A New Opportunity for FOIA Training

One of the core functions of the Office of Information Policy (OIP) is to provide training and guidance to agencies on the proper administration of the FOIA.  Throughout the year, our office regularly offers many training opportunities for agency personnel, covering a wide range of FOIA topics, providing a solid foundation for agencies to rely on for the day-to-day processing of FOIA requests. With agencies across the federal government receiving and processing a record number of requests over the past several years, including many increasingly complex requests, our office is regularly asked to provide specialized training to help agencies improve their FOIA administration.  We also routinely hear that agencies would appreciate even more opportunities to attend training. Today, I’m happy to announce the summer slate of our new Director’s Lecture Series of training seminars.  This summer slate will provide specialized training opportunities beginning this month, with additional lectures in July and August.  The June lecture will focus on “FOIA Fundamentals,” addressing such procedural topics as the requirement to assign tracking numbers, routing requirements for misdirected requests, “unusual circumstances,” multi-track processing, segregation of records, and making discretionary disclosures.  The details for this lecture, which is open to all agency FOIA personnel, are: We found that the regularity of our yearly training is a key factor in the success of these sessions, and that the specialized and individualized topics of our agency-specific training sessions is a big draw for agency personnel.  Our goal with this new Director’s Lecture Series it to complement the training already offered by our office, with focused sessions on specialized topics and the opportunity for discussion and an open dialogue with attendees. The second and third lectures of this summer slate of training will take place on July 24th and August 15th.  As we get closer to these dates, the topics and any additional details regarding these lectures will be announced here on FOIA Post.    If you are interested in attending this event, you can register by e-mailing your name and phone number to OIP’s Training Officer, Bertina Adams Cleveland, at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov.  If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Ms. Adams at (202) 514-1010.