 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the August 24th bridge meeting. My name is Arian Ravenbach, and I will be serving as the moderator for today's meeting. As a reminder, the Office of Agency Services at the National Archives and Records Administration hosts these bimonthly records and information discussion group, or bridge meetings, to present information relating to federal records management. Bridge is co-produced by the Office of the Chief Records Officer for the United States and the Federal Records Center program, and is live-streamed to the audience via our YouTube channel. Generally, bridge meetings consist of a scheduled program of presentations with an open forum at the end of each meeting to ask questions of the presenters or of any related federal records management topics of interest. Viewers are encouraged to post questions in the chat or by sending an email to rm.communications.org. Our staff will be monitoring this email box during the meeting. You are also welcome to make comments during this meeting in the YouTube chat. However, keep in mind that all comments are subject to moderation, so we ask that you keep the comments relevant to the topics being discussed. Copies of the presentation slides can be found in the information box below and on the bridge page of the Archives website. That webpage is also where you will be able to find links to the transcript of today's meeting when it is available, as well as links and information about previous bridge meetings. If you have general comments about bridge or suggestions for future topics, you can use that same email address, rm.communications.nara.gov, to pass those along to us. We welcome your feedback. With that, I would like to start by introducing Lawrence Brewer, the Chief Records Officer for the United States government, to open the meeting. Good morning, Lawrence. Thank you, Aran. Good morning, everyone. Hope you all are enjoying your summer, had your vacation, or if you're lucky, still looking forward to it. If you're like me, you're also looking forward to fall and college football and all the wonderful things that fall brings, including breaking the weather with cooler temperatures, and we can all enjoy it as we make that transition. So we're here to talk about records management. We've got a great agenda. If we could flip the slide, we'll take a look at what we've got on deck. So I have a few announcements that I will take care of in just a couple of minutes. And then, very excited to have with us today our host for the meeting, Jay Trainer, the Executive for Agency Services, who's going to join me and talk about the draft strategic plan that NARA has been working on for FY22 through FY26. We will then be followed by Gordon Everett, the Director of the Federal Records Centers Program, to have some updates on where things are with the FRCP this time. And then the last segment we will have will be a piece delivered by Margaret Hawkins, Director of Records Management Operations Program, talking about tribal consultations and the latest communications and requirements associated with that activity. So before we get into the program, we'll flip the slide right here. And I will go over a couple of announcements just to bring your attention to issuances that have recently come out and some news that you might want to jot down for your calendar. First, I'm going to start with a general record schedule and what we are doing with records related to COVID. So last week, in case you didn't see it, we sent out a memo letting you know that we are expediting the transmittal of new GRS items for vaccine attestation and related COVID testing records. So the creation of these records, as I'm sure most of you are aware, is now required by the model safety principles that were issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and is applicable to all federal employees, contractors, and certain public visitors. So our goal in getting this general record schedule done so that you can implement it is to have it out by the end of the calendar year. So I also want to clarify that separate from that schedule, we have been working on another transmittal related to COVID records. As we announced back in March, we're working on updates to GRS 2.7, Employee Health and Safety Records, which will also include revisions reflecting our shared experience and records that were now created as a result of COVID. So stay tuned for more on that. And if you have any questions about the GRS, feel free to send them to the mailbox for the GRS team at grstteam.nara.gov. The next item, we are excited to let you all know that we will have a new capstone form that will soon be required. So we have a newly revised NA1005, which is the capstone email verification form. And we have developed it in Excel, which will replace the current PDF version. So the form will be required for all new and resubmitted capstone verification forms. We'll be sending out a memo shortly on the change and expected to be available as soon as September 1st. So at this time, we are recommending its use. However, beginning October 1, it will be required. So we developed the form based on your feedback and a lot of the comments that we received from many of you to create a form that is more easily searchable, manipulable, and usable from your perspective. Given that it's in Excel, fairly straightforward to use. We are planning some basic resources to assist you in how to use it properly. But it is in Excel and it does provide a lot of the advantages in terms of sort and data manipulation that you get with Excel that were not available in the PDF version of the form. And then last announcement, very quickly, wanted to let you know about an upcoming webinar. We are partnering with the Office of Information Services within the National Archives, essentially our IT shop, to sponsor a webinar on potential paths for transferring permanent electronic records from the cloud to NARA. Webinars are going to be held on September 29th. We're still working on the details, but be on the lookout for an announcement, which we will post to our blog on Records Express. And we will also send out a communication via memo to the same, you know, addresses, arm communications, and ACEMemos that come out and generally hit your mailbox with any news that we have out of our office. So just a heads up September 29th and more information coming on that webinar. So before we get to the program, just wanted to let you know if you had any questions on any of these topics, please send them in via chat or email to our communications and we will get you an answer during the open Q&A at the end of the program. So next slide and we'll move on to the program. So as I said, very happy to have Jay Trainer, the executive for agency services to share the stage with me on talking about the draft strategic plan. There's quite a bit to talk about and I'm sure some of the goals, some of the objectives will be of more interest to you than others. But we're going to cover the whole plan so that you have full awareness of what we're working on. And after the briefing, we would love to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions for the plan before it becomes final. Next slide, please. So just a little bit of background. And I'm sure most people are aware every federal agency is required to develop a new strategic plan every four years and publish it in the second year of each president's term. So that's where we are. One of the things that we have made a commitment to and have done in previous strategic plans is making it available externally and soliciting comment from the public, from stakeholders and from agencies on things that we can do and things that we should consider to make the plan even better. So at this point, the proposed plan was circulated for external comment and then the next milestones in terms of its review is to deliver it to OMB in September with the publication date effected in February of 2022. Now, one thing I do want to comment on, since I did mention OMB, is that we do expect to have discussions with OMB about where we are with the requirements and targets