OUTLINE FOR TALK ON CIA RECORDS MANAGMENT POLICIES SUPPORT SERVICES COURSE FOR CAREER TRAINEES

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP70-00211R000500050008-2
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
15
Document Creation Date: 
December 16, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 14, 2005
Sequence Number: 
8
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
April 29, 1966
Content Type: 
OUTLINE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP70-00211R000500050008-2.pdf661.74 KB
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Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Outline For Talk on CIA Records Management Policies Support Services Course For Career Trainees 8:30 A. M. 29 April 1966 - Room 401 Glebe This is a real pleasure to meet with you this morning. This is the STAT STAT third Support Service Course For Career Trainees that I have been invited to participate in and I am most grateful to your Chief Instructor, for these invitations. r, The subject of my discussion with you this morning, Records Management or Paperwork Management, is probably the most unromantic one in the world. It has little glamour and practically no sophistication. It is one which seldom produces a good story. However, here is one that is appropriate to our topic today --- "A dedicated bureaucrat died and having been a model civil servant he went directly to heaven. When he met St. Peter he was told to report to the Logistics Supply Room to get his harp, his halo, his wings and his robes. The BSO was a most efficient person, he must I have been from CIA and trained yA ; ere was no waiting, - the correct sizes were in stock and the good bureaucrat was equipped immediately. When he returned to St. Peter for his assignment he told him how elated he was at the efficiency of the BSO and he said, "I didn't have to fill out a requisition or sign a receipt. - This STAT .. . _ .. _ . 11, , STAT outside of your office? STAT Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Today, we are concerned about how fast we can get information. High Speed Computers are obsolete almost before they are completely installed; printing presses grind out paper faster and faster. These are the days of glamour gadgets and high cost hardware. C A R D Why Should You Be Interested in Records Management? Despite this lack of sophistication in paperwork top management officials in both industry and Government are greatly concerned about the cost of creating and keeping the tremendous volumes of paper needed to conduct business today. Here is what J. Paul Getty, the world's richest man, said recently - "To my mind one of the really serious wrongs in American business today is the penchant for wallowing in welters of paperwork. Some (Companies have literally hundreds of people keeping records on each other and passing office memorandums back and forth. Many times there appears to be more memo writers, filers, and readers than productive workers. The cost of this over administration is staggering, not only in salaries paid to paper shufflers, but in the general glow-down effect it has on all operations". Records have received a lot of attention since 1949 when the Hoover Commis flIVU sion first dealt with this subject - - the second Hoover Commission /?s9- report ncreased interest in records management. These reports focused attention for the first time on the need for positive action to reduce the 4 Billion Dollar annual cost of paperwork. Positive action has been taken through the medium of paperwork management techniques and by their use substantial economies in office management have Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 made by many Federal agencies. The Hoover Commission was responsible for the first legislation requiring an over-all Federal records management program - the Federal Records Act of 1950 - PL 754. More recently Congress has expressed its concern about the high cost of Federal paperwork. Congressman Olsen of Montana has held extensive hearings to find out why Federal Agencies require so many costly reports from business concerns. He calls these requirements - the Federal Paperwork Jungle. The April 15 issue of Time Magazine carried a timely article entitled "The Foolscap Paradise" - this directs attention also to the excessive cost of paperwork. President Johnson has requested the Cabinet to improve efficiency by requiring less paperwork. Here is what the President told a Cabinet meeting in December 1963 - "Cut out excessive paperwork - it breeds overstaffing." In February 1965 the President issued a moratorium on the buying of new filing cabinets. The moratorium has been successful and the President has extended it indefinitely. $ N / 16,726 _forr, every four drawer As a tax payer you are