something's missing this feels right because it's the right thing to do America hey guys so I just saw 13 hours the secret soldiers of Benghazi and it was a Michael Bay America explosion-loving fun fest and I liked it let's get something out of the way with first here this actually wasn't a bad Michael Bay movie I know like legit it actually was decent I'm not joking I actually think it was decent the film is about the security agents that were in Benghazi on the event in 2012 where a US ambassador was taken prisoner sort of in his own home and then they were forced to defend off ruthless insurgents until they were eventually exfiltrated out of the country and holy crap this movie is intense not only are we in a situation where it is basically the Alamo in Libya but the intensity of the scenes the intensity of the actors I couldn't believe how much of an America boner this film had I'm Canadian and this film was making me want to just love freedom so much there are still some very bad humor moments there is about three really badly placed Michael Bay jokes but that was it that was it people he was kept in line no okay there was one misogynistic joke but other than that it was actually on the level Michael Bay was trying to make a film with characters and the funny thing is too there's no old flyovers with the US Air Force so instead of giving his boner to the US Air Force which he usually does he gave it 100% to another thing though I'm gonna say this I don't know how much of it is in a sense of how much this film is relatable to the actual event someone told me if there's more than two explosions then it's already bullshit there was at least 30 this was ground fights this was purely from RPGs there was a mortar that was used at one point but most of this was all small arms fire there was a bomb and a bus though that went off that was hilarious and super awesome film has an intense feeling throughout even before the event starts when we were introduced to our characters as they come into the country we see that this constant level of distrust of who's who and who's a villain who's a target a lot of things that I liked especially in the films like the Hurt Locker where you couldn't tell who was who that is what I liked about this film basically Michael Bay made his own version of Black Hawk Down basically he even makes a reference one of the characters makes a reference about the entire Black Hawk Down incident that's what this movie is it's his Black Hawk Down so what do you want to know do you want to know if the action scenes are intense hell yes they are holy crap the intensity of them is insane the sound design is fantastic the filmmaking is really good when I say filmmaking I mean the production scale I mean the camera movement I mean everything that goes into making a scene intense Michael Bay once again proves that while he may not have much in here for characters or story he definitely can make a good action scene holy crap guys I am not kidding I think this is Michael Bay's best work in a long time these guys were a bit of an old gun-toting year America free caricature but they still had some elements to them the only thing that I would possibly say is that some of these elements are far too pushed there's a scene where one of the characters is talking about his wife and his kids and his kids are thinking at least what he thinks that why is dad going over there to fight for someone other country why is he going over there to die for someone else why does he going off to impossible going to die in a place that doesn't matter anything to him and the whole time you're just thinking that is another thing if you're expecting America propaganda crap just like I am right now you're gonna get it in this movie it is insane how much there's a scene where the Libyans are shooting at this American flag that's in the ambassadors area the embassy and it's all in slow motion and just see the flag going like I was laughing my goddamn ass off there's another scene where a guy just looks at them is like I'm proud we have Americans like you least to say this like as good as the action scenes are and as intense as the feelings are there are some stereotype characters not just talking about the soldier stereotypes but there's some stereotypes there's a stereotype dick there's a stereotype nerd there's a stereotype black guy I think they got the black guy from Ghostbusters in this movie when I say stereotype black guy I'm not talking about terribly racist stereotype black guy I'm talking about kind of Danny clever stereotype black guy but again this film did what it was supposed to do it was supposed to show the absolute incredible adversity that the soldiers fought faced and what they did in the face of overwhelming odds and how their basic commitment to keeping each other alive pushed them through this and whether or not it's completely bullshit at least from the film's point of view this film was entertaining it was enjoyable sure the characters were a bit sometimes but actually it's probably some of the deepest characters that Michael Bay has ever put the film I'm not kidding he actually had good characters and we're not talking like funny but terrible characters like in pain gain I actually mean good characters so in the end what do I think of 13 hours of secret soldiers of Benghazi well if I were to compare it I would think lone survivor well survivor was actually a really good January release that was a military biopic and I actually enjoyed it I enjoyed it so much I bought the blu-ray this one I don't know but I definitely can see that he was trying to get some black hot down and lone survivor vibes so in the end I'm gonna give 13 hours the secret soldiers of Benghazi 51 stars out of 50 because you just can't stop the freedom anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this review I actually was loving the idea of coming home and putting all this crap on when I came home to talk about it but no I'm actually being serious I did enjoy this film I think it was well made the sound design was great the gunfights were fantastic the characters while silly in a certain ways were good the majority main cast anyways there was a CIA dick but that's commonplace for these types of movies whether the film is accurate or not I don't know I'm not a person to call on that please don't get all ragey on me in the bottom if you're like whoa you're supporting this probably I enjoyed it but I understand it's American crap like the the level of America jacking off in this film was so insane there is so much that I love to joke about with this movie but the problem is I still really enjoyed it I might buy this film when it comes out I might read into the events before that however but either way it's a fun film and you guys at least the military boners of us all will enjoy this movie anyway guys that's all from me I'll see you later


Hello again. So in part two, we talked about the bloat stage of decomposition and how we can estimate the post-mortem interval. So let's take a look now at stage three in the decomposition process. So this stage is known as active decay. Formally in stage two, we had the body that was really bloated and large and swollen due to a lot of bacteria. But in this stage we're starting to see the body collapse and about 10 to 20 days after death, we see that bloated body start to flatten out. And at this point, that's when we really see a lot of body fluid around that corpse start to sink into the surrounding ground area. So let's take a look at our pig here.  We have active decay going on. So we see that this pig has a much flatter appearance to the body overall. It's already bloated and then it started to flatten. And you see that the soil around the body has a lot of moisture buildup. It's got all the fluids from the body have started to leak out of the body openings. We also see a lot of insects on this image. And so these insects are drawn to that odor of decay, a lot of it coming from the body fluids. So what do you all think is going to be the next stage of decomposition? What do you think is going to go on next?


Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our bridge meeting for October. My name is Ariane Robinbox, and I will be serving as the moderator for today's meeting. As a reminder, the Office of Agency Services at the National Archives and Records Administration hosts these bimonthly records and information discussion group, or bridge meetings, to present information related to federal records management. Bridge is co-produced by the Office of the Chief Records Officer for the United States and the Federal Records Center program, and is livestreamed to the audience over our YouTube channel. Generally, bridge meetings consist of a scheduled program of presentations with an open forum at the end of each meeting to ask questions of the presenters or of any related federal records management topic of interest. Viewers are encouraged to post questions in the chat or by sending an email to rm.communications.nara.gov. Our staff will be monitoring this email box during the meeting. You are also welcome to make comments during this meeting in the YouTube chat. However, please keep in mind that all comments are subject to moderation, so we ask that you keep the comments relevant to the topics being discussed today. Copies of the presentation slides will be posted on the bridge page of the Archives website. That web page is also where you will find a transcription of today's meeting when it is available, as well as links and information about previous and upcoming bridge meetings. If you have general comments about bridge or suggestions for future topics, you may use that same email address, rm.communications.nara.gov, to pass those along to us. We welcome your feedback. With that, I would like to start this afternoon's meeting by introducing Lawrence Brewer, the Chief Records Officer for the U.S. government. Good afternoon, Lawrence. Hey, thanks, Ariane. So good afternoon, everyone. Good morning to those of you joining on from the West Coast. I want to wish everybody a happy new year. It's being October. I hope everybody's year is getting off to a great start. A lot of things, hopefully, have wrapped up for FY22, and you all have some great plans for FY23, especially all those things that have to do with helping us all reach that goal of fully electronic government. So I am going to ask that we flip to the next slide. You may not be able to towel from what's here, but this is actually a very action-packed agenda. We have a lot that we want to cover today. We have a number of quick updates, but then we have some really detailed, informative content that will be coming to you from David, Lake, and Saint McClure regarding ERA. So we want to make sure that we have plenty of time to allow them to present on what's coming up with the rollout of ERA and do some show-and-tell around that. But we do have a number of things that we want to cover before that, including some opening remarks and announcements that I would like to make. Next slide, please. So just a couple of quick things here. First, as a reminder, resubmission of NA1005 capstone forms, that process will be kicking off in calendar year 2023. And I just wanted to let you know that we will be talking about this in much more detail at our next meeting in December. But I wanted to highlight it here. So if you need a refresher on this process and what is coming next year, the details are in Narbol 10, 2022-02. Right now, just to give you a sense of what we're focusing on is we are trying to finish up the processing of all the agency submitted NA1005s that we currently have in hand. We want to make sure that we're clearing the decks to the greatest extent possible so that we are prepared for resubmission to begin in 2023. So right now, what we are advising agencies is that you hold off on submitting any new NA1005s until you hear from us with further information on resubmission and a revised NA1005 that will be coming in 2023. The second bullet here, and I'm sure this is something that we've talked about quite some time and I'm sure you're interested in hearing more about, is where we are with the new regulations