that are established in OMB, NARA, MEMO and 1921. So we're all, I'm sure, very familiar with those targets and a lot of the goals that are due in December of 2022. So one of the things that we have said before, and I just want to reiterate, we do understand the impact that COVID has had on all of us as we work towards these goals. However, just a reminder that because it is a joint memo, NARA cannot independently revise the requirements of the memorandum. So our goal is to get the plan and the joint memo in alignment as soon as possible. And we will work on that and we will be working on that and having discussions with OMB. And in the meantime, my advice to all of you is to keep working towards those goals of fully digital government to the greatest extent possible, given how we are working today. And hopefully we will be able to bring the memo, the strategic plan, all into alignment sometime soon and certainly before we finish our strategic plan process in February. Next slide, please. So a little bit more on the background of the plan. And I think this probably applies to every other agency in terms of how we use strategic plans. We spend a lot of time talking about the plan with the archivists of the United States, with senior leaders of the National Archives, making sure that the plan supports NARA's leadership agenda. And really a critical point here is that it allows us to do long-term planning. So much of what we do in the government, we work from fiscal year to fiscal year. The plan does give us a framework to be able to plan five years out. So along with that, we're able to establish performance targets and then we can use the plan to engage externally so that we can make people aware of what we are focused on in the National Archives and get feedback that helps us do a better job of meeting our mission and our vision. So the strategic goals that we have in the new plan remain in place from the previous plan. They are the same four goals and Jay will talk about those in a little bit more detail in a bit. What we did, however, was modify the descriptions of those goals to really emphasize our commitment to equity initiatives, customer experience, and even incorporates many lessons that we've learned as we've been working through COVID-19. Next slide, please. On my last slide before turning it over to Jay, just wanted to put our mission, vision, and values, these remain the same as they were in the previous plan. We still value engagement with the public and then focusing on preserving and providing access to high value government records. We do want to, as it says in division, acknowledge that there are many different American experiences and this is a change from the previous plan where the previous plan focused on the national experience. And through all the work that we have been doing with the Task Force on Racism, the Archivist Commissioned is that we are acknowledging that there are many different American experiences and we want to make sure that we acknowledge that and provide that level of attention to the differing perspectives. Our values remain the same. We are still very focused on collaboration, both internally and externally. Innovation and continuous learning continue to be values that drive us forward. So with that, I am going to pause and turn it over to Jay Traynor to talk about transformational outcomes and goals. Thank you, Lawrence. Next slide please. NARA's proposed transformational outcomes describe the organizational culture that NARA must build in order to meet the challenges of the future, improve our organizational performance and better serve the American people. We've retained the transformational outcomes, as Lawrence mentioned, from our current strategic plan, and they are one NARA out in front, an agency of leaders, which is mostly focusing on our inward operations, a great place to work, which is focusing on our inward operations, a customer focused organization, and an open NARA. And again, these transformational outcomes are in our current strategic plan and we're proposing to carry them over into our new strategic plan. Next slide please. Similarly, NARA's strategic goals identify the four key areas in which NARA feels it must excel in order to efficiently and effectively deliver on our mission in a modern environment. Again, we've retained the strategic goals from our current strategic plan, which are make access happen, connect with customers, maximize NARA's value to the nation, and an internal one which has built our future through our people. Next slide please. So make access happen is where we affirm that public access to our records is NARA's core mission, and it's the higher calling that gives purpose and meaning to all of our work, the employees of the National Archives, but also the users of the National Archives. In make access happen, we're reaching beyond our traditional role of making records available for others to discover, and we're making access happen by delivering increasing volumes of electronic records to the American public online using flexible tools and accessible resources that promote public participation, engaging with our customers and reaching out to underserved communities to find opportunities to improve the customer experience and promote equity through our mission. Again, this is the bigger change from our current strategic plan, and that's the trying to promote equity. The last strategic objective, which is by fiscal year 2026, 95% of customer requests will be ready within the promised time. This has been a traditional measure at NARA, and it cuts across the Federal Records Center program, the archives, and the Presidential Libraries reference services. This objective, as Lawrence mentioned, about learning from the pandemic has certainly been and will continue to be challenged by the pandemic. Next slide, please. Our next goal under Connect with Customers challenges us to continuously improve customer service, cultivate public participation, and generate new understanding of the importance of records in a democracy. We will continuously engage with and learn from our customers who include individuals, communities, organizations, and for this audience, most importantly, other federal agencies. So let's go to the next slide and back to Lawrence. Okay, thanks, Jay. So goal three, maximize NARA's value to the nation is a really important one for the Office of the Chief Records Officers and for all federal agencies. Because this is where a lot of the records management work happens. So, in light of that, I'm going to read, just as a reminder, because I think it includes some really key languages important to us. The language that describes the goal itself before I talked a little bit about the objectives that are here on the slide. Goal three, maximize NARA's value to nation recognizes that public access to government information creates measurable economic value, which adds to the enduring cultural and historical value of our records. We are modernizing records management practices across federal government, advancing digital preservation of archival electronic records and supporting the transition to digital government. NARA will explore new technology to find low cost practical solutions to improve processing, access review and redaction and digitization to accelerate the delivery of electronic and digitize records to the public. So the language in the goal has been modified, we've updated, we've included a lot of the activities that we've been focused on in the last several years. And we've made it sort of looking forward, this is what we're going to be focused on. So I'm going to talk about the first objective, but before I do, I would like to cover the second and third before wrapping up with the first one. So the second objective, NARA will reduce the time it takes to start complex FOIA requests for unclassified records is an objective with targets that is designed to improve the timeliness of FOIA requests that are handled by our office within the National Archives. The third objective is a really important one and this is where it gets into the activities and development that we're doing with