Nat'l Cancer Institute CAM Board agenda & minutes 2011

NCI FOIA Office
Building 31, Room 10A48
31 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-496-2999
Fax number: 301-435-2931

To whom it may concern:

Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to and copies of agenda and minutes from 2011 meetings of the National Cancer Institute's Complementary and Alternative Medicine Board, along with associated metadata.

I would like to receive the information in electronic format. (Attachments to e-mail if feasible, on CDROM if not.)

Please waive any applicable fees. Release of the information is in the public interest because it will contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and activities. The requested records will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press. This request is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I agree to pay up to $20 for these records. If fees exceed $20, please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

If my request is denied in whole or part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I request that any deletions be "blacked out" rather than "whited out". I will also expect you to release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. I, of course, reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to deny a waiver of fees.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Phillip Mocek

If that is part of the document it will be included, but we cannot "add" or change the document to include the information you are requesting. We can not create a record in response to a FOIA request, but if any of this information is available and already created, we will include it.

Suzy Milliard, CIPP/G
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Coordinator
National Cancer Institute
Bldg. 31, Room 10A48, MSC 2580
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD=C2=A0 20892
301-496-2999 (ph)
301-435-2931 (fax)

Ms. Milliard requests, "can you please explain what you mean by `metadata'."

I mean data about the data. For an electronic document created by word processing software, this is the data about the document that is not typically printed along with the finished product: filename, author, other contributors, modification dates, editing notes, etc.

Please see <http://www.clearwellsystems.com/e-discovery-blog/2011/02/28/judge-scheindlin-decides-that-the-metadata-is-%e2%80%9cintegral%e2%80%9d-in-foia-case-fmr-judge-ron-hedges-weighs-in/> for an informative analysis of related issues.

Ms. Milliard described a call-in number and passcode, then asked, "Are you okay with that phone number and passcode being redacted from the records?"

Yes. Redaction of that phone number and passcode is acceptable.

On May 31, Suzy Milliard, CIPP/G to National Cancer Institute, wrote, "Along with the number and passcode redaction, there is also another place that gives information on a tentative upcoming meeting. Are you okay with that being redacted?"

No, I would prefer that such information not be redacted. Absent further detail, "information on a tentative upcoming meeting" which was discussed at an NCI CAM Board meeting sounds like something the public should be aware of, not something which should be hidden from us.