July FOIA Requester Roundtable

Later this month we will be continuing our series of FOIA Requester Roundtable meetings, which serve as an open forum for discussions between the FOIA requester community and agency FOIA professionals. The topic of this meeting, hosted in conjunction with the Office of Government Information Services, will be agencies' production of records to requesters in an electronic format.  The Roundtable will build off of the discussion on this topic during the FOIA IT Working Group meeting held by OIP last March and will focus on potential solutions for some of the obstacles agencies face in both communicating and providing records to requesters electronically.  As we noted after the FOIA IT Working Group meeting, OIP is in the process of drafting new guidance to agencies on electronic communication with requesters.   As part of drafting this guidance, we look forward to continuing to hear more from both the FOIA requester community and agencies on this important issue.    The details for this meeting are: We hope that you can join us for this discussion, which is open to members of the public, as well as to all interested agency personnel.  These Roundtable discussions provide an opportunity for the FOIA community to participate in the exchange of ideas with agency personnel, with the goal of increasing the understanding of the issues that all parties face when working with the FOIA. If you are interested in attending, please e-mail your name and phone number to OIP’s Training Officer at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov or directly to the Office of Government Information Services at ogis@nara.gov with the subject line “July Requester Roundtable.”  As space for this meeting is limited, registration is required to attend, and please remember that you will need a picture ID to enter the building.  If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact OIP's Training Officer at (202) 514-3642.