Administrative Files, 1996 - 2009

The Administrative series concerns the running of Hagel's Nebraska and D.C. offices and all activities of its staff that fall outside of what other series in the Hagel Archives cover, such as legislation, issue mail from constituents, grants, press, and speeches. The Administrative series covers Hagel's twelve years in office, 1997 to 2008, and is arranged by topic and activity in twenty-one sub-series, from Academy Nominations to Use of Name files.

Academy Nominations are eleven folders with application material for, and correspondence with, young Nebraskans Hagel nominated for the Air Force, Army, Naval, and Merchant Marine academies. Only one folder covers 1997 to 2000, which contains material for the 2002 through 2005 graduating classes. The other ten folders cover the 2006 through 2013 classes. Successful candidate application files--those Hagel nominated--have been retained after removal of material with social security numbers, educational evaluative material like grades and test scores, and other private information. Unsuccessful candidate materials were not retained for the collection. Candidates nominated by Hagel did not necessarily attend one of the academies. Nominations are merely one step in a candidate's journey to acceptance into a military academy.

Approved Letters is four boxes of form letters and approved letters written and kept by Hagel's office to use when responding to issue mail. They are letters that can be automatically sent to constituents for a wide variety of topics or are sample letters that include approved language that staff can base new letters off of . Many were kept in binders, alphabetically by topic, these were transferred in order to folders. It also includes drafts as new form letters are created.

Awards and Board Service is one feet of files about awards given to Hagel and boards on which he served from 1998 to 2008. This includes letters informing Hagel of the award, logistics for award presentations, material from the ceremonies, invitations to join a board, information on board meetings, and reports created for board members.

Christmas Cards include cards and letters sent to Hagel, both original and photocopied, and files surrounding the creation of the official Hagel family card sent out every year.

Contact Information are lists and charts of phone numbers, addresses, titles and other contact information, along with who to contact in a variety of situations, for Hagel staff. The lists came from office-created binders, printed books, pamphlets, and memos.

Correspondence includes letters of congratulation, thank you, and sympathy Hagel sent, as well as thank you letters Hagel received. Hagel sent letters of congratulations about awards, job promotions, birthdays, and so on. Hagel sent letters of support for a cause or to add weight to a third-party invitation. Some letters include notes, drafts and background material from staff. He sent sympathy letters to people in the hospital and to loved ones of people who passed away. He sent thank you letters to people who helped him on congressional delegations and other trips, sent him gifts, invited him to an event or meeting, said kind things, and so on. Occasionally, letters by these people are attached. Finally, Hagel and his staff received thank you letters for writing recommendations, arranging tours, speaking to groups, attending meetings, helping resolve issues with federal agencies, and other assistance and kindnesses.

Gift and donation files relate to gifts Hagel received and donations and gifts Hagel sent to individuals and charitable organizations. Files about gifts Hagel received include correspondence, memoes, and some of the actual gifts like poems and other paper ephemera. Files about the donations and gifts Hagel sent include letters of request, other correspondence, information on what was sent, and sometimes the donation itself. Examples of typical donations were recipes for local cookbooks, senate mugs, College World Series t-shirts, photos, and lunches with Hagel.

Invitations for Staff consist of files on events that Hagel directed his staff to attend in his place. Declined invitations for which neither Hagel nor staff attended were not retained for the collection. The series includes event summaries, direction on who should attend, original invitations, and ephemera from the event. They are organized by the date of the event, not the date of invite.

Mail reports consist of six feet of both Hot Topic Reports and Daily Mail Reports. The Hagel staff kept meticulous records of the letters and phone calls receieved by the Hagel offices. Staff tracked numbers for topics of interest, pros and cons for certain topics, in-state and out-of-state senders, and form of contact (email, letter, phone). With this data, they created daily and weekly reports and hot topic reports. The latter were for issues that were popular with Nebraskans at any given time, as determined by the number of call and letters on an issue. Examples of hot topics were the start of the Iraq War, Supreme Court nominations, farm bill subsidies, and September 11, 2001.

Notebooks are 36 handwritten notebooks or groupings of loose notes taken by Hagel staff members from 1996 to 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, and undated. None of these are attributed to a specific staff member, though a careful researcher could identify the appropriate staff. Also included are a very few sporadic notebooks attributed to four specific staff members.

Office concerns Hagel's physical offices in Washington, D.C. and in several towns across Nebraska. The files have information on office selection, moves, floor plans, electronics, security, and budget, along with office software and website information.

Phone call cards include phone calls Hagel wanted to make and phone messages in log books, note pads, or print offs.

Photo opportunities contains forms for scheduling groups and individuals who requested a meeting and/or photo with Hagel, along with records keeping track of the photos. The files cover 1999 and 2000 in depth and touch on Hagel's final three years in office. Though not complete to Hagel's entire twelve years in office, these files do shed light on the number of constituents who visited Hagel's D.C. office for a brief photo op, and the work entailed in planning and follow up by Hagel's staff.

Pink Slips are an extensive series of letters received by the Hagel offices and designated by Hagel staff as needing to be "pink slipped" or "pinked," which was an internal shorthand meaning that these letters needed to be seen by Senator Hagel personally. They include a wide range of types of letters, from personal to official business.

Policies and procedure files show how the Hagel office was run, including standards and best practices for the various responsibilities of staff and interns. This includes policies and procedures for ethical issues, handling the large amount of issue mail from the public, casework for Nebraskans, scheduling tours for visiting Nebraskans, and so on. Select manuals used in Hagel's offices and created by both Hagel staff and outside offices are included here.

Schedules is a large subseries of four feet covering events and meetings Hagel agreed to go to while in the Senate. Files include invitations, staff forms summarizing the event particulars, memoes on if Hagel will attend, event ephemera, detailed event schedules, and planning material if Hagel's offices was involved in coordination of the event. The latter includes coordination of presidential visits to Nebraska. Meeting log files have business cards stapled to dates indicating the people at each event. Acceptance unknown files are invitations from dignaries and other VIPs for which Hagel's attendance is unknown.

Staff and Intern files are six feet of hiring records, job descriptions, daily responsibilities, changes in personnel, staff issues in general, and staff schedules. Staff schedules is the largest subseries; files include records of meetings, events and conferences that staff attended as part of their job and include invitations, event summaries, and ephemera that was given to attendees. International staff trips are also included here. A recommendation file are the letters Hagel sent to support former staff members in their employment and higher education pursuits. Letters Hagel wrote for interns are mixed in with the intern files, and letters for friends and contemporaries applying for public and private positions, memberships, and service opportunities are mixed into the Pink Slip files. Likewise, letters for former staff, friends, and contemporaries pursuing high-level government positions are found throughout the Legislative Files series. Background information and requests accompany many of the letters.

Tours are lists kept by Hagel staff of Nebraskans set to tour the Capitol Complex and/or visit Hagel's D.C. office. Though files cover Hagel's entire twelve years in office, they are not complete. Instead, they provide a sampling and idea of the type and amount of work performed by Hagel's staff to greet and accommodate visitors from Hagel's home state.

Use of name files are requests for Hagel to add his name to events or a cause. They usually have a 'Use of Name Request' attached to the original request and any relevant background information. Examples of these requests are for honorary board membership and committees and event co-hosting. Use of name requests here were largely for situations where no additional action was required by Hagel or his staff other than giving permission to use his name.