SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT OF RECORDS MANAGEMENT BOARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00099A000200140005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 1999
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 28, 1971
• Content Type: MF

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DRAFT
28 December 1971
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Director-Comptroller
THROUGH : Deputy Director for Support
SUBJECT : Semi-Annual Report of Records Management Board
1. This report is for your information only.
2. During the past six months the Records Board members have had
their component Records Officers emphasize three major areas: (a) Control
of Records Volume Growth, (b) Development of Retention Plans for Perma-
nent Records, and (c) Increased use of Microform Systems.
3.
In those three major areas the plans and potential as well as the
progress and problems are as follows:
a. Campaign to Limit Records Storage:
To prolong the storage-capacity life of the Agency
Records Center, gained by the 3-year records purge and
installation of high density moveable shelving, the
Board devised a self-limiting storage growth system.
Each Directorate was asked to restrict its net growth to
1,000 feet the first year and in each succeeding year to
regularly reduce the total net limit by another 50 feet
per year. The proposed system was accepted by Management
and has been successfully implemented Agencywide.
During this first six months of the new Limited
Storage Policy all Directorates are well within their
projected annual limits and most have managed to maintain
an actual volume reduction. A related system to control
records volumes in the offices has been implemented and
requests for the procurement of records equipment are
being monitored by Senior Officers in each Directorate.
b. Identification of Offices of Record:
During these six months considerable progress was
made in the campaign to identify the more valuable perma-
nent records of the Agency as well as to list the Offices
responsible for the initial preservation of those files.
As usual, the component Records Officer must be called
upon to implement the plan. The files involved must be
identified at the using component level. The findings
are then coordinated at Office, Directorate, and Agency
levels to eliminate duplication and establish each
official office of record for specific files. Board
members have met with their component Records Managers
to provide instructions, forms, and procedures for
this A enc ide cam ai n.
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The plans and potential for both the Storage
Limitation and Offices of Record Retention Plans
are closely related and-were the subjects of the
.two-days December Conference of Agency Records
Officers. -The feasibility and need for the campaigns
were generally recognized by the Conferees and they
developed several proposals to implement the plans.
They cited the advantages of a full records inventory
tightly scheduled disposition, and of published lists
of offices of record responsible for certain Agency
documentation. They felt such information would
result in the elimination of duplicate recordskeeping~
lower the file volumes in offices and the Records
Center, and improve the service for storage and
retrieval.
The Conferees were equally candid in citing the
problems they face with these campaigns and the rest
of the Records Program. They are faced with other
duties and priorities in their components. They have ~
little or no time left to complete the records surveys
research and coordination necessary to inventory files
lower scheduled retention periods and improve records
systems. They foresee a need for considerable time to
list all the valuable files and to negotiate, sometimes
across Directorate lines, among the several offices
interested in particular types of records and to get
agreement for one component to serve as an office of
record.
Several, Conferees noted that the success of the
Records Forge grew from the announced interest of Top
Management which adjusted component priorities and
provided the time and manpower needed. The component
Records. Officers asked for similar expressions of
interest for the Storage Limitations and the Office of
Record Retention Plans. The Board members believe
the memorandum of l July 1971 from the Executive
Director-Comptroller to the DDS on the Records Storage
,Control Policy indicates strong management support
.for these two campaigns and the Board will refer to
this accordingly. We expect completion of these
.Retention Plans in several components during the next
six months.
e, Increased Use of Microform S~rstems:
Each member of the Records Management Board
reports new microform systems being established and
operating in his Directorate.
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In the Support Directorate a systems analyst
Yeas been assigned full time in the Support Services
Staff to work exclusively on Agency microfilm
activities. This effort also brought in for 15 days
a consultant of microfilming for various equipment
and systems needs and has provided microfilm training
seminars that were attended by 14 DDS office heads,
51 DDS managerial personnel, and 35 users of micro-
form systems. Significant progress was completed in
the Office of Finance microfilming program permitting
the destruction of hundreds of feet of old paper
records. Similarly, microfilm projects are underway
ox being developed in the Offices of Communications,
Logistics, Medical Services, Personnel, Security, and
Training. DDS component Records Officers estimate
that some four hundred feet of files converted to
microfilm soon will be removed and destroyed.