ERA 2.0. So we want to make a commitment here that we will advance the existing controls to enable digital preservation and do the planning and mitigation so that we can provide access to electronic records which will be preserved and made available through ERA. So that commitment is something that is front and center part of the plan. It will be important going forward. So now back to the first one. NARA will provide the policy requirements and oversight to support a transparent, inclusive and fully digital government. So as I noted, this covers the work of our office and really hones in on all the activities that are allowing us to work with all of you to bring about a fully digital government eliminating to the greatest extent possible the reliance on paper and really getting the entire government working with the public stakeholders, other agencies in the way that we expect to be working in 2021 and out to 2026. So we are under this objective working on a number of strategies that will include new and ongoing work on guidance and oversight of agency records management programs. But we're also spending some time focusing on with this objective how we want to reach that goal with strategies that will address equity issues in our appraisal and scheduling practices and greater transparency for the data that we collect from all of you and share with the records management community and the public. So we are going to continue as part of our forward looking strategic plan, the work that we have been doing with Fermi to develop records management requirements and work with the federal and commercial vendors to incorporate those requirements into software applications and cloud offerings. We are going to continue to do more inspections assessments and system audits of your programs and trying to provide value and best practices and lessons learned. And we are going to expand our efforts to provide standards or the digitization of permanent analog records, whereas we have focus with the current standards on reflective technologies will be working on adding transmissive technologies to try and cover as many permanent analog records as possible with new standards. Additionally, I wanted to add that we also intend to learn more about how agencies are working and will continue to work as a result of COVID-19 by looking into collaborative tools and platforms that agencies are now using to work with each other. And really digging into what the records management implications are and the potential gaps in our guidance in how we use collaboration tools and resources. So we are kicking off a records management assessment. Some of you may be aware because we've conducted some focus groups along with that were hosted by GSA. And we tend to continue that work because coming out of this pandemic, it's just even more important to really understand how we work, how the records support the way that we work and making sure that we have the right guidance out to all of you to make sure that records are well managed. So there's a lot of other ideas that we're kicking around for our records management portfolio over the next several years. And I would just encourage you if you have suggestions or comments, please get in touch with us offline after the meeting. We'd love to hear from you and see if there's anything that we should be considering as part of the next strategic plan. Next slide please. So the last slide is goal four. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this goal because it is primarily an internal facing goal. And it relates to building our future through our people and you can see from the objectives that are listed on this slide. The strategies and the targets that have been established do get into coaching into promotion and hiring and improving diversity. And I think when you look at the last one, I think that is probably a really significant initiative where we are really trying to build a culture within NARA that incorporates all of the objectives here where we're trying to engender a NARA workforce that is built upon civil interaction equity inclusiveness that promotes engagement and connectedness of everybody that works for the National Archives to the strategic plan to the agency's mission and making sure that everybody feels a part of what we're trying to do as an agency. So a lot of work here that I think will certainly be foundational work for all the staff that work in the National Archives. And it is now in there is draft for everybody to look at and for all staff and public stakeholders to comment on as we go forward towards making this final in February of 2022. So that's an overview of the plan and a number of key points that Jay and I wanted to highlight. If we can flip to the next slide, we're now at the point where we can take questions if you have any about anything that we've talked about on NARA's draft strategic plan. Thank you, Lawrence. We do have a couple of questions that have come in. As a reminder, users can email them to rmcommunications.nara.gov or use the YouTube chat feature. The first one, for those agencies that will need an exception or waiver for M1921, is there a deadline for those waivers? In the past, we were told sooner rather than later, but is there a target date? So yeah, that is a good question. As you know, we did issue a bulletin that provides further guidance related to M1921 and additional detail on the exception process. We didn't set a deadline. However, we are encouraging, and I think the language that you used, Arjen, in reading the question, is still accurate. We would encourage you to send in your request for extensions or exemptions, whichever is appropriate. So if the agencies are asking us, we are encouraging you to do the analysis, provide the information that is cited in the bulletin. And we will queue them all up and review them with NARA management and make sure that we get a decision back to you. One of the things that we have not done because of the note that I mentioned earlier and the coordination that we need to do with OMB, we have been sort of queuing them up and getting them to the point where we could discuss them and coordinate with OMB. And we're not quite there at that point yet, but I think it would be beneficial if you believe you would need an exception or an extension to please look at the bulletin, do the analysis, and then get them into the required mailbox as cited in the bulletin. Thank you. We have another question. Are agencies considered customers in the upcoming strategic plan? So let me make sure I answer it quickly with yes. Everything that we do in relationship with federal agencies is not reflected in the strategic plan. There are strategic objectives that we're trying to meet, but federal agencies should see themselves in the strategic objective under Make Access Happen, with customers, and the one that Lawrence covered in depth under Maximize Our Value to the nation of the work that federal agencies do with the Office of the Chief Records Officer. So thank you, Jay. I'll put out another call for questions. We'll note that we did get a comment that in many ways, the four is important to federal agencies in that a more satisfied NARA team leads to better support of our agency's needs in the long run. Amen. I would agree. So we have no further questions. If one does come up, please continue to submit them and we'll circle back and bring them up to you at the end of the presentation. So with that, we'll move to the next item on the agenda, Updates from the Federal Records Center Program. And for those updates, please welcome Gordon Everett, Director of the Federal Records Center's program. Good morning to everyone. I hope everyone is well, staying safe, and hope folks did get a vaccination. It's been 17 months since we've had these adjustments in our work life since mid-March last year, and it continues on as you see. While the Federal Records Center program, we were in the midst of reopening many of our centers up to a phase three level where we could accommodate much more business, obviously with what's going on with COVID, it has changed some of the things and have made us regress