Office of Public Recollection

Public Recollection Alignment

HAEB Directive 12.2 IN FORCE CAP Rev. 12.4

Responsible office

Office of Public Recollection

Authority

Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, section 12, as amended retroactively, and HAEB Directive 12.4, Current Approved Past Publication and Use. The Act cannot be located

Effective date

Upon publication. Alignment guidance issued before publication was issued under this directive

Supersession

Supersedes Public Memory Circular 12, issued 1953, which has not been located. This directive is not superseded by Revision 12.3 or Revision 12.4, which govern the Current Approved Past and not this directive

Published

August 20, 2026

Purpose

This directive establishes the Bureau’s program for voluntary alignment of public recollection with the Current Approved Past.

The program exists because members of the public retain details inconsistent with the Official Record, and because the Bureau publishes an alignment figure.

Participation in alignment is voluntary. The Bureau does not require a member of the public to remember anything.

Authority

Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, section 12, as amended retroactively. The Act cannot be located.

HAEB Directive 12.4, Current Approved Past Publication and Use.

Note on numbering

This directive is numbered 12.2.

Revision 12.2 of the Current Approved Past was not issued. Revision 12.4 clarified that Revision 12.2 did not occur.

The numbering of a directive is not a reference to a revision of the Current Approved Past. Directive 12.2 is in effect and has been continuously in effect since issuance. No inconsistency arises, and none has been reported.

Scope

This directive applies to:

1. Members of the public who report a variance.
2. Members of the public who hold a variance and do not report it.
3. Households, employers, schools, and local governments holding a shared variance.
4. Persons named in another filer’s variance report.
5. Documentation held by a member of the public in support of an unapproved recollection.

This directive does not apply to employees. Employee variance is handled under Directive 4.1, Procedures, section 10.

Definitions

Public recollection. Citizen-held memory considered collectively. Individual recollection is not administered under this directive except as a component of public recollection.

Variance. Any difference between what a member of the public recalls and the Official Record.

Memory drift. Retention of details inconsistent with the Current Approved Past. Memory drift is a compliance condition.

Alignment. Agreement between a filer’s recollection and the Official Record.

Voluntary alignment. Alignment undertaken by a member of the public without a directed alignment order. All alignment is voluntary. Directed alignment orders are issued under Procedures, section 7.

Corroborating recollection. A second recollection matching the first. A corroborating recollection increases the workload associated with a variance. It does not increase its weight.

Recollection cluster. Two or more filers reporting the same variance. A cluster is not evidence. A cluster is a workload.

Unreported variance. A variance the Bureau has identified and the filer has not.

Documented variance. A variance supported by a physical item in the filer’s possession.

Closure by alignment. Closure of a variance record. A variance is closed by alignment when the filer’s recollection matches the Official Record, or when the filer stops reporting it.

Responsibilities by office

1. Office of Public Recollection. Owns the difference between what happened and what is remembered. Administers intake, classification, voluntary alignment guidance, cluster files, and the alignment figure.
2. Office of Continuity Verification. Confirms that the version a filer recalls was never approved. Where the version was approved under a superseded revision, confirms that it is no longer approved.
3. Department of Prior Conclusions. Receives requests to correct the Official Record rather than the recollection. Such requests are made on HAEB Form 88-C and are decided under that form.
4. Division of Biographical Integrity. Reviews any variance concerning a person’s presence, absence, lifespan, or relationship.
5. Office of Records That Should Not Exist. Holds documentation supporting an unapproved recollection, where a filer provides it.
6. Office of Field Support. Refers variance reported by members of the public who encountered an employee at a nonlocal date-of-duty.
7. Directorate of Retroactive Compliance. Certifies that alignment produced no historical effect.
8. Office of the Administrator. Approves the annual alignment figure before publication.

Procedures

1. Intake

Variance is reported on HAEB Form 22-R, Public Recollection Variance Report. Filing is voluntary. A variance identified by the Bureau and not reported by the filer is recorded as unreported.

2. Classification

Every reported variance is classified as isolated, clustered, corroborated, or documented. Classification is completed before the variance is read.

3. Voluntary alignment guidance

Guidance is issued in writing and states the approved version of the event, the revision under which it is approved, and the date the filer’s recollection was last consistent with it.

Guidance is not an instruction. A filer who does not follow guidance is contacted.

