this Records Retention Plan, we the Board, were
challenged by Col. White to report by the end of October
considering plans for microfilming of Machine Printouts.
1 March seems to be an agreeable deadline by our direc-
torates to reach solution to the two problems facing us.
I would like to state that is the overall
Project Officer for the Records Retention Plan for the
DCI, and also gets support from
DCI and RAB. DDP is attempting to get
their schedule into computer language.
We hope in the DDI to have at least a draft by the middle
of December. This March deadline is not the deadline for
when the Records Retention Plan is going to be completed.
We don't know when the plan will be completed. In December
we will review our draft. At that time we will look at
problems coming up; after that we will be in a better
position to set a deadline.
In the DDS we have had a meeting on these two problems. We
have planned for a draft to come in on 15 January. We have
passed out material on how it should be done. I feel we
will make it.
We have a lot of work to do on our Records Retention Plan.
We have now completed 30 to 40 per cent of it. We have a
general plan in CS 7S7. We need to identify records that
we need to put into official files so everyone will know
what they are. We have been working on this for two years.
We now have the capacity to do this. We want this system
to be compared with existing system. We want it to have
the capability to index and compare documents. We plan to
put out the instruction on this and have RMO's identify
these files and then have them identified by CS Control.
We agree that there should be an Office of Record. We
feel the originator of document should be the Office of
Record. Does the Board have any idea who should be the
Office of Record?
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I don't agree that the originator should be the Office
of Record. This is a question of responsibility. We have
a problem in CS Staff concerning this. Within our Staff
I have just been reviewing our subject files, and I came
across a file that we write papers on the subject; but the
office of record should be the CI Staff since they are
responsible for the function.
This proposal may hold true in many of these situations
but not all. This is part of our problem in giving
guidance. There are so many diversifications that to
make sweeping generalizations is impossible.
This is all the guidelines we have. We have interpreted
it to give you guidelines. You must look in your office
and identify what you think is important, and if you have
something that you think should be kept elsewhere, the
Board should be able to come up with a solution. When it
comes to guidance, we would like to give you a formula
but this requires judgement from managers. We will have
to count on your experience and initiative to come up with
these formulas. 25X1A
Someone suggested that should tell us what to do;
however, we are going to have to look at files to see just
what is there.
The Office of Record problem is something that is going to
have to be worked on as you identify particular records.
As it goes to the directorate RMO, it will be refined, and
when it reaches top officials it will come out pure.
I feel that the Office responsible for the activity
of the records should be the Office of Record.
Three of us review our files to figure out who was respon-
sible for what. Someone from one office may write a
paper on an item that is really the responsibility of
another office to perform.
I feel the action office would normally be the Office of
Record.
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Let me remind the chairmen on each of these panels that
the reward for good work is more work. Everyone is doing
a magnificant job. You must turn in a formal report
for your panel on your panel's policies and decisions.
Once you get the reports from each panel, do you plan to
distribute them to participants of the Conference?
The report which I send to "Top Side" will be sent to the
RMO's. The 8th of December is the deadline for these
reports.
1,000 Cu. Ft. Ceiling
We already had guidelines on material for large items,
and now the panels have given us material to be used on
small items.
DDS&T has figured out how to approach ceiling from
individual office standpoint. Based on the amount of
activity for each office for the past 2 years, I have
given the individual offices figures they could use for
their separate ceilings. Contrary to the belief that
we don't have many records, we have many records being
held in our individual office space.
I would like to say that the Records Control Schedules are
vital documents for getting the program rolling and for
getting offices under control. This is essential.
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