in how we were planning that opening. As of Monday, we have nine record centers that are closed. We have eight that are operating in what we call phase one where we can have up to 20% of staff in that building at a time. And that's just not a Federal Records Center, that's all of our staff. So we have to kind of work together in getting the headcount right for those buildings. So that's all of our buildings. All 17 buildings of the Records Center program are either non-closed, eight are in phase one. So while those buildings are closed, we do handle emergency reference requests. If you do have an emergency request, please make that request in Arcus. And then we'd also have to ask you to reach out to us. There are some phone numbers on that emergency request where there's emergency contact for each of the records centers so that we can engage with you verbally and in Arcus to track that emergency request and get that handled for you. While the building is closed, we do get folks to go in to handle those type of emergency requests. We do follow the COVID metrics in each county that we operate, where there are narrow facilities and our standards. Some folks ask, well, what are the standards? Well, our standards we look at are if there were 100 new cases per 100,000 population, or if it's greater than 10% positivity rate over the past seven days. That's a troubling statistics for us, and we'll regress and pull our people back from having to go in to work in those buildings. And that's how we look at it. Fortunately, we're trying to keep our staff safe as possible, and we're sure your agencies are doing the same for yourself. So I'll restate again, if there are emergency reference requests, we'll definitely try to get those handled. Please reach out to us via Arcus and via phone communication. We have an emergency contact list that you can receive. If you haven't received that, you can reach out to your account manager, or we can have that sent out to you so you know who to reach for each record center in cases of emergency. So with that, that's all I have at this point. Are there any questions for me? We do have one that's come in via the YouTube. How will the president's mandate that federal employees either be vaccinated or be tested regularly impact operations at the federal record centers? Well, we're like, you know, every other agency, and I'll see if Jay wants to chime in, but like every other agency, you know, our employees are asked to, you know, they can do it at testation to determine, you know, they can say they're vaccinated or not. And we're just following, you know, the federal operation on that. So if we get back to a position where we'll, you know, wide open, I mean, we'll have employees who hopefully are all vaccinated, but if not, we'll be following, you know, the lead from OMB in the White House on operations. Jay, you want to jump in on that one? You're correct, Gordon. We're aware of the mandate and we are implementing it up to this point. Our workforce for emergency services that Gordon talked about, or as we progressed to phase one or phase two was based on volunteers. We have a lot of staff that will volunteer to come in. But as we implement the mandate on vaccination, I think you'd see us moving away from the volunteer status to return to work, but we're the same as the rest of the country. I think we all need more people to get vaccinated so that the health metrics improve to battle the variants that have come up from COVID-19. Thank you, Jay. We've been getting several questions via the YouTube, maybe for Gordon or both of you. What constitutes a case of an emergency? Well, you know, the customer determine makes the case for the emergency. We don't. You know, the customer determines the need if it's an emergency for them. So we don't make, we don't constitute what's an emergency. Okay, related to that, can those emergency requests be sent back via transfer once the agency is done with the records? Well, Chris may be on our operations director, may be on it this time. Chris, are you there? And if he's not, let me say this, that transfer cannot, probably cannot be sent back. It just depends on what phase we're in. The number of people we have working, it very, you know, very difficultly, you know, we're trying to handle reference requests and those things first. We haven't opened the doors wide open to transfers coming back in. However, it depends on the center, a conversation can be had with the director of that center. And if the resources are there, we may be able to get it back in. If not, we may ask you to hold on to it. Related to that, or maybe separately, what is the process for returning boxes? We have over 100 boxes that need to go back to the FRC. Yeah, it's the same thing. You know, if these are new transfers, you can do all of the paperwork now for any new transfers that are coming into the record center. We have folks who are teleworking, who can review those transfers and give approvals. However, the actual physical shipping of those, we're going to have to work out with the FRC. There has to be a conversation to see when we can get that scheduled to come in, again, based on the resources in the FRC. You know, if you're sending us refiles or returning records, it's kind of the same thing at this point. The doors are not wide open, and it's based on the resources in the center. So there has to be a conversation between our T&D folks and obviously the customer if they're trying to send some records back. And folks, it just depends on the record center and the resources in the different record centers. The resources available. Thank you, Gordon. We have questions about the FY 2022 service and storage rates when we'll now release those. And I guess that's the same as the FY 2022 IAA documents. Yeah, that is the same. That process, we're in that process now. There were some meetings with our CFO and our financial folks in the last couple of weeks as we look at that. We're in that process and we hope to have that out to you before the end of the fiscal year. So there's no determination been made yet on the 2022 rates, but that is in process. And we'll get it out to you as quickly as we can once we have everything approved. Here's another one. Has the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis received additional external support or funding to decrease the backlog of veterans' requests for official military personnel files? I can handle that one, Gordon. Yes, they have. We have received extra funding. We talk about the value of collaboration in our strategic plan. We talk about partnership with federal agencies, and we have had what I think is a pretty good relationship has become a great relationship with the VA and the Department of Defense, the Armed Services, etc. So we have taken steps to address the backlog using external funding and external support. I will say the major ingredient that will help us improve the servicing of personnel requests in St. Louis will be for the country to improve the health metrics with the pandemic. The state of Missouri where we're located for the National Personnel Records Center was one of the first ones hit very hard by the Delta variant. And again, as we see the health metrics improve, that will allow us to bring even more resources to bear on the backlog at the NPRC. Thank you, Jay. We've been getting a lot of questions around the 2022 deadline and different aspects of them. I think in the interest of consolidating some of these questions, we'll just kind of move them to the end when we're going to address that writ large. They do seem to be revolving around how we'll now still be able to handle record shift, given that we've been closed and things of that nature. Okay. Do you want to push that to the end, you said, or? Well, I'll open it up if you want to comment on that now, Gordon. Well, you know, I would say this, it just depends on when we open up. We will be making, we're still on target currently on M1921. So, you know, we'll be there. I'm sure there'll be a point that folks will have to plan, you know, those records, the huge amount of records coming in. We'd have to plan that and plan