The next post in our Federal Government transition series highlights the specific resources we have created for senior officials entering and exiting Federal Service. It is critically important these officials are aware of their records management responsibilities. Our Documenting Your Public Service guide includes Model Records and Information Management Entrance and Exit Checklists. These checklists serve as models for records management staff to adapt for use in their own agencies.
Orientation is a great time for records managers to inform incoming senior staff of their responsibilities for creating and managing Federal records and any specific agency recordkeeping requirements. Records managers can share best practices such as:
- Documenting the substance of meetings and conversations where decisions are made, issues are resolved, or policy is established.
- Keeping personal materials separate from official accounts or systems. This avoids the laborious and difficult task of reviewing voluminous materials when leaving the agency.
- Ensuring Government business information is extracted from documents containing a mix of personal and official business to ensure the capture of records in agency files.
Agency Senior Agency Officials for Records Management are responsible for acting on behalf of the agency head to ensure efficient and appropriate compliance with all applicable records management statutes, regulations, NARA policy, and OMB policy. During transition, SAORMs have an important role to play in ensuring senior staff receive entrance and exit briefings. This may be especially important as the COVID-19 pandemic response has greatly increased agencies’ adoption of telework. As a result, for the first time ever, senior officials may be going through entirely virtual entrance and exit briefings.