The purpose of this Charter is to establish the Department of Health and Human Services Records Management Council (RMC). The RMC addresses cross organizational Records Management (RM) issues by providing leadership, direction, and support that fosters the integration of records management. The RMC takes a collaborative approach enabling the collective expertise, capabilities and professionalism of the members to advise the HHS leadership regarding the management of records and records management activities. This process is within the responsibilities and requirements of Agency Heads as outlined in Section 3101 of title 44 U.S.C.
This is a first issuance.
The vision of the RMC for the HHS Records Management Program is to:
Provide leadership and direction to promote effective records management in support of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The RMC has established the following mission for Records Management:
Establish standards, policies, and guidelines in compliance with Federal laws and regulations to foster consistency, integrity, and availability of information throughout the records management lifecycle.
The principles, guidelines and processes described in the RMC Charter are applicable to all Department of Health and Human Services organizational Components (Operating Divisions) to achieve an effective and efficient Records Management Program. The RMC provides a formal, cross-component mechanism for an ongoing support system to share experiences and work together to identify strategies, best practices, and solutions to HHS records management issues.
The HHS RM Council shall:
- Identify and establish standards/guidelines for documenting HHS transactions.
- Create a trustworthy, reliable and usable Department-wide record keeping system.
- Evaluate and measure compliance with Federal Records Management mandates.
- Provide Records Management training for all HHS skill levels.
- Establish continuous program improvement by ensuring that RM issues are addressed in:
- Strategic Planning
- Business Process Design
- Capital Planning and Investment Control
- Solutions Development Lifecycle
- Enterprise Architecture
- Information Security
- E-Gov
Chair - The Department of Health and Human Services Records Officer
Membership - Shall be Federal employees who are the component Records Officers and an alternate for each Operating Division. The Records Officer and the Alternate must be identified using the format incorporated in the forthcoming Records Management Policy.
Meetings shall be scheduled by the Chair and held as needed. Meeting agenda, time and place will be distributed to the Records Officers by email one week prior to the meeting.
Meeting minutes shall be taken by an RMC appointee determined by the RMC and distributed to the attendees for comment within one week after the meeting. A comment period of one week shall be used prior to the minutes posting to the web. The opening agenda item for each meeting shall be to vote on the previous meeting minutes, as revised by comments. Minutes shall be posted on the Records Management intranet web site (URL: http://intranet.hhs.gov/records) and the record copy maintained by the Chair.
Agenda items shall be issues submitted to the Chair by the Operating Divisions as well as the Department. Agenda item dispositions shall be determined by consensus or majority rule with the RMC Chair retaining the tie breaking decision.
Voting Council Members are the component Records Officers or their designated alternates, and the Chair. The names of those present and voting shall be reflected in the minutes. Members or their designated alternates need to be present in order to vote.
A. Status reports, prepared by the Chair, are prepared as necessary as determined by the Council membership to keep the Secretary informed of the status of the HHS Records Management Program.
B. An annual evaluation reporting the strengths and weaknesses of the HHS Records Management Program compared to the standards established by the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) (See Reference List-Attachment 1) is also prepared by the Chair, with review and comment by the Council. This annual report is due on January 31st of each year and will report the status of the program as of December 31st of the previous year.
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_________________/s/__________________________________ | _August 21, 2007_ |
Michael W. Carleton Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology and HHS Chief Information Officer | Date |