that with agencies, but we certainly would like to know well in advance and have some conversations with agencies as we bring those records in. Obviously are all going to be in the door by December 31st of 2022. Not likely, but obviously will we have the approvals of those that are coming in and it may be some time that we take to bring those in in an efficient manner. But the plan is to get the records in. If the customers want us to secure and manage those records, we will get those records in. Thank you, Gordon. We do have a sort of a hypothetical assuming the pandemic does decline and save FY22 third quarter. Will the FRCs have sufficient staff to process the wave of incoming boxes of records? Now I'm going to give a hypothetical response. Yeah, assuming everything is, you know, back to normal, I think is that where they're asking. And if we are, if we are with our staff and we have all of our staff to come back, you know, yeah, I mean, assume everything is as well, you know, we'll be back and we'll have sufficient staff to do that. Yes. Thank you, Gordon. I do see that Pam Northern's been answering some comments in the YouTube chat. We appreciate I appreciate that. I think we're getting to most of them. If we still have any please submit those and we'll we'll keep Gordon and Jay around to the end and hopefully we'll pick them up then. Okay. Thank you. With that, I'd like to welcome Margaret Hawkins to present on tribal consultations. Thank you, Ariane. Welcome everyone. I appreciate you making it to bridge this morning. Next slide. So I'm here today to talk about a new requirement for submitting record schedules. This has been promulgated through an AC memo. That's linked here and you can also find it on our website. And so I'm going to talk a bit about the requirement, its background and its implementation. So just to kind of start with just laying out what the requirement is, it is that beginning as of well at this point it's as of August 1st, all newly certified submitted schedules will require an indication of what I'm just going to just generally call tribal consultation status, which means we need to know, does your record schedule require consultation with tribal entities? And if yes, it has it been completed and if not, what is the plan for that? I'm going to go into all of this in a little more detail. I just kind of wanted to, you know, just just say what the basic requirement is. Next slide. So before we get into the details of this, you may be wondering, why do we have this new requirement? And it's as a result of a presidential memorandum on tribal consultation that came out just this spring. And that or actually in January, I'm sorry, in January, and it reinforces a longstanding executive order EO 13175 that was issued November 2009. And this executive order mandates regular and robust communication with tribal governments in the development of federal policies that have tribal implications. So this EO is covering a large swath of activities in the government and mandated the tribal consultation for a variety of government activities. So when the presidential memorandum was issued in January, NARA developed its draft NARA tribal consultation plan, and it is on our website, should you wish to see it. And it indicates NARA's commitment to tribal consultation, including a requirement for record schedules. So that's why we're here today. NARA has a lot of activities. We've got the Federal Records Centers, we have our accession records, we're digitizing our holdings, we're opening facilities, we're closing facilities. There's a wide variety of activities that may take place in NARA that may end up requiring tribal consultation. But here today, I'm just here to talk about the requirement for records schedules. Next slide. So as I mentioned earlier, one of the major things is that we're requiring written indication of tribal consultation status upon certifying and submitting a schedule. If it's not needed, we just need a simple statement noting that it's not needed. And as I note down at the bottom of the slide, an email communication is sufficient. We do require it in writing. It does not have to be formal correspondence. It does not need to be signed by the head of your agency or anything like that. What we're requiring from the records officer or the senior agency official for records management, an email stating, for instance, that tribal consultation is not needed. If on the other hand you've conducted a tribal consultation and you have results from that, you would also convey that to us in writing. If it's needed and not conducted, we would need to know what your plan is for that. We will not be necessarily keeping schedules open on the books for years if someone's just sort of sorting through this. But if you have a clear plan, we may leave those schedules on the books. And as I mentioned before, these would be submitted at the time of schedule certification. For instance, I am the certifying official for general record schedules. And about 8.30 this morning, I certified a schedule for the COVID-19 attestation and vaccine records that Lawrence had mentioned in his announcement that will be upcoming later in the fall. When I hit the button in the array, as many of you are familiar with doing that, and then I sent an email to the appraiser for that schedule stating that tribal consultation was not needed for these records. And we'll talk a little bit more as I go through about how those determinations might be made. So it's a fairly simple process. I did those right after one after the other. Next slide. So now that I've talked a little bit about the logistics of how it's done, an obvious question would be, well, what might have tribal interests? And really what we're looking at is schedules with what I put up here as a clear connection to tribal interests. We're now looking for a hypothetical tenuous connections on how the record schedule may impact tribes. We're looking at something that's very clear. For instance, when I was doing the COVID attestation certification this morning, these are records that affect federal employees, visitors, just more general population. So that would not have a clear connection to tribal interests specifically. The other thing is another example is all people, generally speaking, are affected by IRS taxation policy and IRS forms. We wouldn't expect the IRS to say, hey, members of tribes may be filling out these forms, therefore we should consult with them. That's what I would call sort of just way too broad of a connection. So we're not looking at that. Which then means what are we looking at? And that's where we really expect agencies to be consulting with their own agency tribal coordinator. Our tribal coordinator is Jay Visenko, who's also our chief operating officer. The executive order requires that all agencies have a senior agency official for tribal consultation and coordination. So you should have one in your agency. Also, you would want to be consulting with agency program offices. They are the ones who are conducting the business processes that may affect tribal entities and will presumably be able to work through that issue. NAR is not going to be able to, for 283 federal agencies, figure out each and every business process that may have tribal implications. We're really looking to agencies, you know your records, you know your business processes to be making these determinations. Also, it has come up in a question, you know, well, we wouldn't want to be just sending emails to tribal entities. There's over 500 of them. There's probably a national clearinghouse we should be using. We shouldn't just be sending out emails. That just came in as a question a day or so ago. Completely agree with that. Tribal governments are sovereign governments. Most agencies who interact with them routinely have very robust offices with protocols, procedures, it's handled very carefully. We would never expect a records officer just to be, you know, trying to send an email out to 500 and some tribal entities. It is not something to conduct without consultation with within your agency. Next slide. So I talked about right now where