that we've been working on for digitizing permanent records. So the good news is that these regulations in final rule form are getting ever closer to release. Just in September, we submitted the final rule package to OMB for their review, and then they shared the final rule draft with agency liaisons for their review and comment. So right now, we are in receipt of over 200 comments as a result of that process. So we are busily working through those preparing responses and adjudicating comments, and then of course we'll be coordinating internally within NARA and with OMB with our hope and our goal to try and get these regulations in final rule form and issued in calendar year 2022. So we have a few months left. That is our tentative goal to try and wrap up these final educations, make sure that we get all of the issues resolved, and work towards a release before January. And then finally, in case you missed it, I just wanted to put a note here that we did on September 30th release a new white paper on an emerging topic on the subject of quantum information science and technology and potential impacts that that emerging tech has on records management. So if you recall, we've done a couple of other emerging technology white papers in 2019. We issued a paper on blockchain, and in 2020, we issued a paper on cognitive technologies to include artificial intelligence, machine learning, and RPA. So this is really the third in our series of white papers, and we hope you find it interesting. It's one of those topics where you may not have heard much about quantum information science request in the last couple of years, but it's becoming a topic of increased application and consideration, certainly within the federal space. So we expect to hear more about it. And we just wanted to write something up that sort of describes technology and highlights some of the areas where we think there may be some impacts on records management. So please let us know what you think of the paper. You can send us any questions or comments, reactions to our group mailbox at rmpolicy.nara.gov. Next slide, please. All right. So you knew I was going to have an update on M1921, and I'm very pleased to say that this month we actually have a relatively, compared to the past several months, substantive update on where we are within 1921. So as you can see from the bullets on the slide, the first one is perhaps the most important. We are in discussions with OMB and are prepared to extend the December 2022 deadlines by 18 months, which would give agencies through June of 2024 to meet the goals that are currently in M1921. So I just wanted to emphasize that this is an extension that we are discussing. It has not been formally promulgated. So until it is issued by OMB, it's not final. And as we all know, nothing is final until it's final. But right now, this is what we believe the final memo will look like. It's going to focus on extending those targets by 18 months and keep in place the existing goals that are in M1921 that relate to moving forward with the transition to fully electronic government. So we wanted to tell you this now before the memo is issued, because not only are we getting closer to that December date, but we wanted to make sure that you have more time to really factor this extension into your plans and really start to prepare for how best to use the 18 months that we will now have to accelerate our progress towards achieving fully electronic government. So that is the big news. And I will of course be back to give you updates as we proceed. But we are hopeful that we'll be able to issue a revised memo that extends the goals targets and keeps the goals in place so that we can continue doing the good work that we've been doing for the last several years. I know there may be some questions, but out of consideration for the remaining speakers on the agenda, I will be happy to take any questions about any of the updates that I provided, including the M1921 extension at the end of the meeting. So please put your questions into chat, send them ahead, and I will be hanging around to answer any questions at the end of the meeting on any of these topics. But for now, let me turn things over to Chris Pinkney and Ron Mitchell to give their updates from the Federal Records Center's program. Chris? Thank you, Lawrence. So I'll be honest. I don't know. I don't know if I can compete with that one. There's a part of me that thinks that if it wasn't for the good news later down the agenda, and the need updates coming, Lawrence could turn off the mic, flip the light switch, and we're all still considered a very good bridge right here. So before I yield the floor to Ron Mitchell, who's currently serving as our acting director of our customer relationship management team, I wanted to give people a quick update on where the FRCP sits right now. As Lawrence mentioned, we put FY22 in the history books, and I'd argue it was a difficult year that started pretty bad, but ended much better. I can honestly say I'm excited to start FY23. And acknowledging that we're in a new fiscal year, I feel I almost have to lead off by saying that all FRCs are fully open. I haven't been able to say all systems are go for a number of years, and this year I can actually do so. So as we start the new fiscal year, the FRCP focus remains on backlog reduction and working to fully restore our pre-pandemic service levels when it comes to response time for things like requests, refiles, enter files, transfers, and disposition. I am pleased to state that we've successfully eliminated many of our COVID era backlogs, but very substantive challenges remain. We have significant work to do with the National Personnel Records Center, where our staff continue to work nights and weekends in order to reduce the volume of pending requests submitted by veterans. Many of our other sites continue to focus on annual project work that was delayed by the pandemic, and we are also addressing substantial backlogs of disposal and working to shelf newly transferred records. Just between April and September, FRCP staff managed to destroy a little over a million cubic feet of eligible records, but our systems show another 1,875,000 as approved in awaiting action. In the month of October, we've shelved over 35,000 boxes, but ARCA still shows another 179,000 approved in waiting delivery or shelving. So we are staying very, very busy. I do want to acknowledge that in the last couple weeks, we have received a number of inquiries related to our metro courier and truck services. We are working to restore both to pre-pandemic standards, but at least at some of our sites, hiring has remained a very real challenge. We currently have more trucks than legal drivers, and the biggest hurdle is finding qualified folks with a commercial driver's license. Our largest trucks require a CDL to operate, and the market for people with that qualification is just white hot. I have often, often joked that when recruiting, we are essentially competing with every trucking company in school district in North America when it comes to CDL drivers. So the work is ongoing, and we hope to end FY23 with a matched fleet of vehicles and drivers, but getting there will definitely be a multi-month process. I also wanted to briefly mention a couple of moves that will either start in or end in FY23. The FRCP continues to shift records out of our Pittsfield FRC, which is located out in western Massachusetts. That site was originally set up to store inactive records, and we have determined that the FRCP no longer needs that particular warehouse space. Records stored at Pittsfield are being relocated to our Lenexa and Dayton FRCs, and we hope to end occupancy at the Pittsfield site around August 2023. We have another move project that, at least on the FRCP side, will start up next spring. GSA has determined not to renew the occupancy agreement that covers our Fort Worth annex, and I should say that site should not be confused with the modern full-sized FRC and archives that's located in Fort Worth on John Burgess Drive. But as we empty the annex, most of the FRCP-managed materials will relocate to Lenexa FRC, and the process of moving records out of that building will continue throughout fiscal year 23. So beyond that, probably the biggest FRCP story we have to share today is probably where we stand with GN voicing. I'm happy to be able to appear here in October and tell everyone that we have approved FY23 rates and general terms and conditions packages, so that's good. But there were some last-minute hurdles integrating GN voicing with our existing accounting systems, and so Ron Mitchell was kind enough to volunteer to block a few minutes to explain what we're going to do in FY23. And with that, I'll turn it over to Ron. Thank you, Chris. I'd like to briefly go over the ways in which we'll be processing the FY23 IAAs between the FRCP and all of your agencies. Over the summer, everyone should have received emails from your account manager stating that we'd be switching to the new GN voicing system for FY23. This was in response to a mandate from Treasury that all federal program agencies must be using GN voicing by October 1st, 2022 for new orders. Establishing IA's and GN voicing is going to be a lot faster and simpler than what we've used in the past. It will eliminate almost all of the emails with PDF attachments that are being passed back and forth for signature. This will all now be accomplished online in the GN voicing environment. The two main components of the IA and GN voicing are the general terms and conditions, our GT and C, which is analogous to the old 7600A, and the order, which is the 7600B. The mechanics of the performance or billing would also be smoother, but we discovered late in the process, as Chris mentioned, that connectivity issues will prevent us from using performance for this fiscal year. Fortunately, we can still use the platform to create the IAAs. We're aware not all of our customers are fully deployed in GN voicing at the moment, so we have three paths that we're following for FY23. For agencies that are fully deployed, we'll build the GT and C in GN voicing, and once approved, we'll build the order there as well. For agencies that can process their GT and C's, but not their orders in GN voicing, we'll complete the GT and C in the system, but then your account manager will send you a legacy 7600B form in the old manner. For agencies with no access whatsoever, we'll be sending a complete legacy package, 7600A and B, just as we've done for the last many years. I'd like to ask your assistance in trying to get as many IAAs as possible completed in the GN voicing system. We've found in some cases that the records officers and other points of contact that we normally deal with for IAAs aren't sure whether their agency has GN voicing, or if they know they have it, aren't sure how to access to approve the GT and C's and orders. Your account manager can assist you with this. We do have a list from Treasury of all agencies that are in the system, and the contact information for the individual at your agency that's managing GN voicing. You will have received recently or will soon receive a notice from your account manager if there's a pending GT and C in the system for your agency. If you do have access, please click submit for approval, and if you don't, contact your account manager who can put you in touch with the GN voicing lead for your agency. Are there any questions? Thank you, Chris and Ron. We do have a couple of questions that are coming in. As a reminder, users can submit their questions by email to rm.communications.nara.gov or via the YouTube chat. The first one, what if me nor my account manager knows who the POC is for my agency in GN voicing? In that case, if you've already contacted your account manager, please feel free to reach out to me. My email is the same as my name, ron.mitchell.nara.gov, and we'll track down that individual for you. Thank you. The second one, I guess it's for Chris. What is the next FRC where the Fort Worth annex records will move? So I will apologize for that. My wife likes to joke that I can both mumble and growl at the same time. I was attempting to