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Events and Presentations Archive

Outreach is an important component of OGIS’s work. We hope to see you at a future event.

Sunshine Week

FOIA Requester Roundtables

OGIS, along with the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy (OIP), co-hosts a series of roundtable discussions with FOIA professionals and the FOIA requester community. These regular sessions focus on issues surrounding requests made for various types of records, such as law enforcement records, records about third parties, and contractor and other business-related records, as well as the procedural issue of document referrals and consultations. These sessions provide an opportunity to participate in the exchange of ideas and help increase understanding of the issues surrounding these various topical areas.

Previous Roundtables and Topics:

  • *May 19, 2011 - Topic: Law Enforcement Records
  • *July 14, 2011 - Topic: Document Referrals and Consultations
  • November 7, 2013 - Maximizing the Administrative Appeal Process. Hosted by OIP
  • *October 19, 2011 - Topic: Contractor and Other Business-Related Records
  • *January 24, 2012 -Topic: Records on Third Parties
  • *April 25, 2012 - Topic: Searches for Records: Challenges and Opportunitities. Hosted by OIP
  • July 25, 2012 - Topic: Methods of Declassification. Hosted by OGIS
  • October 24, 2012 - Topic: The Intersection of the Privacy Act & FOIA.Hosted by OIP
  • January 22, 2013 - Topic – FOIA Libraries: Maximizing Usefulness from the Requester Standpoint

Where:

OIP's Conference Room
1425 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 11050
Washington, DC

or

National Archives and Records Administration                                                                                                 
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (enter on Constitution Ave. side between 7th and 9th streets)
Washington, DC 20408-0001

Time:
10 a.m. - noon

Registration is required to attend each Requester Roundtable. If you are interested in attending, for OIP hosted roundtable, please e-mail your name and phone number to OIP Training Officer Bertina Adams at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov. For the OGIS hosted Roundtable, please send your name and phone number to ogis@nara.gov. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note, you must also present government-issued picture identification to enter the buildings. If you have any questions regarding these events, please contact OIP's Ms. Adams at (202) 514-1010 or OGIS at 202-741-5770.

Previous Roundtables:

  • January 22, 2014: Providing Estimated Dates of Completion (Washington, DC) (this event will be rescheduled for a future date)
  • April 24, 2014 (Washington, DC)
  • July 24, 2014 (Washington, DC)

Previous Events and Presentations

Dispute Resolution Brown Bag/Teleconference: "Dispute Resolution’s Impact on the FOIA Framework"
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 – 11:00 a.m. to 12:30
OGIS -- 800 N. Capitol Street NW, Suite 795, Washington, DC
Sponsored by the Interagency ADR Working Group
 
Open Government is on everyone’s minds these days and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a key component -- not to mention the original Open Government law (FOIA was first passed in 1966). FOIA also can be a contentious arena for requesters and agency personnel alike. Preventing or resolving disputes that arise in the FOIA context, and avoiding litigation, is natural. To that end, Congress recently created a federal office – the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), within the National Archives and Records Administration – to provide mediation services to FOIA requesters and federal agencies, as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation.
 
OGIS, in collaboration with NARA's Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, presented (slidesPDF) a short introduction to how Dispute Resolution (DR) and FOIA are offering a common meeting ground. How does OGIS work with requesters? How can agencies use OGIS’s services and how can they use DR skills at the earlier possible time to make the FOIA process go more smoothly? What kinds of cases has OGIS handled in the past three years? Where are the opportunities for DR practitioners and for FOIA professionals? What are the barriers to this emerging area of DR? 
 
Presenters: OGIS staff, including Director Miriam Nisbet, along with the Director of NARA’s RESOLVE Alternative Dispute Resolution program, Jean Whyte
Presentations
OGIS staff members have attended a variety of conferences and sessions to discuss freedom of information and open government issues including:

  • American Bar Association
  • American Society of Access Professionals
  • Brookings Institution
  • Coalition of Federal Ombudsmen
  • International Council on Archives (ICA) Congress (OGIS Director Nisbet's keynote address) PDF
  • Investigative Reporters and Editors
  • National Freedom of Information Coalition
  • Society of Professional Journalists
  • World Bank
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