For departing employees, the FAM gave the administrative section of each office, bureau, or post the responsibility for reminding all employees who are about to leave the Department or the Foreign Service of the laws and regulations pertaining to the disposition of personal papers and official records; seeing that form OF-109, Separation Statement, is executed for each departing employee and is forwarded to the Office of Personnel for filing in the employee’s Official Personnel Folder; and advising departing officials ranked Assistant Secretary and above, or Ambassador, to consult with the Department’s Records Officer about depositing in the National Archives or a Presidential archival depository papers that they may have accumulated during their tenure and that may have historical interest.25 Form OF-109 required the employee to certify that “I have surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the Government acquired by me while in the employ of the Department.”
Other Preservation Guidance: On February 3, 1997, at the beginning of Secretary Albright’s tenure, the Office of the Secretary’s Executive Secretary sent a memorandum to all Assistant Secretaries on “Records Responsibilities and Reviews.” The memorandum referred to a Department Notice on the subject, as well as the Federal Records Act and 5 FAM 443, which covered email records. The memorandum stated that information maintained in email may constitute a record if it meets the statutory definition of a record and stated, “You need not preserve every e-mail message. If a record in electronic media or electronic mail must be preserved, print the files or messages and place the paper record in the appropriate official file; or continue to maintain electronically if feasible.”