say the word Lunexa. Lunexa, Kansas, which is one of the three FRCs we have in the greater Kansas City area. It's one of our modern underground facilities, and we think it'll be a very good fit for the records that have previously been at the old annex. Thank you. And this is a question, what is the state of the backlog at the National Personnel Records Center, and is there any update on the plan to address that backlog? Well, I certainly don't want to speak at a school here, but they have made substantial progress over the last year. The latest update I saw was about 436,000 pending requests, which is a huge number compared to the pre-pandemic volume. The plan remains to continue to work the extra shifts. They're working three separate shifts at Archives Drive right now. We are continuing to hire additional federal staff and contractors, and they are exploring a variety of other options. I think we've got folks working at Page Avenue again. We've got some folks working out at the Civilian Personnel Record Center, and we will continue to look for additional resources to make further progress on that backlog, but it is definitely one of our very highest priorities right now. Thank you, Chris, and thank you, Ron. Please stick around if any questions come in for the end of the meeting. With that, I'd like to move to the next item on the agenda, and introduce Eddie Klein with a records management training program update. So Eddie, welcome. Thank you, Aaron, and hello, everyone. I'm just going to talk a little bit about the AROC renewal process here. So next slide. Oh, right. So I want to cover some detail the AROC renewal. So this is for first, I'd ask, who's this for, right? It's for all designated records officers that have the agency records officer credential or certificate of federal records management to CFRM, right? This is outlined in bulletin 1902, which talks about our AROC and the renewal process. So I'll break it down. So the renewal is every three years. You on a renewal cycle for every three years if you are a holder of either the AROC or the CFRM. And for an example, if you was awarded the AROC in January 1, 2020, you're good until December 31, 2022. In January 2023, you would be up for renewal. And as we see here, January 2023 will be the first sets of renewals that is most individuals in that group are actually individuals that has our CFRM. We'll be doing the AROC renewal in this first wave of renewals. Next slide. All right. So notification might ask, how will I know if I'm up for a renewal, right? So November, December, we'll be sending out training department here. We'll be sending out notifications to individuals that is going to start the renewal process in January 2023. If you're other months, other years, you would be the same. We wouldn't be sending it this early, but a month before you actually need to start doing the renewal. And I want to kind of ease little concerns there to talk about this renewal process, right? We're trying to make a streamline, benefit while providing usable information. And we want to see everyone being successful with the renewal process, right? The renewal is an online module in our LMS, which would be sending directions on how to access our LMS and how to find the course itself. It is, the course is divided into three sections. The sections would be along the lines of records management, right, policy and oversight, scheduling and transfer, oversight and reporting. Each section will have questions, multiple choice questions. You need 80% for each section of questions to get a go or to pass that section. If you score below 80% on one of the sections, you will go through or conduct some content slides in this online module that is directly related to the questions. And then it will be asked to retest following the slides. Once completed for each three sections with the score of 80 or above, you are, you have completed the renewal process. Again, the renewal is good for every three years. Estimated about one to two hours to complete this module. And you have from notification once you receive notification that is, you know, you're up for renewal, you have six months to complete, right? You have six months to complete online, online module. And the questions, right, so we're trying to focus on the questions is, the questions will be based on the information or the welcome packet that you received from us prior to taking the renewal module in our LMS. If you follow that information package, it will have links to resources, the guidance, the stuff that we are pulling the questions directly from. Again, set up for success. Once completed, you can save that information packet, welcome packet, and use it at your whenever needed. If you're referring back the information, you have an easy document that you could always go back to to pull information from on that next slide there. All right. So that's the general overview of the renewal. More, like I said, more information be notified occasion will be coming if you're up for renewal in January 23. Before then, though, if you have any questions for training, please contact RMT1 at nara.gov. You can contact me directly or our supervisor, Michelle Bradley, our emails are there. Also, I want to highlight all our training material can be found at nara.gov, can be shared, download and use however you see needed. However, I will put a caveat is that this is the renewal module will not be on our website, and we cannot share this renewal module. It will be updated annually as new information is coming. We would have to update the module to stay current with new guidance policies and practices, but we will not be sharing that module on our website. All righty. I think we'll go into questions. Next slide and questions. Thank you, Eddie. So we've got a couple questions that have been queued up. When will notifications for renewals be sent out? Okay. So I'll cover that again. So we will be sending out individual emails to individuals in the November and December. We would be sending out information on how to access the LMS with passwords, and we would ask individuals that is up for renewal to confirm that they have access to the system and they can get in and see the module. Thank you. The next question is, how can I check to see if I need to renew? All right. So if you're interested, you will be receiving a notification. However, yes, knowledge or concern. Interested, you could contact RMT1 at nara.gov, and one of our staff members will verify your status or let you know what date you would be up for renewal. Okay. And we have another question that's come in. Will there be any exemptions or extensions given for arrow credentialing? For the renewal process, there would be no extensions. Well, no exemptions. You have to complete renewal process every three years for extensions. I guess case by case, however, I would say you would have six months to complete a online module, which I say again, one to two hours. So it is not a major time commitment where you are understanding and aware of everyone's multiple hats and timer strains. Thank you. Here's another one. Do we need a proctor for the AROC renewal test? No. No practice. Just go into the LMS and complete. Okay. Thank you, Eddie. For everyone else, we'll continue to monitor the email box and ask Eddie to stick around. So if you have any questions, please feel free to drop them in. With that, I'd like to move to the next section of the agenda, the update on ERA 2.0 from program manager David Lake and electronic records program director Sam McClure's. So David and Sam, it's all yours. All right. This is David. I'm going to start off. So good afternoon or good morning, depending where you are. It's a pleasure to be here. My colleagues, Sam McClure and I have gone before bridge several times in years past. I think the last time was February of last year, 2021. And we're happy to be back to update about ERA 2.0 rollout, especially since this is becoming closer to reality. If you want to go to the next slide. So the agenda for today, we're going to talk about agency use of ERA 2.0. What does it mean? What do we have to do to roll out the system to everyone? And then I'll get into importantly kind of what the timelines look like at this point. In terms of improvements to ERA 2.0, we'll talk about some of them, how ERA 2.0 handles certain aspects and features compared to the current ERA system that you use now. And then I guess apart from the timeline info that I'm going to provide, I'm really just the opening act for the main show, which is Sam McClure who is going to talk about or to show some dashboard screens of the system. And then also Eddie's coming back to talk about ERA 2.0 training. So look forward to that. So we'll get started, shall we? If you can go to the next slide. So agency use of ERA 2.0. Some of this we've talked about in previous presentation. So I'll kind of go somewhat quickly through this. But to kind of recap and step back, ERA 2.0 will replace the current ERA system that's being used now for those two major processes of record scheduling and the transfer process. And that includes the forms and workflows, namely the record schedule forms and the transfer request forms that govern the scheduling of records and the transfer of all permanent federal records, analog and digital. I know here that ERA 2.0 is already in use by our accessioning staff at the National Archives. It's been in use since October of 2018. And so our folks have been using it to upload, process, preserve, accession and search for electronic records received from federal agencies. What we're talking about primarily today is the new component of ERA 2.0 designed for the record scheduling and transfer process that we're talking about. What are the major prerequisites for enabling agency use of ERA 2.0? And I say agency use, but that also includes NARA staff who are going to be engaged in the record scheduling and transfer process with you through the system. But first and foremost is we have to do a complete successful migration of the record schedule transfer, record schedule and transfer request information and associated documentation from ERA base, the system used now to the new system ERA 2.0. One familiar scenario is that when doing a transfer request, you have to cite a valid disposition authority or record schedule item. If there are no record schedules in the system, you really can't pass go there with the transfer request. So that just highlights one aspect of the reason why we have to get all of that of the record schedules, their associated documentation transfer request and their associated documentation into the system before we can roll this out for actual use. Coming along with that, we need to provide online training and job aids. Eddie's going to talk about that a little bit more after we go. And then lastly, we need to set up all the user accounts in the system for you to get started. I'll talk a little bit about that in the upcoming slides. Next slide. So speaking to the migration of record schedule and transfer request info from ERA base system to ERA 2.0, this project started in September of 2021 with a new vendor and that project is underway. We've been analyzing all the form data, doing all of the mapping and transformation rules from that data sitting in ERA base and what we need to do to get it into ERA 2.0. We've made great progress on that with the new vendor. And something, the next bullet here is a key aspect of this, is something that we really wanted to focus on, was to make sure that all of the forms that are currently in the ERA system get migrated to their equivalent statuses in ERA 2.0. Therefore, if you have a record schedule say that was certified and submitted to NARA and it's kind of in that status of proposed and NARA's reviewing it, once we switch over to ERA 2.0, that form will be in that equivalent status in ERA 2.0 and that should be the same for all of the forms so that you can just pick up where you left off with that form. In some migrations, sometimes you have to roll forms back to previous statuses or things like that. In this case, we've worked hard with our vendor to ensure that for the most part we can get all of those