contributing 100 of your tax money for this :! r G R A T H The Volume of records in the Agency is increasing - last year total >p `~ holdings increased 12%. DDS records increased 9% ~ 9/ in 196 51,11, The cost of creating and keeping thep\amounts to STAT Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 STAT The volume of paper per employe in the agency is 18 cubic feet - in the DDS area it is 11 cubic feet.In contrast, the average is 2.6 for the entire Government and 3 for industry. C H A R T What Is Records Management? Basically, it is a management improvement technique. It is a specialized profession concerned with paperwork problems and practices. It is not concerned with bits and pieces of paper and limited to filing or destruction. Instead we pay attention to the entire life cycle of paper from creation to cremation. Creation - Forms-Reports-Correspondence Use - Equipment-Systems-Supplies Disposition Inventories - Schedules-Recorcb Center Records Management is emerging as a recognized profession and now there STAT are 3 professional societies - ARMA - AREA - SAA. Industry depends on the professional records manager to solve paperwork problems. First - To save manpower.- I estimate that we require ople in the agen T just to file and keep the paper we hold. If we eliminate unneeded paper we Why Do We Need Records Management? C H A R T ee can find what we want in our files easier, quicker and with less manpower. Second - To Save Space.- I estimate that records absorb 350% of our useable space, about X00,000 sq. ft. Third - To Control Growth - We create about 200 million pieces of paper every year and we collect a lot - last year over 18 million pieces. Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R060500050008-2 STAT Approved For Release 2005/07/25 CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Fourth - To Comply With the Law - Federal Records Act of 1950. Fifth - To Protect Important Records - Those we cannot afford to lose by natural disaster or enemy act ion. I Authority - Who Is Responsible For Records Management? The 81st Congress enacted P.L. 754 - The Federal Records Act STAT The Heads of Agencies are required by this Public Law to establish and maintain active records management programs. The Administrator of GSA issues guides, standards and regulations - operates 16 Federal Records Centers and the National Archives. Director of CIA responsible for establishing and maintaining a program - General Counsel's opinion. Our Program -F---k Decentralized. Each DD - Office Head. STAT CIA Records Officer - guides, standards, advice, coordination. Now let's look at each element of Records Management and see how the techniques they provide can help to improve efficiency. C H A R T Forms create a lot of paper - last year-53 million pieces from official forms. We spent al-most--300 ,thousand dollars last year to print our official forms. This is a sizeable abount but it is only a fraction - 1 /20th of the cost of processing them - filling them out, filing them and keeping them. So our -~F- / -'1/ 3 >) -1-elr"f' 9 bill for forms last year was Vs, million rather than 4% thousand. Our staff is concerned with such things as good design, the correct size stud the proper paper for forms Here Ad some illustrations - Design - Travel Order; Color of Paper - Cover Sheet for DDP. Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R00050005QO08-2- .11 ?ZS 7K 4 /) The Agency has official forms. These concern almost every kind of function and activity imaginable, But for every official one there are at least 10 unofficial or "boot leg" ones. TiW forms surveys we do produce excellent results by eliminating obsolete and bootleg forms. Farsave storage space and improve over-all efficiency. Procedural improvements are the best products however of our surveys. Here is a good example - Hazel's O/P Project.- Forms i1aif'a ement saves money. 759,000: C H A R T REPORTS MANAGEMENT - The objectives are the same as for forms. Better procedures and less paper. Last year reports created 12 million pieces of paper at a cost of about 30 million dollars. VMPI, Our efforts have been limited to one survey in 1956 because of lack of professional talent. This one survey produced savings of 25,000 and proved that this program pays dividends. But operating offices must now carry on a do-it-yourself program and Commo and Office of Logistics are doing this. Its, too easy to get reports these days from computers. The-produce 100 feet of paper per day as contrasted to an inch a day by typewriter. The Office of Training has done something aboutfts/,, They changed the reports of external training routing on 21 xYzp_vYtxzaaxt-rm? m?mg and eliminated 3 pieces of paper for every report prepared. This elatively fninor procedural change eliminates the filing and keeping of 22 thousand pieces of paper every year -f the equivalent of 112 safes.. rrt rf'Z~` ~C..G'r r. P" j ') - 4 Ul ~':? 