Greg Schildmeyer wrote:
Developing records series (categories or buckets) that are broader in
scope and simpler in disposition so that users can understand them and
will be willing to use them, may be the best solution we could hope for.
It can enable some degree of records management to be put in place
systematically throughout the enterprise rather than just in specific
silos.

Greg, I wholeheartedly agree with you (and the articles author) on this.
One idea I've floated around is applying retentions to the desktop based
on an employee's function. In other words, if you are an accounts
payable employee performing primarily that function, you could apply a
functional accounts payable retention to that employee's e-mail, office
files, etc.... It wouldn't work in every place, but I bet it would in a
good portion. Retention schedule design should always be as simple as
possible to facilitate operations - regardless of media or technology.
However, note that the simpler a schedule gets, the longer the potential
retention as you start placing different related series into a larger
bucket, which must default to the longest retention requirement. In
addition, in simplifying retention dispositions - particularly
conditional ones - you tend to default to the longest retention based on
an assumption as to when the condition was occurred (assuming, as is
often the case, that no system is in place to indicate the condition has
been met - not uncommon in large intergovernmental systems where one
branch of government meets the condition impacting another's record
keeping- an argument for greater electronic records integration if there
ever was one).

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution & Stores
(FREDS)
1620 SE 190th Avenue
Portland OR 97233
phone: (503)988-3741
fax: (503)988-3754
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