forms into their equivalent status. So if they're an in-progress form that hasn't gotten to say that approved state, that even though it's in progress, we'll get it to the place that it was in the workflow in the new system so you can pick up where you left off with all of your work. We wanted to mention that along with this is there's a general cleanup of draft schedules and you can see the AC memos here that are cited. Basically, any record schedule that was created before October 2019, anything was created before that, that wasn't sent to NARA, that is anything that was in the draft or submitted for certification state before October 2019, that is scheduled to be cleaned up to not be migrated going forward. So refer you to those memos so that if there's something that was created before that time that wasn't sent to NARA, that you'll need to take action on those because those will not be migrated in the actual migration once we do the final migration. Throughout this process and this project of mapping data from the old system to the new system, we've run into different kind of data anomalies or data issues that come up where there are certain forms that have data that don't conform and so in an ad hoc way we're kind of working through some of those issues that surface our NARA appraisal and accessioning staff are working to either clean up the data or come up with rules unique to those situations and potentially working with their agency counterparts to resolve them ahead of the migration. The final migration of this data early in calendar year 2023 will require a pause in the use of ERA and we're estimating that pause to be no more than four weeks so essentially when we get to that point we will shut off access to the ERA system you're working on now and then in less than four weeks finish the final migration and then bring up everybody in the new ERA system and as I said pick up the forms where you left off in the ERA based system. So I think I covered all that. Next slide please. So the piece I mentioned earlier about user accounts fortunately for agency user accounts the roles had largely stayed the same so it's a fairly simple exercise for us to create your user accounts in ERA 2.0 using your current user accounts in ERA base so we'll bring over whatever roles you had in your profile also your agency affiliations in your profile and create those accounts ahead of time. One key difference here with the new system is that we've been mandated to require authentication via PIV or CAC cards so this will require an active ERA 2.0 account and you'll have to get an active OMB max profile because that's how that's how we are authenticating with PIV and CAC. If you're like me as a federal worker I already have an OMB max profile to access certain federal systems hopefully that's a case with you if not you'll have to get an OMB max profile. For those that don't have in the case whether someone doesn't have a PIV or CAC card set up we can work kind of offline to support an alternative means of authentication in that case and as part of the training materials there is a user guide being put together that will help you get with the process of getting the OMB max profile in that case. Next slide. So timeline for agency use so I kind of hinted at this before but if everything stays on schedule with the project for this data migration and the related efforts stay on schedule we are set to release ERA 2.0 for agency use we're saying around the beginning of March of next year right when I talked about the idea of say late January or February at this point where we might shut off ERA base access at that time and then take say two three up to four weeks to finish the migration we're looking probably end of February early March when we then bring ERA 2.0 up for actual production use. So this could change obviously our project schedule shows that we're on schedule at this point but in barring unknown issues that pop up in the system or with the migration work that we're doing now this is the timeline that we're seeing we're going to refine and update the schedule as we go along as we move towards the end of this year so our goal is to communicate at upcoming bridge meetings as well as potentially other means of communication any changes to that timeline but our goal is to keep to this timeline and to sort of hone in on more specific dates as we get closer to the end and many more details coming on this also about user accounts set up training and the use of the system in upcoming presentations. Something to mention here on the bottom agency use of direct upload to ERA 2.0 so we have built into the system the beginnings of an upload screen that we hope to have agency users use and directly upload records into ERA 2.0 once you have a valid transfer request for electronic records because we're focused on on the scheduling and transfer workflows and forms and getting that out once we do that we are going to be looking to pilot agency use of this upload feature after we go live next year so more to come on on that in subsequent communications. Next slide please so moving on to some of the key enhancements some of which Sam will be showing coming soon here in terms of the revisions to the record schedule and transfer request forms there's a lot that's similar about those forms in terms of the information that's gathered from the current system use into ERA 2.0 but there's also been many updates in terms of the user interface hopefully it's much more intuitive than it was before I know that ERA base didn't set a real high bar in terms of the user interface but we spent a great deal of time working on that to make this more intuitive more navigable and more straightforward for users to use as kind of web forms that you use for other processes but a couple examples we highlighted here are changes that we have made to the actual form itself so in the record schedule we've added the field to support the new requirement for tribal consultation so that is now in the new form and then something that is a big change over the current system is agencies will be able to use permanent GRS items as as disposition authorities when doing transfers in the transfer request so that's a couple of several changes enacted in the new system. Sam is going to go into detail on the updated dashboard the general idea of this was we wanted to create a much better type of dashboard that provides better visibility into what's going on with the forms that you've worked you're working forms that you've finished working on but are still going through the system so you can see where they are in the approval life cycle so overall the idea of better visibility was a major tenet of the work that we undertook to update ERA 2.0 over ERA base. Another key aspect or improvement and this is a pain point felt on both sides so this we've heard this from our staff as well as federal agency staff over the years is the multiple versions of forms in ERA base in ERA 2.0 we only have one version of a form it's always up to date and that that form just changes over time we get and we have the history of all the changes to that that business object over time so there's a history log and Sam will show it briefly that shows all changes to a form who did it what they did and when they did it and so how does that manifest itself one key way it does is when doing search in the system as I said this is a major point pain point on both sides is when you do searches you saw multiple versions of forms pop up of the same form pop up which was very confusing not to mention annoying so in the current system in the new system I'm I should say you'll just see one version of that form when you search for the forms and Sam will show that next slide please another key aspect or key change in the system is relates to user access so in the current ERA system used now there's a tight coupling of organization and record group information and a lot of the access is based on that tight coupling including the record group in the new system user access is much more straightforward it's basically it's based on your organization so your your agency affiliations decides your access to the forms so it's much more straightforward and it also provides more flexibility in using record groups and forms because the association between organization and record group isn't as tightly coupled in the new system and allows allows you to choose more flexibility in choosing record groups agency users will now be able to see to access the attachments to forms and the attachments to forms that you all are uploading into the system as you recall many well some of you may recall many years ago due to the architecture of the system and security reasons we had to cut off access to attachments in the system and that's been alleviated so now all attachments that you've provided to the system are going to be available for you to access and download going forward in terms of browser browser compatibility fully compatible with Google Chrome Microsoft Edge so that should serve us well into the years ahead in terms of compatibility issues something that didn't happen when we rolled out ERA 2.0 or ERA base way back in 2008 and the last development was completed in 2011 or enhancement system since that time scant few enhancements have been made to that system I think the thinking has changed a lot since that time and we've planned for and budgeted for a team of development resources to stick around for years to come to work on new enhancements to the system fixes to the system changes the system that will be based on feedback that we get from all of you once you start using the system so we've got a lot of things to do with that development team but we're looking forward to getting feedback from agency users as well as NARA users and anything that really looks like a high priority enhancement for the system or certainly anything that is a fix to the system we should have a team available and ready to start making changes to the system and roll them out to you as soon as possible so that's key change over what of the paradigm that we had with ERA 1.0 back in the earlier days with that I think that concludes my portion and so I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Sam McClure who's going to walk you through a number of screenshots of the new system thank you David can we go to the next slide please so I've often been told that my presentation style is like a series of static screenshots so it's entirely fitting that I bring to you a series of static screenshots but we wanted to give you a sense of the upcoming work environment that'll be available in ERA 2.0 we know that most of you will not spend large amounts of time sitting in ERA 2.0 so the point of the dashboard is to give you the information you need to know about the forms you have under process as quickly and efficiently as possible organized in ways that we hope makes sense for you and the operations that you have going on for transfer requests and for record schedules the screenshots we show are with test data it's all dummy the usernames are awful looking the the information you see for the the forms on the dashboard is all meaningless it's it's basically gobbledygook that's running through the system from a functional standpoint but we hope that seeing the structure of the of the pages as they are presented here will give you some sense of of how we're anticipating the use of the system so the first thing I'll note here on a dashboard this is a certifying official within our fictional setup for the state department you have two tabs on your screen one for record schedule which is the one that's bolded here you have one on the right for transfer requests so both types of forms are available you can toggle from one dashboard to the other the always on on the left highlighted in bold in this case the list of forms that under my tasks for the forms that you're you're working on right now and you see a series of of columns of basic information about the those forms that are currently assigned to you and that you you would be working on in the system next slide please so within this the same view there's a number of things we wanted to