SUB-CAREER SERVICE FOR AGENCY RECORDS MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87-00058R000200070003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 5, 2003
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: August 10, 1975
• Content Type: MF

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Director for Administration (DD/A) "is responsible for
issuing guidelines, plans and objectives covering the
direction, scope, and content of the Agency Records
Management Program. The Chief, Information Systems
Analysis Staff will serve as the Agency Records Manage-
ment Officer to audit the program in his behalf." The
Agency's program is decentralized with each Deputy
Director, Head of Independent Office and Operating Of-
ficial appointing a Records Management Officer (RMO) to
administer the records program within their jurisdiction.
Although generally cooperating with the C/ISAS in carry-
ing out the Agency's records program, the RMO's are
accountable only to their component supervisor.
3. Factors to be Considered:
a. Agency management is generally not familiar
with the concept of a Records Management Program as
required by law for all Federal agencies, nor are
they aware of all the advantages of such a program.
b. An Agency-wide sub-career service would re-
quire some centralized management of personnel and
positions.
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Career Management Officer, DD/A
FROM
STAT
SUBJECT
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Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
1. With respect to your request that a paper be
developed to determine the need for a separate sub-career
service for Agency records management personnel, the fol-
lowing is provided for your consideration.
STAT 2. Background: states that the Deputy
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
c. The DD/0 has a formal career management
program for RMO's in that Directorate. The DD/A,
DDI, DDSF~T and the Independent Offices have no
formal system for managing the careers of their
RMO's. (The only exception is the Office of
Communications.)
d. A large number of the RMO's assumed their
current duties with little experience and/or interest
in records management, have had minimal training and
perform other functions in addition to records man-
agement.
e. Full-time RMO's may not be required in all
Agency components.
f. Not all current RMO's are willing and/or
qualified to join a records management sub-career
service.
g. Records management positions throughout the
Agency may not be sufficiently similar to permit
rotational assignments of records personnel.
h. Registry personnel should not automatically
be included in the career service.
i. If an Agency-wide sub-career service for
records officers is considered feasible, a time-
table must be developed for gradual implementation.
4. Alternatives: The following alternatives or
combinations thereof should be considered:
a. Take no further action, but continue to
operate the Agency's program as in the past.
b. With management approval, review records
management positions and personnel to determine
the feasibility and need for a career service:
(1) In all Directorates and Indepen-
dent Offices or
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
(2) In selected Directorates and/or
Independent Offices or
(3) In the DD/A only.
5. Discussion of Alternatives:
a. To suggest that the Agency continue to
manage the careers of records personnel as in the
past is to indicate that some system of career man-
agement, although decentralized, must now exist.
While the DDO has a formal program, as does the
Office of Communications in the DD/A, the balance
of the Agency components, including the Independent
Offices in the DCI area have no formal system for
managing the careers of RMO's. In many instances,
records management duties are delegated as a part-
time responsibility to personnel with no experience,
training or interest in the job. Obviously this
results in a wide range of performance levels. For
example, records management is the responsibility of
a Plans Officer in the Office of Security, the Logis-
tics Officer in the Office of Data Processing, the
Registry Chief in the Office of Weapons Intelligence,
Administrative Officers in the Offices of Technical
Services and Current Intelligence and a Librarian
in the Central Reference Service. All of these Of-
ficers make a conscientious effort, but their primary
responsibility and obviously their major interest is
in another field. Another problem is typified by
the Logistics Officer mentioned who is now being re-
assigned to another position where he will not be in-
volved with records management. A replacement must
now be trained to handle a very important records
program. If recent history suggests that the Agency's
Records Management Program has not been satisfactory,
one reason for this problem must be the personnel as-
signed records management responsibilities, their
selection, training and management. This would
suggest that changes are needed.