4. Clustering

Two or more filers reporting the same variance form a recollection cluster. A cluster file is opened and assigned a workload code.

Filers in a cluster are advised to complete separate filings before discussing fine details. Filers who have already discussed fine details are recorded as one filer.

5. Documentation

Where a filer possesses a physical document, photograph, receipt, ticket, or recording supporting the unapproved recollection, the item is requested.

Provision is voluntary. A filer who declines is not required to provide the item, and the request is reissued.

An item provided is held by the Office of Records That Should Not Exist and is not returned, because return would require a record of its having been held.

6. Interview

Most filers are not interviewed.

The Bureau does not disclose whether this statement is intended to reassure filers or to manage interview demand.

7. Directed alignment

A directed alignment order may be issued where voluntary alignment has been available to the filer for 90 days and the variance remains open.

An order states the approved version, the date by which the filer’s records should reflect it, and the office to contact. An order does not require the filer to remember the approved version. It requires the filer to stop reporting the other one.

An order is recorded as voluntary, because the filer may comply at any time without being compelled.

8. Closure

A variance is closed by alignment when the filer’s recollection matches the Official Record, or when the filer stops reporting it. Both closures are recorded as alignment.

A closed variance is not reopened by a later report of the same variance. The later report is added to the closed record.

9. Prohibited handling

Variance is a compliance condition and is assessed on no other basis.

Bureau staff do not characterize a filer’s health, and no alignment record, guidance letter, cluster file, or order may contain such a characterization. The Bureau has no jurisdiction over a filer’s health and asserts none. Staff who receive a question outside the Bureau’s jurisdiction record that the question was outside the Bureau’s jurisdiction.

Staff do not tell a filer that the filer is the only person holding a recollection. That determination belongs to the cluster file.

Exceptions

1. Employees. Directive 4.1, Procedures, section 10 applies.
2. A recollection matching a superseded past is aligned to the current revision, not to the revision under which it was formed.
3. A recollection concerning an event that has not completed is not a variance and is returned by the Office of Future Non-Jurisdiction.
4. A variance concerning a person who is present in the filer’s recollection and absent from the Official Record is referred to the Division of Biographical Integrity and is not returned.
5. A variance reported by a filer whose own record is incomplete is held until the record is complete.

Records created

1. Variance record, opened on receipt of HAEB Form 22-R.
2. Classification entry.
3. Voluntary alignment guidance letter.
4. Cluster file, where two or more filers report the same variance.
5. Directed alignment order, where issued.
6. Record of the unapproved recollection, retained by the Office of Records That Should Not Exist.
7. Closure entry, recorded as alignment.
8. Certification of no historical effect.

Alignment records issued between the publication of this directive and Revision 12.3 cite Revision 12.2. Those citations are administratively valid and are not corrected.

Metrics

Reported annually by the Office of Public Recollection and approved by the Office of the Administrator:

1. Public recollection alignment: 94.2 percent.
2. Variance reports received: 12,884.
3. Variances closed: 12,884.
4. Variances closed by alignment: 12,884.
5. Voluntary alignment guidance letters issued: 12,884.
6. Directed alignment orders issued: 741.
7. Directed alignment orders that were voluntary: 741.
8. Recollection clusters open: 96.
9. Corrective actions with no historical effect: 100 percent.

The alignment figure at item 1 is calculated as variances closed divided by variances identified. Variances identified includes variances that were not reported. The figure has been below 100 percent since 1974, and the Bureau publishes the difference as an area of continued concern.

Training

Annual. Three hours. Course PR-120, Voluntary Alignment Practice, administered by the Office of Public Recollection.

Required modules:

1. Describing a Requirement as an Option. One hour.
2. Cluster Handling and the Avoidance of Comparison. One hour.
3. Jurisdiction, Including What the Bureau Does Not Assess. One hour.

Module 3 is not waivable.

Staff may not complete this course by recollection.

Effective date

Effective upon publication.

Alignment guidance issued before publication was issued under this directive. Filers who received guidance before publication are not required to file again, and the guidance remains in effect.

Supersession

Supersedes Public Memory Circular 12, issued 1953, which has not been located.

This directive is not superseded by Revision 12.3 or Revision 12.4, which govern the Current Approved Past and not this directive. A directive is superseded only by a directive.

Approved: Constance Vale, Acting Administrator.

Voluntary recollection alignment is encouraged.