highlight one was for instance at the top you see that a reassignment of a form just took place that little mini notification is going to flash on the system for a few seconds and then go away each of the columns of information shown for your your forms here is sortable if you're the most recent form that you've worked on is at the top of your list but you can sort by date you can sort by by the id of the forms that you're working on you can sort by some of the other columns here as well on the far right of each of the rows for a form under what we call the vertical ellipse those three dots would be a series of actions that are available for those forms um depending on the tab you're under and the status of the form what actions you have available there can change that's all covered in the user guides and the job aids that are forthcoming but but it gives you a chance to act on the forms while looking in the context of all the forms that are currently assigned to you and and the amount of work that you have right now the little eyeball icon to the right is how you would open the form to start to take more action on it to add data get it ready to either send to nara or to route within your agency for further work next slide please so we've slid over from my tasks to a concept called task updates and this is a case where once your forms have left your agency for instance that are now under review at nara you can get under one snapshot the status of all the forms that that you're awaiting updates from nara on in this case you see the column called last action that's where you'll see in a dynamic update the the most recent actions taken on your forms on the nara side the data that action where the next action on your formalize and these examples nara would be the ones who are still acting on the forms but i hope with a view like this is you come in on a periodic basis you want to get a quick sense of where your schedules or your transfer requests are in the process of of being reviewed by nara this gives you that that first sense of what's going on the last date that something happened to the form what that action was and again you can go into the form and while it's under under review at nara and and still see your information but this gives you a sense of of where am i where is my form in this process without having to to wait on a report or otherwise query the system in any way we want to make this available to you right off the bat so you have that available just for reference as you work in the system next slide please so there's two other concepts on on the screen here um i think you can advance one more and we'll we'll see a couple arrows on this wow look at that dynamic animation we had there two does to me for that so there's there's two tabs here one called unassigned tasks and one called my team's task in both cases these are list of forms um that are assigned to other people or that are awaiting assignment within your organization unassigned tasks would be those forms that you need to assign to someone for further work in the system while my team's task gives you a sense of everyone else in your agency who has forms in process in in era 2.0 you can see how many forms each person has you can see to which person each form has been assigned and furthermore from within this view you can go to that the little three dots on the far right the vertical ellipse and reassign a form to someone else in your organization based on workload balances someone's going to take extended leave for whatever reason you can adjust who within your organization is working on a particular form at any point in time that form will then go to that person's dashboard it would appear under my tasks for them and they can then continue with with your processes either completing a record schedule or transfer requests or doing any other steps that are necessary from your side before sending the forms on to NARA but with both of those tabs we hope it gives you a chance to to manage within the system as as your standard operating procedures and workflows permit allow you to to reassign work and to keep track of who's doing what within your organization as they work in the system and and to keep it as with the other views as as concise and hopefully efficient and useful as possible next slide please so this is just a showing that the the bold part of the dashboard has moved to the transfer request very similar set of categories are available again they'll be organized by sortable columns of information again there's the eyeball and then the vertical ellipse where different actions will be made available so basically the record schedule and the transfer request tabs are the two places where your forms would be under control in the system and then you're available for either your work or for your assignment as you can complete your work on record schedules or transfer requests respectively next slide please so we wanted to take a moment just to sort of illustrate the concept that that david mentioned of the most recent version being the only version of your form that's available in search this assumes that a search has been run for whatever particular um criteria and as just call your attention to the the record schedule id there zero zero fifty nine twenty twenty two oh one forty this is the only time that that particular schedule is going to appear in the search results every other row in the fifty five search results in this example would be different schedules different forms that are responsive to the query this would be the only time this one this schedule is an approved status it's been through a fairly extensive workflow again this is the only version of that form you would see in in the search results if you go looking for this particular schedule next slide so then within this particular schedule this is the history activity log of the the key milestones on this form that david was referring to so at any point in the process these these forms will have this history activity log where you can go in and see okay who's taken what steps on this form at whatever stage is in the process when that was done and it gives you one place to then see all the changes that have occurred to this to this particular form if for instance in one of these milestones you were to click on the high ball icon to the right go to the next slide please you then get a detailed view of all the changes that were made in the form at the point that the form was was going from one status to the next so you can see the progression of information and the updates and edits that are made to the form throughout its workflow clicking on each of the milestones would take you to all the previous versions of the information any changes that were made who made those changes what the changes were and when the changes were actually implemented in the system so we're hoping that this consolidated view of all the previous information associated with this form gives you a quicker sense of finding the forms that are relevant for your search and for your work and that you can then proceed with your work in whatever way you need to without having to worry about if I pull up the most recent version am I dealing with one of the other earlier versions that was snapped off in the system and in the original era system and am I on the right the right version for me and so this is very quick very dirty very static view of the dashboard environments I will note that as I'm about to turn the mic back over to Eddie to talk about some of the training products we'll have we have rich documentation about both the environment of the system the dashboard experience that we've just walked through in a very static way and including much more detail into completing the forms among some of the products that that Eddie will describe that the point I want to echo from from David's part of the presentation is our emphasis on further releases of the system more fixes more enhancements we're going to be coming back to you with much more information before we'll talk about how to use the system how to make sure your accounts are set up properly how to make sure you can authenticate into the system and once we go into use we're going to find more opportunities to gather input from you tickets opened up with the era help desk is one one example for us of getting feedback from the system we're going to find more more opportunities to hold open meetings forums anyways we can gather input from people using the system so we can find those opportunities to fix and enhance the system to have it better support the work you need to do with these forms and to get these processes completed with the National Archives so what you'll see in early March 2023 is a start but it is not a finish we hope to continue to iterate on this product to provide more improvements particularly in response to observations and feedback and criticisms we get from users of the system to make sure that we're making it the best product possible with that I'll turn it back over to Eddie who can talk through some of the approach that the NARS taking to the training materials for the system thank you Sam yes next slide all right thank you I want to talk just briefly on training here working with er a 2.0 and how we had a strategic plan in place like a road that we were going with training wasn't added on this training was thought of as the start of er a 2.0 working so we have our approach we'll have like two phases we're looking at right the first phase is we will have like 20 plus training resources and how we'll go more and type the formats but training items at the launch or deployment of the system right understanding that as the system is being um worked in after deployment feedback is received we will use that feedback to base new training material right we're focusing material for the end user so it's more of a um pool right you're pulling the training from us type of methodology we're not pushing the training materials on the end user the end user's pulling what's needed from us when we're you you're working with that feedback loop um training material will be available as er a goes live will probably be more like we're looking at will be slightly available like a week to two weeks before the system is there right one the ideas would be you'd have um access to the material kind of look through it kind of get familiar before you even get into the system but it would only be one to two weeks before the system goes live date on that um looking at that end user experience right the materials will be centrally located on a web page specifically for e e r a training to um resources um that will help for searchability right and you can bookmark that page and have it up and ready to go when you need to go through some of the training resources um benefits of this right access anytime you don't need to log in to another system or to a learning management system you go directly to our website access the training documentation such as pdfs that we would have for job aids could be download saved for your own reference and then you don't even have to go to the website you'd have documentation for um system demos or type of videos those would not be downloadable however posted to youtube shareable link and you could share that information with other people it has question that you're working with next slide please so to ensure that we are properly aligning the material for then user right because again it's user experience that we are working with uh now like the soup uh what we call super users are individuals that are working and familiar with the system and as we're working with them we're looking for clarification of instructions and accuracy of the steps we don't want to miss anything then going on all material is created at that fundamental step at a new user so we're not thinking about all you have you are a base base knowledge or this is new user level material that we're going for right the novice level build materials will cover large functions as in scheduling transferring uh system access login and also system navigation there'll be a couple of slides that i can show real quick how our website will break down