The following memo to our agency contacts was sent out this morning.
NARA’s Office of the Chief Records Officer (OCRO) and Federal Records Centers Program (FRCP) are making some changes to the teams that work most closely with agency staff on records management issues-the Appraisal Archivists and the FRCP Account Managers. We are making these changes to be more responsive to customer needs and help the Appraisal Archivists and the Account Managers better work together in serving our customers.
The Appraisal Archivists in the OCRO’s office work directly with Federal agencies to appraise and process records schedules (SF-115, Requests for Disposition Authority) and handle questions related to records management. FRCP Account Managers (www.archives.gov/frc/acct-reps.html) ensure that agency customers are satisfied with the services they are receiving from the FRCs and make customers aware of new and existing services the FRCs can provide on a fee-for-service basis.
Attached are two documents related to these teams:
- The handout Appraisal Teams in NARA’s Office of the Chief Records Officer (link opens a .pdf) provides a high-level overview of the OCRO Appraisal Team structure, including the members of each team and a summary of selected agencies covered by each team. The Federal agency appraisal and scheduling teams are also posted on NARA’s web site at: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/appraisal/index.html.
- The spreadsheet Agency Assignments (link opens a MS Excel spreadsheet) provides a detailed list of all Federal agencies assigned to OCRO Appraisal Archivists and FRCP Account Managers.
Your agency’s Appraisal Archivist and/or Account Manager may have changed. Where possible, we designed team structures and individual assignments to preserve existing relationships in order to capitalize upon institutional knowledge. In some cases, however, overall streamlining and aligning of Appraisal Teams and Account Manager assignments necessitated changes. We are confident that the new structure will result in better customer service.
We would like to provide an opportunity for you to meet your Appraisal Archivist and Account Manager and speak directly with them about your records management needs. We have scheduled three open houses over the next several weeks where we will provide more information about what we do and how we can best serve you. The meeting schedule is:
- Tue., February 7th, 9:00 am Appraisal Team One agencies
- Wed., February 15th, 1:00 pm Appraisal Team Three agencies
- Thu., March 8th, 9:00 am Appraisal Teams Two and Four agencies
The open house meetings will be held in the Washington Room at the National Archives and Records Administration downtown building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Metrorail’s Yellow or Green lines to the Archives/Navy Memorial station). Please enter on the Constitution Avenue side of the building.
To reserve a place for the open house, please send your name, telephone number, and agency to RM Communications@nara.gov, no later than February 3rd. You may reserve places for up to three staff in the same email, but for security purposes, we must have each individual’s name and telephone number. Please email Shannon Olsen at shannon.olsen@nara.gov, or call 301-837-3486, if you need assistance.
In addition to these meetings, we will hold a webinar for agencies that are located in the field and for those headquarters agencies that are unable to attend the scheduled open houses. More information regarding the webinar will be sent out soon.
It is our hope that this OCRO and FRCP unified approach will better serve all of your records management needs in the future. We look forward to meeting with you at the upcoming open house events.
PAUL M. WESTER, JR.
Chief Records Officer for the
U.S. Government
DAVID WEINBERG
Director, Federal Records Centers Program