GRS Team Update: Third Quarter FY 13

This is an update from our GRS Team.

In October 2012, we released The New GRS: A Plan for Restructuring and Updating the General Records Schedules. This master-plan document [.pdf ] outlines an ambitious 5-year plan for rewriting the entire GRS  to reflect the contemporary Federal workplace. On May 2, 2013, we released for agency review six draft schedules, the first fruits of this effort by the GRS Team.

Many of our reviewers questioned why old GRS items linked to new schedules in the master plan were absent from drafts for those new schedules. The reason is that the master plan has morphed in numerous ways as the GRS Team worked through this first leg of rewriting schedules. This table details [.pdf] current changes in the master plan pertinent to the draft schedules sent out for comment. Please realize that as we continue to revise, rework, and restructure particular schedules, we will doubtless find that we need to make other alterations in the master plan. Nevertheless, we anticipate the broad outlines of that plan will remain solid.

Two specific diversions from our master plan were noted by schedule reviewers. First, many asked what had become of Public Key Infrastructure records (current GRS 24 item 13) which were supposed to have been included in new GRS 3.3, Information Systems Security. These were pulled from the schedule as we needed to do more work on them. We hope to have a draft ready for review in fall 2013.

Second, many reviewers were tripped up by a major alteration we made to schedules in Information Management:

4.1 Records and Information Management

4.2 Records Related to Electronic Systems

These have been recast in three schedules:

4.1 Records and Information Management

4.2 Information Access and Protection

4.3 Input Records, Output Records, and Electronic Copies

Schedules 4.1 and 4.3 have been released for review and comment. Schedule 4.2 is still being drafted. We hope to send out for review later this summer.

As GRS restructuring moves forward, the master plan will continue to change in response to new understandings of how contemporary work processes function and intersect. We will keep agencies informed of alterations when we publish future draft schedules for comment. As ever, always feel free to direct questions to GRS_Team@nara.gov. We are glad to hear from you, and we promise to answer!