The Chief FOIA Officers Council will be meeting on July 27, 2017 at 10 am to discuss strategies for improving customer service and improving coordination between agency FOIA Public Liaisons and our office. Be sure to RSVP today to join the audience in the William G. McGowan Theater and ensure you have an opportunity to share your views with the Council.
The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 established the Chief FOIA Officers Council and charged OGIS and the Office of Information Policy (OIP) with acting as its co-chairs. The Council is intended to:
- develop recommendations for increasing FOIA compliance and efficiency;
- disseminate information about agency experiences, ideas, best practices, and innovative approaches related to FOIA;
- identify, develop, and coordinate initiatives to increase transparency and compliance with FOIA; and
- promote the development and use of common performance measures for agency compliance with FOIA.
The draft agenda for the meeting includes welcoming remarks from the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, and an introduction to the topic of the meeting by OGIS’s Director, Alina M. Semo, and OIP’s Director, Melanie Pustay. The agenda also features a presentation on the duties of an agency FOIA Public Liaison, and a special panel discussion to kick-off dialogue about best practices for customer service and improved communication. The panel will include representatives from Cabinet-level and independent agency FOIA offices, the requester community, and OGIS’s Mediation Program.
If you cannot join the live audience, you can catch the livestream via the National Archives’ YouTube Channel. The livestream includes a chat function so that you can remotely ask questions or share your feedback; a member of OGIS’s staff will be monitoring the chat. There is also an opportunity to call into the meeting; for call-in information, please contact Amy Bennett at amy.bennett@nara.gov.