FOIA Coming Back?

I was just wondering if the FOIA documents were ever going to make a comeback. I had expressed interest on several occasions about getting involved as a document archivist and working with FOIA documents. Is there any chance that this will ever come back around again? I know from speaking with a few others that the initial response from members was good, but eventually fell off. I would think that even just a few members working on FOIA docs would be better than none. So, any chance of this making a comeback? I for one am interested.

I'm not sure I understand your question.

I assume you're talking about this section of the site? www.abovetopsecret.com...

I see lots of FOIA documents listed there already. Are you talking about finding more and adding them?

I've only been on the site a few months so I didn't realize FOIA had already come and gone so sorry I don't know exactly what a comeback would entail.

I noticed somebody mentioned how nice it would be if the FOIA documents were OCRed to make them searchable, which sounds like a cool idea but his idea didn't seem to get much traction that I could tell.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yes, that is the section I am talking about. I had inquired to several members about becoming a document archivist. Those are the ones that would get the FOIA documents, they would have to be digitized and then looked over and a type of "synopsis" of the FOIA document would be written. Apparently it was a very time consuming project. After speaking with several others, and eventually Springer, I was told that due to a lack of interest in the general membership and time we've petty much ended the document transfer operations until further notice. To be fair, Springer did say that they hope to bring it back in the future. I was really hoping that there would be more members this time around that would be interested in working with the FOIA docs. That's it in a nutshell.

reply to post by desertdreamer

Thank you for the update and clarification, desertdreamer! That helps a lot.

Here is the post that is going to be the unpopular message about FOIA.

I loved working with the FOIA documents until I had questions, I would ask and never even got a response back, never. I finally felt like I was not welcome so quit even trying to get the crew bosses to respond back.

There was a real lack of respect and communication from where I stood, and that was why they went down hill. I contacted several others who were also not getting response back from the team leaders and they also eventually fell off.

So to answer your question from the archivists perspective it was lack of continued communication and an almost black balling of archivists by the team leaders that lead to the decline and subsequent distancing of the FOIA docs.

I was on a couple of days ago asking for questions from the team leaders and again had no response what so ever, not even a ungreatful "forget-you!"

So, yes it will be wonderful to get back, with new team leaders.

reply to post by antar


It sounds like that is what needs to happen. How about it three amigos?

reply to post by desert dreamer


I am afraid that the Three Amigo's may be miffed at me for my prior response.

I too miss the flow of the archivist process and seeing the most interesting topics being discussed, they are an awesome addition to ATS. Each archivist is so different as well so it is interesting from the different perspectives, some of them are just above professional while others have a more home spun tendancy to them.

reply to post by antar


Well I have been wanting to get involved for a while, guess I waited too long. I don't think that ATS should just give up on it.

reply to post by desert dreamer


I am sure that after things get going again, you could talk to the FOIA, it is a great joy to do that kind of work if it's your cup of tea and sounds like youll fit in just fine.

A breath of fresh air has already been discussed most likely as these folks at ATS are on top of it, amazingly in sync with what people want.

That and we love our own special Sergeant Clifford Stone, hes the bomb!

reply to post by antar


I hope things get going again soon. thanks for the responses and your point of view!

It's good to see a renewed interest in the FOIA documents, I enjoyed working with the archivists during the project.

Unfortunately, the participation level dwindled to the point that the project has been shelved for the time being as ATS pursues other new and exciting projects for the membership..

I do take offense to some of the accusations being thrown into this thread concerning the project.

Hours upon hours over months were put into the project by the archivists, some contributed more, some less, most all were initially active, some faded away due to the time it took to convert these FOIA from database files to ATS threads.

As far as antar saying she never had a question answered is just plain shocking to me since I know I helped her numerous times last year as did other teams members, and while I can understand her disappointment that the project is currently shelved ( I share her disappointment), I don't feel like it is in good taste to badmouth the efforts of the people who volunteered to try and get the project going.


My sincere thanks to all who volunteered to help, it didn't work out the first go around, hopefully we (ATS) can take another stab at it in the future.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Thanks for that response JacK. I was really hoping that it would be sooner than later that the FOIA and document archivist positions came back. I have already embarked on my own FOIA adventure this evening, and am hoping to hear back within 20 days or so.