Chapter I: Introduction

PURPOSE

Managing records is an important responsibility of each senator's office and this responsibility is usually delegated to the administrative assistant and office manager. Correspondence, memos, reports, press releases, appointment calendars, and many additional kinds of records, including automated indexes and computer generated reports are basic administrative tools by which the work of a senator's office is accomplished. While almost everyone in a senator's office has some degree of responsibility for maintaining files, it is important that one individual be assigned responsibility for the overall supervision of files management.

The quality of files creation, maintenance, and disposition in an individual office can influence a member's legislative effectiveness, responsiveness to constituent needs, and ability to be reelected. In addition, a senator's contributions and career can be properly documented and assessed only through an evaluation of the historical record he or she leaves behind. Such a record is contained not merely in the printed word found in the Congressional Record, hearing transcripts, and news articles, but also is found in the unique documents comprising a senator's personal papers and office archives. The value of a senator's papers extends beyond current office administrative needs and constitutes a fundamental source for the study of America's past.

On a practical level, a carefully designed records program will benefit staff in numerous ways. Not only will information be made more accessible in current files, it will become easier to retrieve information and documents from older files. This especially is important when legislative issues become active again after having been dormant for a Congress, or when a senator suddenly needs to consult a particular memo written a year or so earlier.

For these reasons, the Senate Historical Office, under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate, has assembled this handbook on office filing, files maintenance, and records disposition. Administrative assistants and office managers should view the filing

guidelines as a model files plan, and use them to establish file series appropriate to the work and organizational structure of their individual offices. They should keep in mind that if the member and senior staff do not give early consideration to the continued maintenance and ultimate disposition of the member's papers, it is likely that office efficiency will suffer, that staff time will be wasted in searches for information that should be readily available, and that the historical record will be impoverished.

BASIC OBJECTIVES OF FILES

MANAGEMENT

Efficient management of senatorial office records has four main objectives:

Establishment of an office files policy. Creation of well-defined office files that are arranged in efficient and logical filing sequences and are free of unneeded papers.

Timely and systematic removal of transitory records, either for later destruction, microfilming, or sampling.

Designation and control of permanently valuable historical records.

FILES MANAGEMENT POLICY

To establish an effective records program, it is important for the senator to issue an office files policy memorandum. Such a memo should:

Stress the importance of records management in the office.

Authorize the implementation of a records management plan.

Define and clarify ownership of office records, emphasizing that records created and maintained as a result of work performed by individual staff working for the senator are the property of the senator, and as such, will be retained as part of the senatorial papers collection. Authorize staff who so wish to make either electrostatic or microfilm copies of their files, to take with them when they leave the senator's employ.

FILES MANAGEMENT PLANS

The charts in Chapter II detail the variety of file series maintained in senators' offices, and they may be used to draft an office records plan. The series are listed according to the type of functions routinely performed. These functions are described in detail in the United States Senate Congressional Handbook and include the senator's personal business, legislative work, administrative, press, and office management. Under each function is a list of the types of file series usually set up by individuals in charge of performing the related duties.

Despite the fact that all members' offices generally create and accumulate the same types of records, there is no one overall system of filing that is "right" for all senatorial offices. Members' interests vary as do office staffing patterns, constituent needs, staff preferences and level of experience, and volume of correspondence received in the office. Each administrative assistant and office manager, therefore, should select from the lists those file series, or adaptations thereof, which best fit conditions in his or her office.

When the types of series have been selected, the office supervisor should assign responsibility for upkeep and maintenance of each file to the individual charged with performing that duty. In this way, even though personnel, and staffing patterns, may change over time, the files should remain fairly uniform and constant. They should continue to be accessible to all who need to search them.