b. Efforts to establish an Agency-wide sub-career
service must be preceded by total Agency management's
agreement that a change is necessary and willingness
to relinquish some control to a centralized career
management group of most, if not all, of their records
3
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
management personnel and the positions they now
occupy. This would be a major achievement con-
sidering the historical independence of each
Directorate. The DDO, with its own and reasonably
effective career management program for records
officers, would demand proof (and reasonably so)
that an alternate program would be a more effective
substitute for their rather unique program. Such
an all-encompassing career service could only come
about after a detailed study of records management
positions in the Agency to identify those positions
with sufficient homogeneity to allow inter-Directo-
rate or inter-Office transfers of personnel. In
addition, the training, skills and interests of
records officers now assigned to the various records
management positions must be evaluated to identify
those with sufficient flexibility to move from one
Directorate or Office to another without additional
training, those who need further experience and/or
training, and those who perhaps should not be in
records management. These evaluations could be
conducted by members of ISAS in conjunction with
the Directorate Records Management Officers or
their representatives. Not all personnel perform-
ing records management duties now would qualify
for or be interested in membership in a records
management sub-career service. Advantages and dis-
advantages of membership must be clearly identified.
Because of the independence of Agency components,
the various skill levels of Agency records manage-
ment personnel and the massive effort which would
be required to make the necessary evaluations, it
is unlikely that constructive results would be forth-
coming in a reasonable period of time if all Agency
records personnel were to be included in the initial
review.
c. In lieu of the alternative above, a similar
study including fewer components could be conducted.
The selected Directorates and Offices could be those
considered readily adaptable, willing and able to
benefit substantially from a centrally monitored
sub-career service. Again, management in these
organizations must be willing to relinquish some
control over certain positions and personnel if a
review indicated the feasibility of a career service.
4
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
If a limited service proved effective, then per-
haps other components could be invited to join.
Since the DDO has a program in operation, this
Directorate could be .excluded at least initially.
d. Prior to involving the Independent Offices
or the other Directorates, a review of records of-
ficers and positions could be conducted only in the
Offices in the DD/A, using the attached information
from these Offices as a data base. A thorough review
of the adequacy of the existing records programs in
each Office should be made by the ISAS to determine
whether the program is comprehensive. This is par-
ticularly true in those Offices where the records
officer devotes only part-time to these duties.
The programs managed by Officers devoting full-time
to records management could also be reviewed to
determine whether the benefits derived are worth
the time devoted and efforts are channeled in the
right direction. Concentrating initially on the
DD/A would be a simpler task and if a sufficient
number of qualified RMO's and positions with similar
duties were identified, these, plus those in the ISAS,
could serve as a nucleus for a records management
sub-career service. Then, at a later date, other
Directorates and Offices could be invited to par-
ticipate.
a. Before any discussion of a career service
takes place, there should be some assurance that
Agency management is familiar with the legal re-
quirements for, and the content of, a Records Man-
agement Program. This is essential to understand
the functions and need for RMO's throughout the
Agency.
b. The problem of the part-time RMO and how
they would relate to a records management career
service must be addressed since there are many of
them throughout-the Agency. Several alternatives
are available, but none can be applied until the
individual jobs are reviewed to determine whether
the individual Office need is for a full or part-
time position. Full-time positions are susceptible
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
to career service management. Part--time positions
that are indeed part-time can be handled in at least
two ways. First, they can be excluded from consid-
eration. Second, if more than one part-time position
exists in a Directorate, perhaps one well--trained RMO
could be given the full-time responsibility for the
records. programs in more than one Office. This in-
dividual could report to the Directorate RMO or to
the Chief/ISAS. Obviously this requires negotiations
among Office heads and, since the condition is so
prevalent, it is another good reason for proceeding
slowly with the career service concept.
b. Registry personnel are not necessarily fa-
miliar with good records management practices. There-
fore, initially, it would not seem advisable to include
them in the career service. However, with proper
training, these employees could be a good source of
future records officers and if a records management
career service proves successful, consideration might
be given at some future date to include registry per-
sonnel as junior members of the service.
c. Since some elements of records management
are becoming more and more technically oriented,
continued training and updating of skills becomes.
increasingly important. Word processing, micro-
graphics, data processing and the like require that
records managers expand their knowledge by attending
the appropriate training programs. With or without
a career service, it behooves the Agency to not only
encourage but to require records personnel to have
some knowledge of all these new fields.
d. Discussions with the Directorate RMO's re-
veal various attitudes toward an Agency-wide career
service. The DDI RMO is satisfied with the existing
system since it works to her satisfaction. However,
her views may be somewhat biased because she has been
successful in gaining the support of her supervisor
for the records program at the Directorate level.
