> We are going over procedures and I would like to know if their is best
> practices out their for off-site destruction?

 Might want to take a look here to get some ideas...
 http://www.naidonline.org/facts.html

Do you send the destruction report of what is to be destroyed to the
> appropriate department managers for them to evaluate and give their final
> approval of the boxes that are to be destroyed?

 Yes. Seeing as they are the "owning organization", all destruction (even 
though it's supported by a retention schedule) requires their confirmation 
and authorization prior to destruction. No one else would know as well if 
there may be a need to retain the information for an extended period, or if 
there might be a destruction moratorium due to legal issues.

Do you send the off-site destruction report to your legal department for
> them to review and give final approval of destruction?

 Our destruction is actually done on-site, and no, we don't secure a 
secondary approval from legal once it's been approved by the owning 
organization. Legal communicates with us if there is a need to retain any 
information that is from non-specific organizations.

Or do you go by the retention schedule that your company has created and
> pull a destruction report on what is ready for destruction and send to
> your off-site vendor with out any approvals from the departments or your
> legal department?

 Some organizations are satisfied with t his option, but I see it as a 
prescription for disaster. One of the aspects related to the records that 
many don't think about is the potential of the records having some 
significance beyond the required retention period for historic, intrinsic or 
enduring value. We have a notation in the "disposition authority" column 
stating if a record series should be evaluated for it's archival value prior 
to destruction, but not all organizations do... and even so, there may be 
certain records within that series that have greater significance than 
others, so a case-by-case evaluation may be appropriate, depending on the 
mission of your organization.

Thanks ahead for any input that you can send my way.

 Another thing I'd recommend is ensuring the date reflected on the 
destruction notice reflect the ACTUAL DAY the destruction has been 
completed, NOT the day they were pulled for destruction and sent offsite. If 
they haven't been destroyed yet, even though the action has been initiated, 
they can still be considered discoverable.

Larry

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