Terry, I suggest you inform your organisation of two things:

1. There are some conversations that must be recorded.  Content dictates
record value and notes should be taken of some conversations so they are
recorded.

2. They've used the fact that verbal conversations are undiscoverable
(except from testimony) to say that IMs should be undiscoverable.  Their
reasoning is faulty because of facts mentioned by others, which I would
summarise to:  verbal conversations are undiscoverable because they can't be
discovered, but IMs can and therefore should be managed.  Not only does
content dictate whether something is a record, but medium does play a part.
Although we attempt to mitigate against difference of treatment between
discoverable medium types, there is a marked difference of treatment between
discoverable and non-discoverable types.

I feel like I've missed something but it's not coming to mind, so I'll leave
it to others, so respond again later.

Grahame Gould
Information Co-ordinator
Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley
Australia
Web: www.thelastfrontier.com.au

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The views expressed in this email may or may not be the official position of
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Terry Schofield
Sent: Friday, 25 February 2005 2:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Instant messages (IM)

Hello list.  I'm looking for some help in explaining why it is good practice
to
manage Instant Messages (IM) as though they are company records.  I realize
that
IM should be managed based on content, in accordance with our Record
Retention
Schedule.  But I want to prepare a strong argument because I fear some
pushback
is on my horizon.  I spent some time yesterday afternoon searching through
the
List Archives and found some helpful information, but nothing directly on
point.
Here's some background to my situation.

My company is currently looking to establish a policy on IM.  We know that
some
employees are now using external IM for both personal and business
communications, so we really need to establish a policy.  But first, we
chose to
do some needs analysis to explore the benefits vs.. risks to the company of
allowing either public or enterprise IM.  Yesterday, we held a Workshop to
initiate dialogue on the use of IM in our company.  Around 30 interested
employees voluntarily attended.  We heard from the employees (the few brave
employees willing to admit they use it) that they do find IM helpful, and it
increases collaboration when working on a matrixed team project.  I then
raised
the issue that using IM for business purposes imposes a responsibility on
our
company to properly manage the IM based on content in accordance with our RM
Policy and Record Retention Schedule.  Seems logical to me, but the response
I
received was, "My team uses IM in business conversation, just like we would
if
we got up and walked to the next cubicle.  We don't have to record verbal
conversations, so we should just make a policy that states we don't keep any
IM,
just dispose of it all."

That's when the little hairs on the back of my neck started to rise, and I
felt
a panic about to set in.  I don't think it is right to "just not keep IM",
especially since we have already adopted an E-mail Policy which requires
e-mails
to be managed in accordance with the RM Policy and Record Retention
Schedule.
In my mind, this would create a conflict.  And I think if it was acceptable
to
have a policy stating that "no emails are kept", then the world wouldn't
have as
many lawsuits and fines for failure to retain e-mails; everyone would take
that
route.

I also believe I read something in the List Archives suggesting that verbal
conversations are considered transient forms of communication and are not
included in Discovery.  So, should my argument be based on the laws of
Discovery?

I am a staff of one and have no one here with Records Management expertise
to
help me.  My manager will back me up, but he's relying on me to provide him
with
the argument.  Any help or direction you can offer will be appreciated.

Thank you!

Terry Schofield

 Sr. Records Management Analyst

 PJM Interconnection

 [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

 (610) 666-4519



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Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance