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The administrative files contain executive meeting minutes from the Conference's earliest days through the late 1980s. During those years, members kept the minutes in large, hardcover binders; the archivist removed the papers from those binders for preservation purposes and placed them in acid-free folders in the order in which they appeared in the original binders. In the 1990s, Conference members began filing their meeting minutes under the heading of "chronological files" along with meeting announcements and correspondence. The chronological files became series two of this collection and researchers will find more meeting minutes there. However, there is a gap in the Conference's meeting minutes from 1989-1994.

The name of this series comes right from the Conference's own record-keeping system. In the 1990s it stopped storing meeting minutes separately in oversized binders and began interfiling them with correspondence, meeting announcements, memorandums, and treasurer's reports in folders labeled with the current month and year. Minutes include regularly scheduled events, such as executive committee meetings, as well as ad hoc meetings. Memos include those sent by the NYSCLMHD as well as those received by the Conference from outside sources such the New York State Office of Mental Health and the Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.

This series contains information related to state reinvestment plans, Medicaid concerns, managed care, and housing. While materials on all of these topics also can be found in Series 5, 6, and 7, the documents in this series were all kept specifically by the director of legislative and government affairs and therefore remain together in their own series.

These records are specific to the counties of New York as they participated in coordinated care efforts for people with mental health needs. There are documents regarding activities unique to certain counties, such as closures of facilities and resignations of Conference members. There are also letters, memos, and reports covering topics like mandate relief recommendations, comprehensive outpatient programs, health needs surveys, and funding issues.

This series focuses on some of the Conference's more specific endeavors, including (but not limited to) those with definitive start and end dates as opposed to ongoing tasks. Examples include the Kids Oneida project, the Commission on the 21st Century, various grant applications, and the committees for developmental disabilities and chemical dependency.

Managed care, in its most general form, refers to coordination of health services in such a way that quality care is provided, but costs are kept low. Many of the records in this series deal with Medicare issues, of which special needs plans (SNPs) are an important part since they focus effort on particular groups of people with very specific needs. Researchers will find a variety of records such as memos, letters, information packets, and meeting notes covering areas like Medicare financing, managed care in rural areas, strategic planning, technical assistance, and committee work.

The subject files house documents of long-term value that do not belong to the Conference's other record series. There are correspondence and memo files of specific members of the group, such as Peter Freed (counsel) and Gerry Landsberg (New York University), background on shared staff issues, and information on partnerships with the New York State divisions of alcohol abuse and chemical dependency as well as state housing committees. Researchers will also find documents pertaining to consolidation of services and positions over the years, particularly in the 1990s. Additionally, there are manuals, booklets, and conference materials about disaster preparedness in the mental health profession. Most of the collection's photographs are also located in this series, with the exception of the Commission on the 21st Century images which are in Series #5.

The Conference began publishing its own newsletter in the early days of its existence, but most of the issues from the 1980s and 1990s are not included in this collection. Researchers will find a consistent run from 1979 through 1981, a few issues from 1993, 1994, and the late 1990s, then another consistent run from 2000 through 2008. There are also several issues of a newsletter published specially by the Conference chair.

This series consists of various reports and booklets that were used by the NYSCLMHD in the course of business, but were not always produced by the Conference. They are from organizations such as the New York State legislature, the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, the state prison system, and the Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors themselves. Topics range from mental healthcare in the twenty-first century, to juvenile mental health, to criminal offenders with mental illness.