The charts are meant to be used as a blueprint for building office files that are useful and efficient for those who consult them daily and for those who must oversee their disposition on a periodic basis. As such, they also provide information on the typical contents of each type of file series, a suggested arrangement pattern, whether or not the series is a permanently valuable record, and suggested disposition. All of the record series have been designed to

segregate permanently valuable historical material from records with only short-term value and use. RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND STATE OFFICES

It is important for Washington, DC office staff to coordinate records management activities with state offices. This is especially true when state offices perform a substantial amount of casework or reply to large amounts of constitutent mail. Points to consider include:

A senator's Washington office should provide state field offices with guidance on the management and disposition of their files. An archivist at the Senate Historical Office is available for consultation in this matter.

The Washington office file plan should be coordinated with a field office plan. This can be facilitated by using the charts in Chapter II, and assigning the maintenance of certain types of files to the field office.

Field offices should annotate any basic plan received from the main office so that it includes files unique to the field office and specifies any variations. Such files, for instance, might include local press files, campaign files, and academy appointment files.

A final copy of the state plan should be sent to
Washington for incorporation into the main of-
fice's plan.

Field offices may elect to store non-current
records at a regional Federal Records Center. A
list can be found at the end of Chapter VIII.
State offices using CMS, Mailbox, and CWS
should coordinate standards for filing and index-
ing with the main office.

The decision to microfilm state office files should be recorded in the main office's comprehensive file plan. Such files may be forwarded to Washington, DC for microfilming by the Micrographics Section of the Senate Service Department.

Chapter II:

Files Maintenance and

Disposition Plan

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

The following list describes some basic steps necessary to draft and then implement an office files management plan.

1) Appoint staff to coordinate planning for files arrangement, maintenance, and disposition, including one individual who will draft the plan and who will oversee all file operations. Pertinent staff who should assist the designated records manager include the senator's personal secretary, press secretary, correspondence management supervisor, legislative staff supervisor, and state office supervisor.

2) Draft a written plan to reduce the bulk of inactive records, to dispose of short-term records as soon as possbile, and to transfer permanently valuable records to the Washington National Records Center or to a repository. The following charts are intended to be used as a basis for drafting such a plan which should specify:

Which files are to be considered permanent.
Which files are to be discarded.

When files are to be considered ready for transfer to the repository or the Records Center. (Assistance is available from the Senate Historical Office.)

3) Obtain approval of the plan from the senator and ask the senator to issue a memo requiring staff compliance. (See Chapter I for discussion.)

4) Cut off or break the files at the close of the current Congress or year, whichever is appropriate according to the plan. Then:

Identify pending files and retain in the office for use in the next session or Congress.

File a cross-reference sheet in the appropriate place among the inactive records. If a bill is renumbered or a subject entry is retitled, the new number or title should be listed on the crossreference sheet.

5) Store inactive files either in separate storage drawers in the office (if they probably will be referred to about twice a month), or pack them into Records Center boxes for storage in attic lockers or at the Washington National Records Center. (See Chapter VIII for instructions.)

Label thoroughly the file cabinets and boxed records including the name of the senator together with the name and inclusive dates of the files. If storage boxes are used, be sure to number them consecutively.

Maintain a log of files sent to storage in order to be able to retrieve files that have been retired. 6) With the assistance of staff supervisors, decide which files are appropriate to set up. Select file drawers for each record series and label the drawer fronts including the Congress and title of the file. Consideration should be given to:

Personal preferences of the staff.
Workload of the unit.
Workflow in the unit.

Office facilities and equipment.

7) Before beginning to file, all staff who will be responsible for filing should review the detailed filing guidelines in Chapter IV.

8) With the senator's approval, conduct a survey of library and archival facilities likely to be interested in accepting the collection. The Senate Historical Office is available for consultation in this matter. (For details see Chapter IX.)

9) Consider recommending to the senator a cooperative agreement with the receiving institution to bring a member of its professional staff to Washington periodically to assist in the selection of files for permanent retention, especially records from voluminous file series of constituent issue mail and individual casework where additional appraisal is recommended. This will improve communication between the Washington staff and the archives, thereby ensuring effective processing and use of the collection.