Progress! First SAO Meeting

Yesterday, we passed one of the first major milestones called for in the Managing Government Records Directive. David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, convened the first meeting of Senior Agency Officials.

This meeting brought together the agency-appointed Senior Agency Officials (SAO), agency record officers, and NARA staff for the first time. Over 100 people attended the meeting and heard remarks by Archivist Ferriero, Chief Records Officer for the Federal Government Paul Wester, and the head of the Project Management Office for the Directive, Preston Huff.  In addition to reviewing the goals and milestones in the Directive, their remarks focused on important role the SAO plays in supporting individual records management programs in Federal agencies. Another important theme was engaging SAOs  both within their agency and with our staff to improve records management policies and practices. After the presentations, a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, which included Director of Policy Analysis and Enforcement Donald Rosen, covered specific items of concerns such as the training and reporting requirements spelled out in the Directive.

Also, we should note that yesterday was also the anniversary of the issuance of the Presidential Memorandum that launched this process. While we have come a long way and accomplished much, there remains much work to do. We are looking forward to working with the SAOs across the Federal Government, as well as all of our stakeholders, to complete that work and improve records management across the Federal Government.