The summer of 2024 has been busy for OGIS staff as we traveled to several conferences to share and present information about the work of the FOIA Ombuds office. Below is a brief recap.
In June, OGIS staff traveled to the American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) conference in Anaheim, CA, to teach two sessions and moderate two panels. The sessions focused on customer service tips, including communicating and negotiating with requesters, and on understanding OGIS’s role as the FOIA Ombuds office. One panel featured three requesters discussing their experiences with FOIA and the other panel featured representatives from the FOIA Advisory Committee and the Chief FOIA Officers Council and two Council committees discussing their work and presenting opportunities for federal FOIA professionals to volunteer on Council committees. ASAP is a professional organization that brings together Government Information Specialists and the requester community to collaboratively improve access to information and privacy processes.
While OGIS staff was busy at ASAP, OGIS director Alina M. Semo traveled to the International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC) conference in Tirana, Albania. The theme of this year’s conference was “Empowering Individuals through Access to Information: Ensuring Transparency and Inclusivity in an Interconnected World.” Director Semo, whose term on the ICIC Executive Committee ended this year, presented an overview of the American access-to-information landscape including a summary of FOIA data reported by the Department of Justice for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, an overview of OGIS’s work in FY 2023, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)’s elimination of the pandemic-related backlog of veteran records requests at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, early in the 2024 calendar year. She also had the opportunity to discuss issues of mutual concern with the Information Commissioners from Canada and Bermuda in a North America regional meeting. Read the conference report here. ICIC connects information commissioners, ombudspersons and others internationally charged with overseeing the implementation of access-to-information legislation. The ICIC first met in 2003 and has met regularly since then.
And during July, an OGIS staff member traveled to the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA) in Atlanta. OGIS worked in partnership with NARA colleagues in the Office of the Chief Records Officer as well as staff from the Department of Veterans Affairs to present a three-part series of panels focused on records management, access to information, and FOIA. NAGARA is a professional association consisting of federal, state, tribal and local government archivists and records managers as members.