The DDP representative to the Board reports
that during this reporting period approximately 400
feet of old applicant files were microfilmed and the
old files destroyed. Likewise, 40 feet of files at
were converted to film and the hard copy
destroyed as part of a pilot program. Other microform
studies are underway in - as well as for the _ 25X1C
- at Headquarters. Another study resulted in
plans to change the size microform to be used for a
CS file system.
In the DDS&T microfilm activities were reported
in six components and involved disposal of another
eleven feet of files, the leasing of a highspeed
rotoline camera, and purchase of reader printer
equipment. Seven more DDS&T employees received
microfilm training. The DDI continues its major
microfilm program in Central Reference Service and
is studying other possible applications. In the DCI
Area the Cable Secretariat reports having completed
the microfilming of all its cable files except those
of the last six months. Five DCI Area personnel
attended the microfilm seminar.
At the December Records Conference several
Conferees cited microforms as a method to reduce
records volumes when cost justified. They also
pointed out that our dynamic Agency will continue
to have large volumes of paper files as well as many
new types of records media with related problems.
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They specifically noted the rapidly increasing
volumes of magnetic tapes, NPIC films, and growing
collections of microfilm files which, although
smaller than the original records, will have to be
filed somehow in the future.
4. Besides these major concerns the Board members and component
Records Officers continued to implement controls in other elements of
the Records Program. For example:
a. Recent DDP reviews have obsoleted ~-0 forms,
DDS&T records disposition permitted return of
17 safes to supply for reissue, new DDI con-
trols over printing and distribution of Agency
reports eliminated from the volume of extra
copies some 700 feet of excess material, and a
review of the emergency Vital Records eliminated
100 feet from the DDP and 700 feet from the DDI
collections. Tn the DDS a concurrence was obtained
from DDP to dispose of thousands of feet of field
station accounting files more than 12 years old.
The agreement culminated ten years of effort to
establish a retention period which meets General
Accounting Office legal standards, Office of
Finance requirements, and satisfies the needs of
other users of financial records.
b. During this period the annual inventory of office
files was completed and showed a volume of 236,200
cubic feet in the Headquarters area. This is an
increase of about 25,000 feet over last year. There
were small increases in most Directorates but the
major increase of almost 16,000 feet is due to a
more comprehensive physical inventory in CRS~DDI
which included areas not previously reported. The
Board expects to continue uncovering new records
problems and other uninventoried areas. At this
point we can be certain only that the size of the
problems reflected by office holdings are as large
as reported and not any smaller.
c. Besides the almost quarter million feet of active
office files and reference materials there is some
89,000 feet of semi-active material stored in the
Agency Archives and Records Center. In this volume
there was a net reduction of 1,200 cubic feet in the
last six months.
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d. The Board members also coordinated on the operat-
ing procedures for the proposed regulation on an
Agency Archives, but they are obliged to defer to
Directorate management on the personnel and policy
requirements of this new Archives function.
5. Finally, the Records Management Board reconsidered its own status
and future. Two meetings were held and the continuing need for this Board
was re-evaluated. We found that three members (DDI, DDS, and DDS&T}
favored continuing the Board because they consider the records purge and
study of other records problems to be continuing requirements for Board
action. They also feel the Board strengthens their administration of
their Directorate Programs as well as their supervision of component
Records Officers. The DDP representative favors discontinuing the Board
as not necessary for the DDP Records Program. The DCI representative
felt the Board should be redrafted and not continued as presently
constituted because it gives management the impression of a greater
problem solving mechanism than actually is possible in this Board with-
out any staff or authority. The Chairman recommends continuation of
the Board. because it requires a direct report of Records Program
problems and progress to management and this, he feels, has stimulated
greater coordinated participation at all organizational levels for this
relatively low priority program. Although the majority favors continua-
tion of the Board, the members concluded that the final decision will
rest with the Executive Director-Comptroller based upon the needs of
the DDS who is responsible for the overall Agency Records Program.
Chairman 25X1 A
CTA. Records Management Board
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