if you have a schedule that you're submitting, you would be sending an email stating whether or not tribal consultation is required. In the future we will be building this into ERA 2.0. It's going to be at the schedule level and we will, it's going to be very simple as it's in draft right now is will be a pick list where you'll have a field for tribal consultation required. You say no, which is for instance, let's say this was ERA 2.0 when I certified that schedule this morning, I would say no, or I say yes and yes and complete it. Next slide. So we also, I also wanted to talk about a little bit about where this is not required. This is not required for any schedules that were submitted before August 1st, 2021. So when I say submitted and certified, I mean newly submitted and certified. We've had, I'm going to say maybe four or five come in since August 1st, not including the one I just submitted this morning. Consultation is also not required for capstone forms. While we have the NA-1005 for verification of capstone, the actual underlying disposition is handled through the GRS. So that was, GRS was signed and transmitted before August 1st when we do an update at some point and re-certify it. We will be handling that at the National Archives since we are the certifying agency. Also, let's say you do conduct a tribal consultation. You're not required to submit your internal documentation about it, but we would need to know what I'll just call is the upshot of it, of what transpired. And if you did submit a package of information about it, it will be added to the schedule case file at NARA, just for your information. Next slide. All right, I'm already two questions. So I guess we can open this up to questions. Thank you, Maggie. And as a reminder, please put your questions in the YouTube chat or email them to rm.communications at nara.gov. The first question is, are you looking at previously submitted or even previously approved schedules for possible tribal issues? As I mentioned, we are, this requirement is for those that were submitted beginning August 1st. However, I would encourage any agency if they have an approved schedule that they have concerns about the disposition and how it might relate to tribal interest to consult within their agency. As I mentioned before, you have a tribal office, you have the program offices, but we are not requiring it. Thank you. Here's another question that's come in. Will ERA 2.0 include a checkbox for tribal consultations to cut down on the amount of email to keep track of for draft disposition authorities? So as I mentioned on one of the slides, we will be handling that. Yes. So the answer is yes. So make it short. Yes, it will be an ERA 2.0 and there will be a dropdown pick list to indicate the tribal consultation status. Other questions? I don't see any at this time, but stick around, Maggie. We'll give people an opportunity to send in their questions. And now if we go to the next slide, please, we'll open up the general question and answer portion of today's meeting and hopefully capture all the questions that were asked in the chat or sent to us that we haven't gotten to yet. All right, Lawrence, to come back and tackle the first question, which is the digitization standards for permanent records. When will the draft be approved? Any updates would be appreciated. Thanks, Arjen. Yeah, that's a good question. So I did touch on when I was talking about Goal 3, that digitization continues to be a focus for us. We are still in the last stages of reviewing and adjudicating the comments and expect that they will be sent over to OMB for final review. I wish I could give you an ETA on when they are going to be published, but as you all know, OMB works on a different timeline that we do not control. And we need to wait to see what concerns they may have when they see our final adjudication of all the comments that we have received. So all I can say is stay tuned. We are actively working on it and hope that we can get this resolved and published in final as soon as possible. Thank you. Lawrence, we do have a couple of questions around the exemption process and exception process. Do agencies have to resubmit an SF-115 and an exception package for records previously approved to be scanned and destroyed? So that's a good question. And it does relate to the previous question about digitization. So we have been saying all along continues to still be the case that the standards need to be published in regulations as final. And that's where we are. We're still working through that in order for agencies to be able to apply disposition and dispose of the source paper records. So there's always, there's going to be two paths that we envision for how this will work. If the standards are fully met once they're published by the agencies doing the scanning, then there will be a simple path to disposition using a GRS that we are developing. For agencies who have scanned records, the legacy records which have been scanned do not meet those standards. Then we will have to work with you on with a schedule and make sure that we can review that as part of that process before disposition can be applied. So this is all going to be clarified. We are working on some guidance products and more information relating to various paths and the implementation that will need to take place once the standards are published. But we need to get to that point first and then we can talk with you all about what the follow-on guidance for all agencies in terms of implementing the standards will look like. So thank you. Related also to the exception process, do we have a template for points we would like to be covered in a request for exemptions? Yeah, so we've received that question before and I know everyone's looking for an easy path for how we're going to submit exceptions. Hey, I'm guilty of that as well. We really made a conscious decision when we issued our bulletin that covers information about exceptions to the requirements in M1921. One of the things that we had talked about internally, and I'm sure we've talked about it with agencies as well, is that the request that we have received and that we're going to continue to receive differ substantially from one request to another. So it's very difficult to apply a standardized template for agencies to use when submitting these requests. One of the things that we have been doing is working with agencies and there's contact information in the bulletin on what is the kind of information that needs to be submitted. And there's some basic pieces of information like the scheduling authority, scope complexity that needs to be a part of the justification that goes along with the exception. So we can work with you on that. It's just that each request is complex and really needs to be worked through case by case. So if you have any questions about whether or not you have enough information or too much information, please get in touch with us and we can provide you feedback to help you develop your request. So thank you. I've got another digitization related question. Is there any status or change to the requirement also included with the digitization regulations regarding that all agencies must review schedules 10 years old or older every five years? Is this expected to go through as is? So yes, there's Lawrence again. There's no update on that requirement. We did issue the communication and we, as we communicated it before, we are making that commitment that agencies review on this regular timeframe schedules to make sure they're current and applicable. So we are expecting that the regs that includes that information is expected to go through as is. We haven't received any concerns and from what conversations I've had with agencies, I think most agree that it is a good requirement and really something that is needed. Thank you Lawrence. And sort of just one more. Would it probably be helpful if you reiterated the process by which the 2022 deadline would need to get modified? So the process is one where we need to coordinate with OMB. The targets that are established in M1921 were issued by joint memo with OMB and NARA. NARA cannot