Customer Service: Outreach
OGIS has engaged in substantial outreach to the FOIA community since opening in September 2009, taking a variety of approaches to discuss the Office and its work. It has
- Participated in meetings of, presented to, and conducted training with Federal FOIA and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) professionals
- Organized and participated in meetings of and presented to nongovernment stakeholders and the public
- Built an online presence through the OGIS web site and blog to communicate and interact with stakeholders.
Federal Government Professionals
OGIS constantly communicates with individual Federal FOIA professionals, working together to resolve FOIA disputes, providing assistance through ombuds services such as answering questions or sharing information, and reviewing agencies’ FOIA policies, procedures, and compliance. To reach a broader swath of FOIA professionals, OGIS presents sessions at Government-wide FOIA training sessions and also visits the FOIA staff at individual departments and agencies. In FY 2011, OGIS staff met with FOIA professionals from numerous agencies, including the following:
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Interior
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- Securities and Exchange Commission
OGIS also presented to Government employees at
- American Society of Access Professionals conferences and symposia
- Coalition of Federal Ombudsmanannual conference
- Federal Privacy Summit
Director Miriam Nisbet, through her membership in the Administrative Conference of the United States and the American Bar Association, also worked with Government and nongovernmental professionals in their shared goal of improving the administrative process. These meetings and events are opportunities for OGIS to ensure that executive branch agencies and their FOIA staffs know about the Office’s mission and the services it provides to agencies. Many agencies have come to OGIS for dispute resolution or ombuds assistance or for OGIS review of draft regulations, and are collaborating with the Office on dispute-resolution and prevention techniques and training.
OGIS also continued its outreach efforts to the ADR staffs at agencies, encouraging them to apply their dispute-resolution expertise to their own agencies’ FOIA matters. FOIA and ADR staffs at the Departments of Health and Human Services, and Transportation conducted joint FOIA dispute-resolution training this year with OGIS participation. They received positive feedback and requests for additional sessions. OGIS also has continued to connect agency FOIA and ADR professionals to find ways to work together internally. Director Nisbet began chairing the Government-wide Interagency ADR Working Group Steering Committee in FY 2011 and will continue encouraging a bridge between ADR and FOIA within agencies.
Nongovernment Entities
Private-sector members of the FOIA community, including public-interest groups, watchdog organizations, and members of the general public, comprise the other major audience of OGIS’s outreach efforts. Some of these groups and individuals provide support and feedback on OGIS’s operations; others are OGIS customers. OGIS attends meetings, conferences, and events where these members of the FOIA community are present, and tries to ensure that they know about OGIS’s services. In FY 2011, OGIS met or partnered with nongovernment entities at
- American Bar Association, annual meeting and Communications Law Forum
- Brookings Institution, Workshop on Evaluating Open Government
- Electronic Privacy Information Center’s executive board
- International Conference of Information Commissioners
- Investigative Reporters and Editors annual conference
- Media Access to Government Information Conference (MAGIC) through the National Archives, Duke University & Federal Communications Commission
- National Press Foundation
- NPR, staff training
- Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism annual meeting
- Sunshine Week events, including American University’s Washington College of Law
International Engagement
Freedom of information and the right to know are concepts embraced globally. Many nations have designated information commissioners or ombudsmen in roles similar to OGIS’s; the Office has participated in discussions and programs supporting the furtherance of open government principles worldwide. In FY 2011, OGIS’s international outreach included the following:
Meetings with
- Bangladeshi Information Commissioners
- A government representative of the Netherlands
- Government representatives of Spain
- A representative from the Indonesian Central Information Commission
- The Ombudsman of the European Union
- Scholars from China and Vietnam
Attendance at
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Seminar on Transparency, in partnership with the government of Brazil; Brasilia, Brazil
- Sino-U.S. Workshop on Government Information Disclosure, in conjunction with Yale Law School’s China Law Center; Hangzhou and Beijing, China
OGIS launched a series of FOIA roundtable discussions in FY 2011 with the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy for members of the public and agency FOIA professionals to discuss specific FOIA issues. Originally designed by OIP for requesters, OGIS and OIP observed that inviting agency FOIA professionals to the roundtables encouraged communication between the two groups. In FY 2011, Roundtable topics included law enforcement records and referrals and consultations. These Roundtables are scheduled regularly in FY 2012.
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Best Practices: Customer Service As President Obama said in his April 2011 Executive Order, the "public deserves competent, efficient, and responsive service from the Federal Government." FOIA is all about customer service. Some of the cases OGIS handles are rooted in poor customer service. However, many agencies are trying to do things the right way. E-mails sent to FOIA-specific addresses at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights are routed to multiple employees at the Commission so that if FOIA professionals are away, the agency can begin processing the request. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council lists on its web site e-mail addresses of subject-matter experts on 17 categories of information so the public can contact those individuals directly with questions and perhaps avoid having to file a FOIA request. About two years ago, the State Department created a permanent task force dedicated to processing the 250 oldest requests within the agency. These FOIA professionals have homed in on some of the more complex and voluminous requests logjammed in the agency for some time, including many of the requests related to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The "250 Task Force" has contacted requesters to see if they are still interested; confirmed that the National Archives has the requested materials and referred requesters there; and retrieved documents from retired records instead of bureau files. This helped whittle the backlog, though many old requests remain. Web site improvements, including proactive disclosures, are another best practice. The Export-Import Bank added to its web site a public feedback link allowing users to suggest improvements to the site. The National Endowment for the Arts posts all grants awarded by the agency. The Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Staff posts every FOIA release that does not have privacy implications in searchable form. |
OGIS staff also presented to the public as part of the National Archives’ “Know Your Records” series. The sessions, held at the National Archives’ buildings in Washington, DC, and College Park, MD, focused on FOIA and FOIA dispute resolution.
Web Presence
OGIS increased its online presence in FY 2011 as its web site received hits from across the nation and the globe: users in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and 78 foreign countries visited the site. The new OGIS web site underwent a major redesign to increase its usability and launched in early FY 2012.
OGIS also launched its blog in FY 2011, The FOIA Ombudsman: Information and Advice, which also has resulted in page views from around the world. OGIS staff and guest bloggers post entries on various FOIA-related topics including fees, FOIA Public Liaisons, proactive disclosures, and OGIS events and training. The Office hopes it will be an ongoing conversation about FOIA—engaging readers as active commentators on FOIA-related issues.
