Strengthening NARA's Dialogue with OAH

Allen Weinstein

Over the years, the National Archives has partnered with private institutions and other agencies on major projects and programs. We have also carefully nurtured important relationships with our stakeholder and customer communities. These professional organizations--which include the Organization of American Historians as well as those representing archivists, genealogists, veterans, and records managers, to name only a few--provide us with valuable advice, expert assistance, and grassroots support. When I became Archivist in early 2005, I made it clear that it would be a personal priority to open our doors even wider to dialogue and collaboration with the many organizations that share interests and relationships with this agency. To strengthen these ties, I have created the position of External Affairs Liaison, and after a careful search process, have appointed David McMillen to this post. He comes to us after a long and impressive career on Capitol Hill as a senior staff member of the House and Senate committees that have oversight jurisdiction over this agency.

As a result of his congressional service, McMillen is very familiar with the Archives' mission and activities. He has advised members of Congress on issues involving this agency and managed the reauthorization of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in both the House and Senate. Working as a member of our Congressional Affairs and Communications Staff, McMillen will plan and help to execute a continuous program of liaison and partnering with allied professional, scientific, and technical organizations. He will help the Archives to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones with genealogists, veterans, historians, archivists, technologists, information policy experts and others.

McMillen begins his work at a significant moment in NARA's relationships with our stakeholders in professional organizations. During the first phase of work in 2005 to write a new, ten-year Strategic Plan (2007-2017), these external organizations were invited to provide their views on our mission, activities, and goals. They did, and I am grateful for their contributions. These responses included ideas and comments from the important perspective of those who not only use the vast resources of the National Archives but who look to this agency for leadership in managing, preserving, and making records accessible.

The new Strategic Plan now being drafted will be shared with stakeholder and customer communities in the spring. Once again, we will ask for their views and recommendations. The Strategic Plan is important because it will establish NARA's goals, set priorities, determine how personnel is deployed and affect how the agency spends its congressional appropriations. Just as important, it will give the Congress, the president, our stakeholders--including the OAH--and customers a yardstick by which to measure our progress toward the goals and to hold us accountable.

Our relationship with you and other organizations are part of the Archives' extensive efforts to reach out, linked to a vibrant network of public-private partnerships, collaborations, and joint ventures. Over the years, these arrangements--some formal, some informal--have been woven into the fabric of the National Archives at all levels. They have been developed by the agency as a whole, by various units within NARA, and by individual staff members who, on their own, have introduced the National Archives to new audiences through professional and personal ties with community organizations, schools, and genealogical groups. To design and build the Electronic Records Archives, for example, we have partnered with some of the nation's leading research institutions, tapping the best minds on information technology issues. Partnering with these institutions has allowed us to keep pace with the latest research as we build an archives to preserve and make accessible the electronic records of today's and tomorrow's government.

Countless cooperative arrangements throughout the agency have given the National Archives a foothold in the education of young people and helped us improve the civic education of all Americans. Teachers and students benefit from such collaborations as National History Day. University students can tap into resources available in nearby presidential libraries. Through such efforts, the reach and impact of the National Archives increases dramatically.

Today, NARA is fortunate to have many cooperative relationships throughout the United States and globally. Creating the position of External Affairs Liaison to work with the OAH and our other stakeholders and customers is further evidence of your importance to us. As we face the challenges of recordkeeping for both traditional and electronic records, as well as the challenge of securing the necessary resources to carry out our mission, we are grateful to have such partners, stakeholders, and customers working closely with us.