<In cases of competing dynamics among stakeholders, whose "current" and
"future" business needs should prevail?  
In reading List responses, I'm sometimes left with the impression that
in 
such a scenario, with a matchup between the records manager and the
records 
creator, the most powerful person (Dr. Kissinger) would have prevailed,
legal requirements notwithstanding.  Would most of you have been okay
with that?  Is allowing the most powerful person to prevail simply part
of the price of surviving professionally in the "modern world?"  Or do
most records managers strive to ensure that legal requirements prevail,
regardless of political pressure, to say nothing of their own political
views, etc?>

Those with the power usually influence and/or set the administrative
value on documents.  RIM folks collect the value data and determine
retention based on the four (or five) values represented, with the
longest time period of the four (or five) being the chosen retention.
Technically and ethically, if the legal requirements require longer
retention then that's the retention that must be applied.  However --
setting the policy and monitoring/managing the RIM program based on the
policy is not the same as enforcing the policy.  Some RIM folks have the
power in their org to enforce, and if this were the case for Mr.
Kissinger he would have been called to task for removing the records and
possibly been made to return them.  But! if that power did not lie with
the RIM folks, then the big political cheese will win out.  That's
reality.  Personally, if I had been the RIM folk involved (if there was
indeed one at all), and I did not have enforcement power, then the best
I could do would be to document the activity that occurred for future
reference (which appears to be what happened).

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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