functionality and that will help going through our information um for training resources for you and again formats right now job aids demos so it depends like paper based our videos go ahead next slide here so this is the webpage real quick there's really no stuff in this might be a little bit hard to see here reading but however the main thing is that I wanted to cover is that this is just the top of how the website is broken down right so we got scheduling records in eora 2.0 underneath that would be all the resources for that function um fantastic cool the top um job aid here is a whole like full task job aid you could click that save that underneath is broken down subtask that would be needed um in the scheduling records side i'll go ahead go on and that would break down into transfer and then we'd also have another section for other type of resources um to make the pace um increase search ability and finding information you need quickly all right next slide all right so this is just a real quick capture of a screen uh screen capture of a job aid right the job aid is uh create a new form just wanted to highlight like on the job aids itself right broken down we have a purpose of the job aid so when you look into it you can quickly see okay what is this purpose right it's just not the word create a new form and you're unsure how to use it also the other thing i want to highlight on how the job aids are broken down again is who should use it right so the attended audience and for this one is record schedulers and certifying official again going down to that level of who would need this job aid for breaking it down to go ahead next slide this is continuation just to show like represent like you know what our job aids look like we have steps breaking down step by step process easy to follow including um figures that um goes along with those steps exactly mirrored to the system to the job aid itself next slide all right so this is a screen capture of the demos which the demos range around um you know time frame but um um time time length of the videos could vary in length however you have a pause a play button and it's explaining the process again a little different format than a job aid however I wanted to highlight and this is just a screen capture is that there would be callouts in the demos to highlight the key functions that we are covering for this sub task right so on this one um screen capture on this um demo itself that you can see up in the corner there we have a highlight that would appear as your play um playing the video that you would click you know create your new form here at that button that says create new form again kind of orientating users on where on the where in the system you would need to click to complete the task and that will be all the videos and job aids will be on the website as we complete all right go on next slide and that is it so that is everything for that so open up the questions for era 2.0 and back to arian yeah and and sam and david as well we've got a slew of questions that have come in during your presentation uh do you know and i'll just start do you know what the authorization procedure for era accounts will be when the new system rolls out will it be the same authorization process so i'll start and then david can correct me whereas straight from that the the idea is we will continue to have account managers at the agency level who will provide the basic administration for user accounts for your respective organizations as david mentioned in his slides we want to give a jump start because the roles are are the same as in era base we want to give agencies a starting point um for the user accounts they'll have in the system but it's only a starting point we'll continue to have the account managers as we need to change those designations we'll do that we'll look to the account managers to help us make sure that we keep accounts up to date and everyone who needs access to the system gets it in accordance with their organization's priorities so we will have um we'll have an a a request form for accounts in era 2.0 available on archives.gov we'll also provide that guidance as david said for ensuring that staff who get the era 2.0 account also have the ombmax profile so they can use their piv to authenticate um so the process will be slightly different with that extra wrinkle for the piv authentication um but the idea going forward is account managers will still give us the key input on who needs access to the system when those people leave when we need to change roles for accounts. Thank you uh here's one i think you already addressed we would like era 2.0 to be web browser agnostic i.e working smoothly under firefox chrome edge as a bonus even in browser apps or in a mobile device. So a short answer is we would too we had to start somewhere we started with um the the chromium platform especially once edge moved to chromium so that we could cover the vast majority of of ensuring that the users of our system have at least one of those typically on their desktop for now we you may recall a couple of ac memos that have come out in the past few years about what browsers are in use in your organizations what browsers are phasing out and we wanted to make sure that we covered it as simply as possible the broadest range of of possible users the idea of extending to other browsers is is something we will we will continue to look at while while ensuring that we can maintain accessibility and full function of the system in terms of of a responsive design that allows for mobile devices that's probably a little farther down the the path for us where we're trying to make sure that the basically the laptop desktop browser experience is is a good one for now um but as i talked about and david mentioned also our desire to continue to fix and enhance the system that's certainly something that we can we can take a look at in the future david didn't frown so i think that answer was you cover it okay so here's sort of a related one that i see on youtube i cannot access the current version of vr a i've tried firefox chrome edge internet explorer it will not load on any of them what should i do are there workarounds so our experience has been that um internet explorer has has been working before firefox is a browser of choice for some users and then other organizations including nara have gone to quote unquote i e mode with microsoft edge there's been varying reports on how successful and how permanent that that setting change that people have implemented based on microsoft's instructions has has actually taken um i would say open open the ticket with the era help desk era help at nara.gov that we can talk to them we will work with both our help desk and with that organization as best we can to see if there's anything under our control that we can help um adjust or enhance so that they can get access to the current era system or or can we identify any issue that they can pursue within their own it shop because it may be something on their side beyond our ability to influence that will affect that access but era help at nara.gov and we will um pick it up from there thank you if we have schedules that need to be withdrawn because they have been superseded by the grs should we notify our appraisal archivist before the transfer takes place that sounds like an excellent opportunity for for data cleanup so i would i would say yes depending and i would contact your appraisal archivist with with any questions related to the status of forms that may have been sitting out there for any reason or that have been superseded or otherwise have been affected by other schedules it's a great chance to touch base and make sure that everything that you still have an era base in the current era is still relevant that's a great opportunity thank you will there be a specific date when federal agencies will be requested to stop entering new accessions or new schedules in era 1.0 before the four week pause in early calendar year 2023 so yeah as we get closer to this um we you know once we we have better assurance of what that date is going to be we'll provide that hopefully it's you know within the window that we're talking about today but as we get closer we'll provide more specificity on when that um when we expect that kind of shutdown date to happen um as i said before the what you shouldn't have to do is to quickly finish something or move something into a certain state before that date because um you know that the plan and what we've demonstrated so far is that we can move whatever form you are working on in a certain status to its equivalent status in era 2.0 so um but as we get closer we will kind of narrow that window as we become um you know have more assurance that we're going to hit those dates um and then eventually we'll provide you know that that estimated date of when we plan to shut down the system um and if we can refine how long we expect that that break to be that pause to be before we then finish the migration and uh open up era 2.0 as as as we get closer we should have um more specific information about what those dates are and and just to put another point on that the idea of the pause is going to be that the vendor will be taking an extract to the system up to the point that that pause begins so that that period of up to four weeks that we're looking at is where they're going to be processing that last set of forms and and related data in the system to get them to era 2.0 so up to the point of that pause you could continue your work believe in things to the last minutes and ever the greatest greatest idea with with any system move like this but the idea would be that our vendor would be moving forms at the point of that pause over to the new system within that up to four week interruption thank you it would be interesting if era 2.0 allowed cloud to cloud transfer of electronic permanent records i.e. e.g. capstone official emails i don't know if you want to comment on that well that's not interesting that's essential right as as david mentioned right we were focusing right now on getting the forms and workflows to the to the point where we can begin work with everyone and have to become a useful exercise we have to be able to scale up our transfer capabilities to include cloud based record storage into our cloud environment we've we've had some some promising tests with with an agency we were also testing internally because we're also moving large bodies of digitized content that's already at the national archives into the system so cloud to cloud is definitely going to follow along very as closely behind this as we can do it because we we have to meet records creators where they are with their records which is the cloud yep i just said we're taking steps to get there um you know as i talked about uploading directly uh into your a2.0 um that's one step in the method of transfers obviously that's not going to work for large mass transfers um and it's not convenient if you have records eligible for transfer that are already sitting in a cloud location and um if they are in a ws gov cloud that's going to be the easiest case that will probably hit first when we start doing uh cloud to cloud transfers uh we expect hopefully uh next year to start like i said piloting the upload the direct upload um that we hope to pilot um some cloud to cloud transfers as well um you know we'll take kind of the steps along the way there's a lot of process a lot of policy that needs to be built around that but um the mechanisms are there we've tried them out so we would like to kind of get more experience internally as well as externally in a pilot mode doing some cloud to cloud transfers um and and then go from there so more to come on that and that that's definitely uh on the radar and part of the the long term plan so there was another question about uh er a 2.0 being the platform to accession electronic permanent records to nara if not does nara have a platform that agencies can use to transfer permanent electronic records i think we've talked about that is there anything you want to add no i'll just note that nara users are currently accessioning federal electronic records into the system