By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 14, 2025
A white paper issued by the Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Council Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation (COCACI) has been published on FOIA.gov. The white paper, written by COCACI’s Working Group for Standardizing the Government Information Specialist (GIS) Position (Working Group), presents its findings and recommendations on ways to standardize the GIS job series.
The Working Group surveyed FOIA practitioners and agency executives about four key areas: work demographics, FOIA experience, workplace environment, and career plan. Taking the data from this research, the Working Group held conversations with FOIA leadership at several federal agencies, with the goal of identifying existing approaches in improving the professionalization and standardization of qualifications for FOIA professionals and determining the transferability of these approaches to the GIS job series. Additionally, the Working Group aimed to understand what made a FOIA program successful, what challenges were faced by FOIA programs, and how a cross-agency approach could improve a FOIA, and therefore GIS, professional’s career.
Read more here.