The Blockade Board's importance was not as a joint staff or as a group that planned only naval operations, but rather as an early and largely successful attempt by the US Navy to produce a military strategy that was coordinated fully with national strategy and government policies. The effectiveness of the blockade was a sore topic for both the Navy Department and the State Department. By international law, the nation initiating a blockade had to proclaim and enforce it. With the membership of the Blockade Board established, the members had but a vague notion of their mission. An undated and unsigned outline titled "Memoir of Topics" provides an indication of the thoughts and discussion of board members. Found in a collection in the National Archives, the memorandum lays out most of the criteria—many of them beyond Welles's directive—that board members believed necessary to address for the Union to achieve an effective blockade.