right now they're doing it on behalf of agencies because there's no agency access to the system but but our colleagues in the electron records division are are using the system to to accession federal electronic is now it is our platform to get those records into the repository um as david said we'll we'll pilot direct upload in the system with with selected agency agencies will be looking to extend that to cloud to cloud pilots but eray 2.0 is the platform for for transfers of electron records it's where we'll accession them that's where we'll store them um for long term preservation yep by and large any electronic records that have been sent to the national archive since uh late 2018 um have been um have been ingested into the eray 2.0 system and that's where they sit now are there any plans for a dev or test the eray 2.0 environment for agency integrators to test with local electronic records may electronic records management applications so that's kind of um that's kind of the next step you know we were talking about like direct upload of eray 2.0 and then there's cloud to cloud transfer of eray 2.0 we know out there and we've we've heard from folks who are designing uh electronic records management systems that kind of the next step I think beyond that or in parallel with cloud to cloud transfer is the idea of um a more automated transfer of electronic records from an electronic records management system to eray 2.0 um you know definitely we've talked about that the notion of that um and I think it's just that's something that's also on the radar a lot of work I think to get there to kind of design what the package needs to look like how that mechanism would work um so there's a ways to go on that one but that that certainly is something that um I know is a is a priority for agencies out there that are kind of moving into that realm so it's something that we kind of have on our on our roadmap it's a little further out than some of the near term things that we're working on like getting the system out to all of you uh next year um uploading records cloud to cloud um and then that would be another you know important step in the evolution. For proposed accessions of permanent records rejected by NARA it would be wonderful if the rejection rationale was retained in eray 2 to prevent a future reaccessioning attempt if the issue has not been resolved. Request for a user tip I get it or a user tip. So one of the things we've done and I'll just respond real quickly is when when NARA returns anything a form accession anything else that's going to go along with it there's a mandatory comment field in the system right then something may be returned for the rework or to be um asked not to be sent back but those comments made in the system become part of the history of that form so that anyone who comes back in to see why a particular either TR or record schedule was was turned away for whatever reason those sorts of of rationales will remain part of the record of those forms for anyone's future reference should they come back to to resume work on a similar form. From an accession standpoint that's more details we'll need to try to address later on. So Sam as my little son would say you glitched there for a second but I think the key was that you said um that when you do return something there's you mandatory there has to be a comment put in there right there's a reason for it and that that's captured going forward. That's right it'll be part of the form sorry about that. Nope nope. Will ERA 2.0 allow the account manager to conduct user administration what capabilities will it have currently the help desk can only give reports as of the first of the month. So at any point you log into the system the whoever serve serving as for instance the certified official can see everyone in their organization what forms are assigned to them from an account management perspective it's still a process that runs through the the area help desk reporting on users of the system is one of the things that we can we need to expand reporting the system globally for our users as well as agency users. So but for now account requests the status of accounts all that's going to continue to come from the area help desk just at our initial rollout. Will every agency user in ERA 2.0 continue to get a copy of every ERA email when transactions occur versus a notification to just me when I do something like transfer permanent records. So the gap we face right now notifications or no emails are being generated in the system right so there's something that we need to enhance as we go forward into 2023 and to look at that beyond that the idea of notifications are going to be much more confined to your organization and your roles. So system notifications you get will not be broadcast across the system environment but at this point we won't have emails generated by the system to notify you so that that is an area for improvement that we'll be looking at in 2023. Thank you Sam and David I think the next couple of questions are about training ones on ERA training so if Eddie's around will NARA be offering any virtual live training on ERA 2.0. So all training materials will be asynchronous so the answer that is no but one of the reasons why as David and Sam talked about updates and fixes right so allowing material being asynchronous that allows us to quickly update and provide current information screenshot for screenshot online that could be accessed so you would have a more current look at the system or steps of the system. In in the same training vein I want to go back to some AROC renewal questions regarding the AROC renewal will applicants have one to two hours to complete all three sections in total or does this time limit apply to each section individually? Yes all right so for clarification on that to one to two hours is talking about the estimated time of an individual to take the course it's or the module itself it isn't set set there's no time restriction on how long you have to complete the course however I would warn that the LMS or learning management system could time out on an individual that if they're in or in the learning management system and not active the system would time out however you'd have to go back in sign in and take the and go back into the test or the the assessment itself for the renewal module. Another one when you say designated do you mean the agency records officers designated by the SAARM and not just the lead records management specialist performing the role of records officer in their organization not designated thank you. Yes yes correct so when I speak of designated records officer that is talking to that SAARM designation and those individuals that is officially designated would only have to worry about the AROC renewal process. And we had another one about name changes so I guess the advice if you have a name change or potential name change please email RMT1 at narah.gov to follow up track that down. Thank you. Oh for Sam and David will ERA 2.0 allow federal agencies to create their own ad hoc reports and export to a file like an Excel spreadsheet or will there only be canned reports that can be Excel reported exported to Excel. There's a fairly detailed advanced query interface where most of the fields for the transfer request and a record schedule available for search. You can save your searches can your own queries if you want update terms as you want to once you get your search results you can download those as CSVs to pull out the data. We don't have the capability right now to generate reports per se in terms of calculating like age of forms or anything that requires you know sussing through the data to calculate or arrive at new totals but in terms of queries you can do queries on the users in your organization the dates the date spans of actions taken on forms all the type of information and then pull down those results of CSVs. Again search is an area where we know there's no the ample room for improvement we're going to start with the simplified interface for search results a robust set of the fields available for search the ability to save queries to download results of CSVs and we'll work to enhance that as we go forward based on feedback. Yeah I would just add that I right we're hoping that the the query functionality and then being able to download your results will help with a lot of reporting also I mean the fact that you're I know with in the current system when you're doing searches and then downloading results a lot that it's it's all muddied by the fact that you're getting multiple versions of the form showing up in that a lot of times you know unless you're able to to weed those other versions out carefully so I think this is an area where we wanted to get out the search functionality with the download feature of the results and then as as you all start to use the system if if certain kind of more popular or canned reports that are high priority reports across the board that's something we could look at as as a priority for an enhancement going forward. So thank you Sam and Dave I think that's all the ERAs questions we have finally there if we can have the next slide Patty just going to the general questions and first I want to acknowledge it's been a robust discussion about digitization and FADGI standards and whatnot in the YouTube chat the team that's been answering is available at rmstandards.nara.gov so any further conversation can you can reach out to the team there with that we've got to bring back Lawrence for some questions from the top of the meeting and his big announcement. Will this will this government-wide 18 month extension negate any exception requests that were previously submitted? Yeah thanks Ariane and you know I just want to say I know that we're coming up to the top of the hour we will absolutely be talking more about M1921 and what this extension means and what the targets mean for all of you in your agencies going forward. We really wanted to have this opportunity today to give you some advanced notice of what was coming so that you can make plans for the next year and a half you know from the end of the calendar year so you can be better prepared for implementation and and getting in touch with us if an exception is needed. So to answer the question we are actively reviewing all the exception requests that we have received and we do plan on responding to all the agencies who have submitted an exception so they're they're not negated but I think what this new information gives you is the ability to decide whether or not you still need to develop a new exception request or whether the one that you've already submitted may be overtaken by events because of this new extension. So hopefully this helps for your planning and for your implementation going forward. So we'll just kind of see if we can get through some of these questions quickly in light of the time. Rapid fire, yes. Is there a projected date for the issuance of the official M1921 extension? So no, I don't have any further information on when the memo will be issued by OMB. My understanding is that it is within their clearance process and we will just all have to sort of keep our eyes peeled and stay tuned for further information from us and from OMB. So does this extension also mean that FRCs will continue to accept transfers of analog records through June 2024? So the existing requirements in M1921 as I said earlier remain in place and remain in fact but they are there now with the adjusted target date. So the answer to the question is yes. The question the requirements around transfers any other requirements in M1921 which had the December 2022 date will then be extended by 18 months from the end of this calendar year. What is the progress on M1921 item 2.3 OPM's revision of the position classification standards for archival and records management occupational series? So that's you know that's a good question we'll have to come back to that requirements assigned to OPM and at this point I don't have any updated information to share on that one. Additionally and this is related to accessioning so I don't know how much we'll be able to tackle this. What extra support is an R