Customer Service: OGIS Training
Training FOIA professionals in dispute-resolution skills is an OGIS priority. Goals in providing this training are
- To recognize and support the statutory role of FOIA Public Liaisons to help resolve disputes between requesters and agencies
- To replicate OGIS’s success in resolving FOIA disputes in agencies Government-wide
- To educate FOIA professionals about the OGIS process
- To prepare key agency FOIA professionals to better work with OGIS in resolving FOIA disputes.
In its first year, OGIS collaborated with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) professionals from several agencies to create a successful training program for FOIA Public Liaisons, co-sponsored by the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP). In its second year, OGIS increased the frequency of the program’s offering to six times a year and expanded the training audience. Although there are other venues through which FOIA professionals may pay to be trained in alternative dispute-resolution skills, OGIS offers this training free of charge, and it is unique and innovative in providing it in the FOIA context.
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Best Practices: Training and Personnel Large, geographically dispersed agencies can face hurdles communicating with employees. Several such agencies developed online FOIA training programs to keep employees informed on the statute's requirements and current FOIA policies. The Small Business Administration (SBA), which has a regional office in every state, created such a program. The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service posted on its web site a training video for its FOIA officers, who are located at sites across the country. And the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality created a FOIA training video for project and contracting officers to explain their important role in the FOIA process. Every Federal employee has a responsibility under FOIA; training all agency staff in FOIA basics is an OGIS best practice. The Department of Veterans Affairs ensures that all new employees are familiar with FOIA by including information about it in their orientation packets. SBA requires that all employees complete its online FOIA training program; it even recorded a session for senior management that is posted on the agency's internal training web site. The Forest Service also is working toward training all employees about FOIA. The U.S. Agency for International Development included its Chief FOIA Officer and senior program professionals in FOIA training. |
The early training program, developed in collaboration with ADR professionals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Air Force, provided an excellent foundation in dispute resolution and mediation. However, OGIS concluded that the focus on formal mediation was too narrow, and with the help of Jean Whyte, director of RESOLVE, the National Archives’ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program, reworked the training to focus instead on the forms of dispute resolution that it uses most often, facilitation and ombuds services. The training now focuses on techniques to improve customer service and communication, including working with agency colleagues on FOIA matters and using a five-step process to resolve disputes. It is much more likely that agency FOIA staff will be asked to work with OGIS to resolve disputes through these informal methods than through formal mediation. The training also provides FOIA professionals with skills they can use daily to prevent and resolve disputes; disputes within agencies—such as those involving communications between FOIA processors and program managers—are often every bit as contentious and difficult as those with requesters.
OGIS originally limited enrollment in this training to FOIA Public Liaisons, who have the statutory responsibility to help resolve disputes (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B)(ii) and (l)). Although OGIS still gives priority enrollment to FOIA Public Liaisons, the Office now welcomes into its training program FOIA analysts, appeals officers, managers, attorneys, and others involved in the FOIA process.
Expanding the audience for the training program increased the demand, with each session filling up within hours of its announcement. OGIS presented five “Dispute Resolution Skills Training for FOIA Professionals” sessions in FY 2011, including two hosted by the American Society for Access Professionals (ASAP) as part of its training curriculum. The Departments of Health and Human Services, and Transportation also incorporated OGIS training into their FOIA training. OGIS continues to offer inter- and intra-agency training in conjunction with OIP.
OGIS also began offering agency-specific dispute resolution skills training, working closely with individual agencies to design and develop a half- or full-day training program that includes role-play exercises involving frequently encountered FOIA disputes. This individualized approach takes significantly more planning and preparation time than OGIS’s cross-agency approach; for this reason, its realization has been slow. OGIS delivered full-day, agency-specific training to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of the Interior, the first such offerings by OGIS on a department-wide basis, in calendar year 2011.
OGIS plans to build on the success of the current training program while exploring new avenues for providing dispute-resolution skills training, including
Distance training: OGIS has had several requests for training from FOIA professionals outside the Washington, DC, area who cannot attend either OGIS or ASAP training conferences. The Office plans to explore technologically feasible, affordable ways to deliver training—or parts of it—online.
Training for FOIA requesters: OGIS recognizes that FOIA requesters also could benefit from training in the FOIA process. The Office met with representatives of the FOIA requester community to brainstorm what such training might look like, and is considering creating short videos about the FOIA process, pending funding.
Expanded agency-specific training: Though this part of OGIS’s training program is still in its infancy, OGIS has improved its ability to plan and develop training that is more meaningful to a specific agency. In FY 2012, OGIS plans to offer dispute-resolution skills training sessions to FOIA professionals at the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, the Interior, and State.
