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FCWPerspectives
That’s not to say that the deadlines and requirements of M-19-21 aren’t being used as leverage. “I’m using that date to flog our leadership and saying that we have to be compliant with OMB, and that gets their atten- tion,” one participant noted. “We get a lot of rolled eyes and a lot of patient faces, but we also know that it’s the only way to change a culture that is not willing, that prints out everything and thinks their copies of paper are things that are records.”
Nevertheless, another said, “it’s important to recognize that compli- ance is reactive and that we often get lost in projects and efforts to com- ply and lose sight of the larger mis- sion, which is most critical. You don’t get any records if we don’t do our mission.”
Who owns the ERM mission?
The requirements of M-19-21, the emphasis on data-driven government that was codified in the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act in early 2019 and the broader push for digital transformation have combined to put many cooks in the information-management kitchen. The group said there are now more opportunities to make ERM central to agency missions but also more risk of competing priorities. There- fore, it’s especially important to “hash out and distinguish the roles and responsibilities given the push on data governance,” one partici- pant said.
The Evidence Act “is very ambigu- ous in some respects,” that official added. “We’re working through who’s supposed to do what and who has authority to do what. We’re actually developing a lexicon so that the tech side and the metadata contingent can speak to the records contingent and everybody really knows what we’re talking about.”
“We’ve got a whole lot of chiefs over in the office of the CIO,” anoth-
er official said, “and nobody knows who’s doing what and how they’re all connected — and more importantly, how we are connecting with them on records management.”
COVID as catalyst
The year-long emphasis on maximum telework and new priorities prompt- ed by COVID-19 have hindered some M-19-21 efforts, especially for agen- cies that are working to digitize vast archives of paper records on-site. For the most part, though, participants said the pandemic has accelerated agen- cies’ embrace of digital tools that will make ERM easier.
One official said agencies won’t go back to paper-based processes, while another noted that “since March, peo- ple have stopped asking for paper. So my assumption is they’re still doing the same jobs, they’re just finding the information elsewhere.”
The downside may be a surge in electronic records. Collaboration tools that were being tested in small pilot projects or still on the drawing board are now being used constantly, one participant pointed out. “That’s gen- erating a whole new source of informa- tion — like this [roundtable] meeting being recorded.”
At least one participant was skepti- cal that agencies wouldn’t simply go back to old ways when public health precautions allow. “I wonder how we can measure success against that until we get back and re-engaged face-to- face and see what’s left over of that culture,” the official said.
Another expressed concern that budgets will be further squeezed by all the new pandemic-prompted priori- ties, which could make it impossible to hit the M-19-21 deadlines.
“I do think we need an extension,” but not because of COVID-19, the official said. “We need an extension because, more and more and more, we understand the complexities of moving forward.” n
Participants
Brett Abrams
Electronic Records Archivist, National Archives and Records Administration
Walter Bohorfoush
Director, Records Management Office, Department ofTransportation
Laurence Brewer
Chief Records Officer, National Archives and Records Administration
David Brown
Archivist, Office of Records Management Services, Office of Support Operations, Securities and Exchange Commission
Edward Horton
Senior Advisor, Construction and Facility Operations, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
Ratima Kataria
Deputy CIO, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services
John Mancini
President, Content Results LLC
Mark Patrick
Leader, Information ManagementTeam, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense
Jeanette Plante
Policy Director, Office of Records Management, Department of Justice
Dave Simmons
Senior Records Officer, General Services Administration
Scott Swidersky
Vice President of Enterprise Content Management, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc., and President, Quality Associates Inc.
Bob Valente
Project Manager, Office Management Category, General Services Administration
Note: FCW Editor-in-ChiefTroy K. Schneider led the roundtable discussion. The Dec. 10, 2020, gathering was underwritten by Quality Associates Inc., but both the substance of the discussion and the recap on these pages are strictly editorial products. Neither QAI nor any of the roundtable participants had input beyond their Dec. 10 comments.
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