References to the Office RMO's in the DDI, all of
whom are part-timers, indicate that few are well
trained and involved in all phases of records man-
agement. Knowing the ability of these RM0's, the
DDI RMO often bypasses some of them and obtains
needed information elsewhere, i.e., the Administra-
tive or Logistics Officer. Unfortuantely this does
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
not enhance the position of the component RMO who
should be responsible for all elements of the program--
even if some encouragement is needed to secure their
participation. The DDS$T RMO is very much interested
in an Agency-wide career service because he feels there
are no career advancement opportunities in the DDS$T
for the Office RMO's. He recently drafted a career
service proposal for DDS~T records and registry per-
sonnel which initially had management support. Un-
fortunately, this support no longer exists. The DDA
RMO believes that an Agency-wide career service is
needed to provide RMO's with career advancement op-
portunities. She further believes that while it would
be difficult to implement Agency-wide all at once,
this is the way it should be done. As I mentioned
before, the DDO has a records management career service
which now includes all registry personnel. The DDO RMO
stated that while it is time-consuming, the program is
effective and satisfies their needs. It is interesting
to note that only the DDO RMO made any direct reference
to the advantages of a career service to the Agency
and getting a job done. The others spoke primarily
of a career service as providing records officers with
a means. for advancement..
7. Conclusions and Recommendations:
a. It is evident that there is no simple pro-
cedure for establishing a records management sub-
career service, either Agency-wide or on a more
limited scale. And, with the information on hand,
a clear-cut recommendation for or against such a
service cannot be made. Nevertheless, the DD/A
as the Agency Official responsible for the total
records management program, can initiate a review
within the DD/A to evaluate the program and explore
the career service concept within the Directorate.
Therefore, the following recommendations are sub-
mitted:
(1) A program should be developed by
the ISAS to brief Agency management on the
contents of and legal rec{uirements for a
records management program. This should
include the benefits to be derived from
such a program operated by professional,
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SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel
career-oriented records management officers.
(2) Limit initial consideration of a
sub-career service to components in the
DD/A. The ISAS should participate by:
(a) Conducting the review of
positions and personnel described in
paragraph 5d and making appropriate
recommendations to the DD/A.
(b) Developing a list of re-
quired and desirable training courses
for RMO's.
(c) Participating in the selec-
tion, training and evaluation of DD/A
Office RMO's.
(3) The DD/A should recommend to the DDCI
that a full-time professional records manage-
ment officer be appointed to implement the
program throughout the DCI area. Since the
records officers in the Independent Offices
are all part-timers with little knowledge of
the profession, a senior records management
careerist from the DD/A should be considered
for this position.
(4) Records management specialists in
the MG sub=career service should not be ranked
or considered for promotion with generalists
in the MG sub-career service. Their pro-
fessions are different.. Including a specialist
on the sub-panel performing the evaluations
does not eliminate this difference. Evalua-
tions should be conducted by the C/ISAS,
ISAS Branch Chiefs, CMO/DDA and the A/DDA.
(5) Begin a program of identifying and
training junior personnel who one day will
serve as records management officers. While
some may come from registries, advanced tech-
nologies would suggest that college graduates
in certain information specialties should also
be considered.
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 Approved For Release 2003/04/29: CIA-RDP87-000588000200070003-1
SUBJECT: Sub-Career Service for Agency Records
Management Personnel.
b. The success of this effort rests basically on
the agreement of the DD/A that improvements are neces-
sary and his willingness to direct positive action on
the part of his Office Directors. For instance, if
ISAS concludes that full-time professionals are needed
to operate the records management program in the Of-
fices of Security and Data Processing, these Offices
or the ODDA should identify positions for these spe-
cialists. Without the full support of the DD/A,
progress will be limited.
ST
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