Chief FOIA Officers Council meets November 17

Washington Heritage Trail – Eastern Panhandle Orchards (National Archives ID: 7722747)

Please mark your calendars for the next meeting of the Chief Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officers Council, which will be held virtually on Wednesday November 17, 2021, starting at 10:00 am EST. The meeting is open to Chief FOIA Officers, FOIA professionals and the public. We invite attendees to either register to attend the Webex meeting via Eventbrite or watch the livestream of the meeting on the National Archives’ YouTube Channel. If you wish to offer oral comments during the meeting, you must attend via Webex to do so. 

The Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council, co-chaired by the Directors of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) and the Office of Information Policy (OIP), is tasked with developing recommendations to increase agency compliance and efficiency, and sharing agency best practices and innovative approaches. 

The meeting will focus on the work of the Council’s two committees, the Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation (COCACI) and the Technology Committee.

 The CFO Council established COCACI in October 2020 to research and propose cross-agency grant programs and funding sources, create federal career paths for FOIA professionals, and promote models to align agency resources with agency transparency. COCACI began meeting in March 2021 and has focused its work on three areas: virtual FOIA office administration, the Government Information Specialist (GIS) job series, and technology standardization.

The Technology Committee began its work in September 2018 to study the use and deployment of technology in FOIA programs, and to identify best practices and recommendations that can be implemented across agencies. In 2020, the Technology Committee established seven working groups: 508 Compliance and Collaborative Tools, Artificial Intelligence, FOIA and Classified Information, FOIA Searches, FOIAonline, FOIAXpress, and Video Review and Redactions. 

Are you a government FOIA professional who is intrigued by the work of the two CFO Council Committees? They are always looking for more volunteers! Please indicate your interest to join either – or both Committees – by raising your virtual hand at the November 17th meeting, or contacting Council co-chairs Alina M. Semo, alina.semo@nara.gov and Bobby Talebian, bobak.talebian@usdoj.gov