1f Vie, Approved For Release 205/07/25: CIA-RDP70-0211 00500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 C H A R T CORRESPONDENCE MANAGEMENT - In this area we are concerned with a most important phase of our every day work. Communication - here is where we can make a good impression or a bad impression. The qaulity of our memorandums and letters, the promptness of our response and the general appearance of our correspondence are essential to good public relations and a favorable public image. to head up a Government wide program to improve the quality of communications. A -s-te-gyring committee in CIA consisting of I program is underway. STAT and me h1(0 been appointedand a Standard practices in correspondence are provided in the Handbook issued in 1954. It has been rewritten and is being coordinated. the cosh last year 8 million pieces - 12 million dollars - this is primarily memorandums and letters. When we add cables - about 17 million copies - and ........w,~ .a, "K"-, dispatches, another million copies - you can see that this is an area that requires a tion. ttn I,, We are making some progress by using short cuts in preparing correspondence. For many years letterex has helped by eliminating the assembling of carbons and papertaad form letters are being used to real good advantage by Logistics, the Office of Personnel and the Library. Form letters can be prepared for correspondnece. 3.50 for dictated and indivEdually typed t Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 20g5147&5 b l - Q1 -00211 R000500050008-2 There are certain standards that all form letters should meet. When a form letter falls below these standards you get poorer quality and higher cost. When it ,rises above them you get a quality or savings bonus for exceptional performance. The standards suggested below are not hard to live up to. They may not in all instances be. suitable for the form letters with which you are concerned, but they will guide you in developing your own. WHEN SHOULD YOU USE A FORM LETTER? There are two tests to be made in deciding whether to use a printed letter. One test is for appropriateness; the other is for economy. An inappropriate form letter one that should not be printed - may result in damaged public relations. And obviously there is no advantage in printing a letter that can be typed at the same or at little additional cost. The common standard shown here for appropriateness may be summed up in two words: good taste. For example, personal letters ex- pressing appreciation are certainly in better taste when typed. And some Government agencies take a firm stand against printing letters that carry bad news of any kind. An agency may have its own reasons for not printing letters on certain subjects. But routine in- formational and business letters can be printed by any agency without sacrificing good taste. The common standard for measuring economy is based on a comparison of cur- rent typing and duplicating costs. In following the suggested formula, count only the lines in the body of the letter, but count partial lines as whole ones. Fill-ins that must be typed or written in longhand in the body of a form letter add to the letter's cost. The monthly usage figures in the formula must,therefore,. be increased when long fill-ins are required. Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION W'ANNINOTON, D. C. :YBUIlBiiiEiE: or his family. The President asks us to answer the requests i -- for financial ass st n ~ayuipmcaao, aanu otner health. and welfare of people. No Federal funds are ava' rectly to people. The assistant_ grams, and the State deciders wh In order that help may be more ment shares in the cost of :fina groups of needy people--the age dren, and the seriously disable within the other groups and prof the help you seek, they would kek agencies in your community whicL May I say that we are sor- personal and hopeful reply. PA-L522 {~'!! I{If=!II!I l i ::{ii l lr ?. : !! H{ Hill if'i!3!! lll:Ili 1111 :i?il If .~ (4? (l i f ! iI?:' {{ { i lf{2ij f[ I??(( =i ++ MEMO IF F{I{Eliilli':ili` liil!lil II!{{li:.ill':{{{IIlI:iilllllFll~lii~l~lliEif.itEEi:{!1?!EIIII!11~31IEiIi iii . Itifi{li(I !~{ :I?I ::I:i!!: g'~PIfl {II~~s 3 fill :~ Il ii II}IIIII ~IIIiiIj!?Iii11111101 ilfi 11 fill? #I I ?II tll l i Figure 3. THE PLAIN FORM LETTER 8 - A printed dot (. ) makes an inconspicuous -marking for the place to begin the address. dot s pAill ~Vith a completely typed salutation the letter takes on a more personal appearance. Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000500050008-2 tremendous. Logistics, Contacts, Security, NPIC and FBIS are some of the Y?aaw?a.,m.:-,...-vvawa.wts i+a~aw,