providing to ensure that accessioning units can accept records? We have a backlog of approvals going back to May of 2022. So yeah I mean that's I think maybe a topic for a future meeting certainly once we have the memo out where we can bring our colleagues from research services where we can provide additional information on support for accessioning. Can our extend further than 18 months to allow federal agencies to get in conduct inventories and request funding? For June 2024 we would had to request funding based on inventories and leadership support in 2022 assuming leadership was already on board. Yeah so you know I understand you know everybody wants more time right but you know all I can tell you right now is that you know we're not considering this time extending the deadlines beyond the 18 months that we've talked about today. The good news is that if you do require a longer extension or an exemption there is a process in place where you can submit to us with justifications for an extension or an exemption based on the criteria that are in Narra Bolton 2020-01 and you know just to add to that you know as we've said before with all requests for the time period beyond the 18 months we'll be looking for detailed plans with milestones on the work that you will be doing to to meet the goals for the transition to fully electronic government and those goals that are currently in M19-21. Okay I'm just searching through for any other questions. Oh will Narra provide digitization services for federal agencies to digitize permanent records? So I don't have an update on where we are with digitization services that in the past were being carried out by the FRCP that's perhaps another topic once the memo comes out and digitization records are out we can talk about and follow up on. The draft rule to have agencies review all of their agency specific items on a 10-year rolling basis came out with the draft permanent digitization standards. What happened with what's the status with that? So the good news is that's still in play. It is packaged along with the rule making the final rule for the digitization of permanent records so it's I think as Lisa noted once it's along for the ride with that package for the digitization regs and it will be issued at the same time. I think I've exhausted the list Lisa is there anything I'm missing for the good of the order? I think you've done a wonderful job Ari and I just came on here at the end in case there was a last comment about some of those other policies I will just add there was a lot of information to give you today and we will definitely do our best to communicate on the status of those other digitization supporting products and when those regs come out we will hopefully have a lot more to share thank you we will and Lauren you want to close? Sure I know I apologize to everybody I know we're a couple of minutes over so hopefully if you're late to your next meeting it was worthwhile thanks to all the speakers today to David to Sam to Chris to Ron and to Eddie for covering all of the things that we had on the agenda today a lot of information as we've noted and more to come so stay tuned for our next meeting in December I'm sure there will be much more to talk about and we'll take some of the comments and questions that we heard today and see how we can follow up and address some of the issues that were raised in the Q&A as part of our next meeting so thank you all for attending have a great rest of the day great rest of the month and we will see you in December


Back in the old days highway maintenance was a real gang operation or as a personnel specialist might say it was a labor intensive activity. What that means is most of the work was done with hand tools and lots of hands. Back then when you talked horsepower you meant horsepower or maybe mule power. Well luckily things have changed a lot since then. Maintenance work has become equipment intensive. Heavy machinery has taken the place of the large road gangs and when everything's working the way it's supposed to you can get a lot more done in a lot less time. But when the equipment breaks down the work comes to a stop and you're back where you started using your hands. The thing is breakdowns can often be delayed or completely prevented if the operator spends just a few minutes each day looking over the equipment. Equipment problems usually don't just happen most of the time there are signs of trouble before it occurs. That's what preventive maintenance is all about spotting trouble before it gets out of hand and taking the small but important steps to ensure a trouble-free day of operation. Equipment that's not out on the job working isn't worth very much. Downtime is expensive. The cost of new parts and labor for a major overhaul can easily exceed the price of a new car but that's not all. You also have to put a value on the work that's not being done while the equipment is being repaired. So when you consider parts plus labor plus lost work it really starts to add up. The department has put together a series of videotape programs on equipment operator training. The programs cover most of the major pieces of equipment we use to maintain our roads. Each program will include segments on preventive maintenance. The series of daily checks the operator should perform to make sure the equipment is in good shape. Now you might wonder what does daily maintenance have to do with equipment operation? In a word everything. You see there's a world of difference between someone who can operate equipment and someone who can just drive it. An operator is someone who knows the equipment not only how to use it but also how to take care of it. That doesn't mean you have to be a mechanic. You just have to know what to look for and you know most of that already.  You'd want to make darn sure your car won't break down out in the middle of nowhere. The first thing you'd probably do is just walk around the car and look for obvious problems. Loose or broken parts, a puddle of water or oil under the car. Then you check your tires. Look for uneven tread wear and cuts on the sidewalls. Keeping your tires at the recommended pressure makes them last longer and it gives you more control when you're driving. You'd want to make sure all your lights are working. Head lights, turn signals and tail lights. Look for burned out bulbs or broken lenses. Then you'd probably check under the hood. A good look. Try to spot any leaks or broken parts. The first thing most people think of under the hood is the engine oil. Now we all know that you can ruin the engine if you don't have enough oil but contaminated oil can be just as bad. So if the oil's really dirty, schedule an oil change. Dirty air can ruin the engine too and that makes air filters absolutely critical. Usually you can get most of the dust out of the air filter by tapping it lightly to shake it out. But if it's really clogged, it's probably time to get a new filter. While you have the filter off, you can check around the carburetor for leaky fuel lines and loose clamps. Make sure everything is nice and tight. The next check might be the coolant level. You'd want to make sure the level is at the full mark on the reservoir or about an inch from the top of the radiator. Low coolant leads to an overheated engine. Bad fan belts and hoses can also cause overheating. If they're loose, tighten them. If they're worn or cracked, get them replaced. A lot of people don't even think of their batteries, that is until they can't get started on a cold morning. So make sure the battery is in good shape and fully charged. Keep the battery cables and terminals tight and free of corrosion. There are some more fluid levels you'd want to check, especially if you haven't checked them in a while. That would include your brake fluid, transmission fluid, and power steering fluid. If they aren't up to the right level, you're just asking for trouble. Okay, that about does it for engine checks. You're almost ready to go, but before you do, make sure you can see clearly all around. That means adjusting your mirrors and cleaning your windshield. A dirty windshield is both aggravating and dangerous. One more thing to check, the fuel. Fill it up soon unless you like walking, and before you leave, I hope you'd fasten your seat belt. Nothing adds more to your safety than the few seconds it takes to buckle up. Now you can go, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable knowing the car's in good shape, but your checks shouldn't end as soon as you pull out of the driveway. In fact, they should continue throughout the day. While you drive, you need to pay attention to how well the car is running. Keep an eye on the gauges or warning lights. Look, listen, and feel for signs of trouble. If you notice anything unusual, pull off the road as soon as possible and investigate. Now, believe it or not, checking out your car before you go on a trip is a lot like checking out heavy equipment before a day's work. The whole idea is the same.  The only real differences are the frequency and the number of the checks that you make. The programs you'll see in the training series will emphasize daily checks, and there are two good reasons why they are done daily. First, heavy equipment works in a tough environment. Rough terrain, dusty air, and heavy workloads put a strain on heavy equipment that would destroy a car in no time. Now the second reason. When you are assigned to a piece of equipment, you probably won't know if or when these checks have been made. Let's say your car has been leaking oil. You're aware of it because you use the car every day, but you'll often have no idea who has operated the equipment last, and if it breaks down while you're on it, you're the one who will have to explain. So that's why you should look over the equipment every day. And for the most part, that's all you have to do. Look. If you find something wrong, fix it yourself, or let your supervisor or mechanic know about it. Now for the number of checks. We'll use a front-end loader as an example. The checks you'd make on the loader are pretty much the same as those we've covered on the car. First, the walk-around, looking for obvious problems. Then engine checks, fluid levels, air filter, belts, and hoses. And then the little things, cleaning the glass and checking the lights. During the day, you have running checks, watching the gauges, listening for unusual noises. And when trouble occurs, you stop working on and investigate. Whenever you stop for a break, take a few minutes to look over the equipment. Try to spot problems before you get back to work. Don't get me wrong, there are some differences. Greasing, for example. Heavy equipment works hard, usually in a lot of dust. So it's necessary to do some greasing every day, but only the parts that get the most wear. You don't do a whole loop job every day. Another difference is hydraulics. On loaders, the hydraulic system controls the steering and the movements of the boom and bucket. Without hydraulics, the loader is just about useless. But all you really need to do to keep the hydraulic system working is make sure you've got enough hydraulic oil in the tank and check the hydraulic lines for leaks. It really is that simple. Check the level and look for leaks. There is one last difference I should mention. When you go to park the loader at the end of the day, you should let it idle a few minutes to cool down gradually. Shutting off a hot diesel engine immediately after working can damage it. And that's it. Except for a few things, preventive maintenance on a loader is about the same as checking out your car. You just have to do it more often. And you know, just like cars, heavy equipment will vary from one manufacturer to the next. So it's always a good idea to read the operator's manual before you get on any machine that's new to you. As I said earlier, you really can't separate preventive maintenance from equipment operation. To become a good operator, you have to know the equipment and be able to spot, report and describe potential or obvious problems. So it all comes down to this. We keep the equipment in good shape to keep the roads in good shape to keep the traffic rolling.