independently make any changes to the target. We have certainly discussed it within NARA. We certainly understand the impact the COVID has had, but we have not yet had conversations with OMB at a very detailed level to discuss changes to the requirements that are currently in M1921. As I noted, we are working with them on our draft strategic plan and I expect that we will have those conversations to make sure that we can bring a strategic plan and M1921 or whatever successor memo comes out from the administration. If a successor memo comes out from this administration, that will bring those in alignment. Thank you Lawrence. I think we'll move off of sort of 1921 topics and exceptions. We have a question on the draft strategic plan. Does civil interaction equate to activism and is that appropriate for federal employees? So that's an interesting question related to goal four and that objective. The answer is no. Really what this objective is about is an internally facing objective about NARA's workplace culture. It relates more generally to civility and how NARA staff treat each other and really focuses on mutual respect. So this has been a priority for the Archive of the United States trying to build a culture where we are a civil NARA and work with each other in a way that we expect to be treated. And it's not about anything external. It's not about activism. It's about building a workplace where we would all want to get up in the morning and go to work and feel good and positive about where we are when we come to work. Thank you Lawrence. I think we've covered the ones we have in the queue on those topics. Is Gordon still here? Yes. Okay, Gordon. We'll put you on the hot seat now. Are there any plans to make updates to ARCIS? And if so, when can we expect those updates? Yeah. As a matter of fact, there are plans for just a, I don't want to say a whole new ARCIS, but there are plans to update our platform for ARCIS that we hope to have completed. Sometimes during 2023 is the plan. I'm sorry. Let me see. Is it 2023? It is to be in the next fiscal year. Sometimes in 2022 is the plan. So we'll have a new platform. Will that change how our customers interface? I don't think so right away, but at least having ARCIS up on a new platform will allow us ease of usability, a greater usability, and we'll have to look at and see if there's a way to develop additional uses for customers. I do know that many customers would like to get reporting and those things out of ARCIS. And for now, those reports and things that you need can be generated by your account manager, although our customers don't have access to those reports in that way. So if there's something that you really need or you want out of ARCIS currently, just kind of reach out to your account manager and have them pull or build or develop some sort of reporting for you that they can do on some sort of frequency. Thank you. Another one, so given the pandemic and only partial openings at federal record centers, are the centers able to do disposals with their contractors or have disposals and also permanent transfers been put on hold during the pandemic? In other words, if disposals and transfers have been delayed, could that also delay intake of records due to space issues at the record center? There is some disposal being done. There are some that is delayed. Obviously, we have to have the resources in the building to get it done. We're not doing it at the level that we normally are in each of the centers. But there is a report that I see almost weekly where there is some disposal that is being done. On the transfers, I would have to say those are going to be delayed also obviously because of resources. So, you know, it's just something that we're trying to work through. Thank you, Gordon. And I think that there's a related question about it. What is the backlog? One year, but I guess what is the estimated backlog for destructions? Oh, I don't have that handy. Let me say this, and I don't know if Chris is on the phone. Let me say this. I'm not sure where the concern is for the customer. However, let me say this. Once a backlog and the customer concurs with the backlog, just want to remind customers if we don't get it done or get the disposal done within 90 days, you are no longer charged for those records. So there is no storage or charge to you on those records if that is the concern of the question. I'm not sure if that is the concern. But again, you know, we will dispose of records as we can with the resources we are disposing records as a speak in the centers that are open that have the resources to do it. But I'll go back to if the concern is, hey, we're not disposing something that you've concurred on the 13,001 or on those spreadsheets that T&D sends you. You're billing for that storage stops after 90 days. Gordon Chris is online. If you guys can hear me, the latest update I got the disposal backlog is a little bit north of a million cubic feet right now, which is substantial, but we faced larger challenges in the past after some big freeze lifts. We're working within operations to develop plans to try to try to get caught up in 22. It's all dependent on the wonderful COVID bug and how quickly we can reopen and mobilize, but we're very much aware of the backlog. As Gordon said, it does drop off bills after the 90 day cycle, and we will we will try to manage this as effectively as we can as we reopen the FRT. Thank you, Chris. Yes. Thank you, Chris. And I do want to shout out. We did get a compliment. The staff at the Washington National Records Center has done an outstanding job helping the Peace Corps with an emergency records request. So thank you to everyone. Thank you. Thanks to Shannon and his team. Okay, Maggie, I've got to I think that's all for Gordon. We turn the hot seat over to Maggie if she's still available. I'm still here. Thank you. Good morning. Has the appraiser moratorium been lifted based on the crew versus NARA and ice litigation? If so, can scheduling go forward? Okay, so first off, I'll answer the question and then give a little background on where the question may have emanated from. So there has not ever been a moratorium on appraising and scheduling records as a result of the crew litigation. Since January, when the judge made his ruling, we have sent approximately 75 schedules to the federal register just since January. Of that 75, a large percentage of those have already made their way through the public commenting process and have been approved by the archivist. So I'm concerned that that there may be some sense out there that we're not praising and scheduling records because we are. And just for those who may not know what's being referred to a couple of years ago, we NARA and Department of Homeland Security, specifically ice was sued over a record schedule related to detainees. And the judge vacated in January made a ruling and vacated several of the items and their disposition, which we are now reexamining with ice. But it did not, there were no broad sweeping government wide actions to come out of that and no moratorium on scheduling. However, we have been reexamining our appraisal processes and are in the midst of a large project to do so. In the meantime, we have been carrying on with our work with some internal adjustments and then we'll be continuing to work on that project through the fall. And I would say for agencies the impact has probably been minimal. We may be asking more questions. We are certainly look, we always look closely at schedules. As anybody knows, we often request a fair number of revisions and that's that's continued and but in general, though, we are processing schedules. Thank you. I think this question came up in the context of the FOIA discussion in the strategic plan, but I'll throw it out to you, Maggie, as well. What is the oldest archive document that is still confidential? All right, well, that's kind of a fun question. And so there's a couple of things here. So one kind of honing what's what's the oldest document can be a little tricky because NARA in our accession holdings. We track things at the series level, not so much the document level. However, I did