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Jay Trainer

I joined the National Archives & Records Administration as a student trainee at the Dayton Federal Records Center facility while in the process of receiving a B.A. in History (I have since received an M.A. in History). Aside from the prospect of steady employment, I was inspired by how welcome I was made during my interview process.

From the Dayton field site, I moved to the headquarters of the Office of Regional Records Services, where I held various Management Analyst positions that mostly focused on budget and administrative issues. I also spent one year at the Washington National Records Center, where the focus was on developing my supervisory skills.

In late 2004, I was named the Assistant Director of the Federal Records Centers program. As the Assistant Director, I provide guidance and set policy for a program that has over 1,100 full time employees in 17 facilities nationwide and an operating budget of over $140 million.

Our Federal Records Centers currently store over 25 million boxes of records for just about every Federal agency from all 3 branches of the Federal government. We also provide a multitude of services, such as reference, photocopies, etc. My job allows me the opportunity to visit with our regional staff on a regular basis to see how things are going and to meet with other Federal agencies to address their records management concerns.

In the past 10 years, I have been involved in the planning and opening of 10 new or replacement records center facilities nationwide. To know that I helped to create state-of-the-art facilities that will protect important Federal documents and allow other National Archives employees to conduct their work safely and efficiently for years to come is very gratifying. These new facilities, as well as future sites, will most likely still be in use even after my National Archives career concludes.

The National Archives is full of synergy. There is a cooperative effort to meet personal, program, and agency goals and I am always impressed as I travel to our facilities nationwide to see how friendly and committed our staff are to the National Archives mission.

 

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