NARA's New Strategic Plan

Allen Weinstein

It is imperative that historians continue to work together on the challenges of historical education; preservation of, and access to, records; and other important issues.

It is in this spirit of mutual cooperation that I seek advice and counsel from NARA's colleagues in the archival and historical communities. This agency has embarked on a year-long process to write its new 10-year Strategic Plan—a core document that incorporates mission and vision statements and defines the direction that initiatives will take at NARA. It helps our staff to define priorities and align the resources needed to meet these objectives.

NARA's new Strategic Plan will be a critical document, articulating overall strategic goals and objectives for FY2007-FY2017 and used by Congress, the president, and stakeholders to measure the agency's progress and to hold it accountable.

The current Strategic Plan has been effectively steering the National Archives through large changes and challenges. The new plan will recognize what has been accomplished, address continuing challenges, and focus attention on new opportunities. It is time to ask ourselves "What should NARA be doing in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and how do we prepare for that future?"

I want the new Strategic Plan to be developed in a consultative manner, taking into account the perspectives of both internal and external stakeholders. NARA serves a number of constituencies, and I am looking forward to contributions from each of them. I especially invite members of OAH to share your thoughts and ideas with me at <vision@nara.gov>.

Over the summer, information and ideas will be gathered from staff and stakeholders; and after review of all the material, a preliminary draft of the Strategic Plan will be published in Spring 2006, and additional stakeholder review will be invited. The goal is to complete the new Strategic Plan by the end of September 2006.  Although it obviously will not be possible to incorporate every idea from every stakeholder, I assure you that every idea will receive fair consideration.

The support of our colleagues and stakeholders is vital to NARA, and your thoughts are basic to the development of our future goals and strategies. Thank you in advance for participating in this process. I look forward to hearing from you.