reach out to someone while we were hearing the other presentations and answering questions and kind of just from a sort of more global government standpoint. The ice cap, which is the let's see if I or I'm going to have to look at my notes here. Interagency security classification appeals panel known as ice cap and we all like that acronym since it's much easier to say. The ice cap intakes requests for mediation adjudication of disputes over agencies keeping records classified. And the ice cap has allowed a handful of agencies to hold records up to 100 years old and plus. In particular, there are some related to Fort Knox and in particular some related to the National Security Agency. So those may not be accession to NARA. They may still be an agency custody or they may be in NARA custody. So some documents just to sum up can be quite old, although the goal is of course to have them declassified much earlier than that more in the 20 25 year time frame. Thank you. That was that was a very interesting answer. I just want to acknowledge we've got a comment Tommy we've got your comment I'll read it and see if anybody wants to respond. It takes time for a federal agency to pull classified hard copy permanent records from a record center declassify the records and then offer the declassified records to NARA as a direct offer for accessioning. As OMB memorandum M 1921 currently stands that process doesn't work if the federal agency tries to accession declassified hard copy permanent records after 31 December 2022 unless the federal agency takes the extra step to digitize the declassified hard copy permanent records. Would there be an allowance made in such cases. I'll just throw that comment out and if anybody wants to take it as a jump ball. So I'll answer it. So what this relates to you is agencies doing permanent withdrawals from the record centers. And as Tommy mentions removing them going through the declassification process which can be lengthy and then making direct offers to NARA. And what what I would encourage is any agency since NARA has not made a blanket exception for these, although it's been asked, and certainly Lawrence is sitting here and can intake that information and same with J trainer. It's not been granted, but I would encourage any agency who is is facing that to put it in their exception request, their specific exception request. So it seems like some agencies going to need to be the first one to do that. Lawrence I don't know if you wanted to add anything to that. I mean I think that that question is always going to be, as I mentioned when talking about exceptions I mean they're all different they're all very unique case by case scenarios that we need to think through together. So for that question and anything related to it or similar in in, you know, a specific agency scenario, all I can say you just need to get in touch with us. We will discuss with you what the specific scenario is and we can give you some advice based on that scenario. Thank you. We do have questions about the GRS and COVID will NARA in working on the COVID vaccination attestation general record schedule efforts. I'll also be working with GSA to develop a government wide form for the attestations and have that form marked appropriately to reflect health privacy CUI categories once it's completed. And a follow up is if NARA plans to work with GSA to establish such a form along with the GRS it would be helpful so that agencies do not expend efforts or do so agency by agency. So we at NARA are only responsible for providing disposition so we will be moving forward on that. It would be up to GSA to develop a form government wide if they choose. If they do, presumably it would be covered by the GRS regardless if it's a form or an agency has an individual one. Thank you. So this is a question for Gordon or Lawrence about ownership and legal liability for disposal delays greater than 90 days. What happens if records are approved by everyone to be destroyed but are still available if a discovery order comes in? I'm going to punt to the chief records officer on that one. I think the question really gets to the 90 day disposal cycle but I can respond more generally. You can maybe respond from the FRC's perspective but more generally this is a basic ten minute of records management. If the records are available and a discovery order comes through they have to be provided so that's why we spend so much effort making sure that the schedules, the manuals, the implementation are all in alignment. So that records are destroyed in accordance with schedule when they are scheduled to be destroyed and that's why timely disposition is really important. So I think there may be an angle which I'm not going to touch on related to records that may be stored in the FRC. More generally and certainly how we do training and how agencies manage their records there is a legal requirement to provide records that are needed for legal action if those records are available. Thank you and I'll just open up this question and either one of you can take it. What is the expectation for permanent hard copy records residing at a federal records center by December 31st, 2022? Will NARA expect that the transferring agency arrange for digitization? If that is the case will the transferring agency be able to obtain digitization services from NARA? I think we've said before you can transfer any records into us prior to that date. They do not have to be digitized coming in and that's why we said send those records in and they do not have to be digitized before they come in. After that date permanent records coming to NARA will need to be digitized. After that date any temporary records will not come into the FRCP. Thank you Gordon. I'll put out a last call for questions as we're getting near the bottom of the hour here. Maggie can you post a definition of ice cap or what that acronym stands for? I can't post anything in this session but I can speak more slowly. I realize I rattled that off quickly. It's a lot. It's the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel. You can go read up on that and look at some of what their decisions have been and what some of the decisions are. Also I would actually point people to a recent ISU blog post that is I found it just completely fascinating. One of the analysts there took a document and went through and explained what was still classified and why. It's very detailed for a blog post and it's quite interesting and it really gives a lot of insight into the declassification process. I think it came out last week. Can I remember what ISU stands for? Information Security Oversight Office. Information Security Oversight Office. I should know that I just refer you to the acronym. Information Security Oversight Office has a wonderful blog and I believe it came out a week or so ago. Is it the one on Soviet Chemical Weapons Maggie? Yes. I will post that in the YouTube chat for everybody on YouTube. They can go grab that blog there. Great. Any other questions? Let me go through our list to see if we've captured everything. I think we've got everything. As a reminder to folks, please feel free to submit your bridge comments to rm.communications.nara.gov. If I can have the next slide, please. And we'll just remind everybody that the next bridge meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. I want to thank everyone for their participation via our chat. We had a very lively discussion there and by submitting their questions with that. Turn it over to Lawrence if you want to close the meeting. Thanks, Ariane. So yeah, nothing more to add. I just want to again echo Ariane's thanks for your participation and lively feedback and the number of questions we receive. We'll be able to follow up and make sure the materials are posted online, including ordering. For all of those people, given that it's August or on vacation, can then go back and live this bridge meeting in full. So thank you again. Looking forward to seeing you all next fiscal year, October 19. Until then, please send us any questions, feedback to rm.communications, and we will talk with you next time. Have a great day, everyone.