Again some of the problems we encounter with E-mails are the same that
we encounter with other Media's.
We will never control our staff/employee's 100%, but we are required to
set guiding policies and try to enforce them to the best of our
abilities.
We can't always say that we are in total control of the records that are
even paper format.

I am currently Implementing E-mail Management one Department at the time
and can say out of experience that 10% of the solution is IT and 90% RM.
The hardest part is doing the RM Analysis of the business records that
get created by using E-mails. It helps to have a user-friendly
integration between your ECM/ERMS and Outlook, but the integration is
totally useless if you have no idea of the users RM needs. 

Some of our general rules are as follow:

User's are only responsible for cataloging the E-mails they sent
(Internal & External) and the E-mails they receive from outside the
agency (External only) which were created in connection with the
transaction of official business. 
--This limits the users responsibilities, identifies the E-mail Record
Copy and minimizes the risk of having multiple copies of the same E-mail
cataloged into the system

User's are only required to catalog the last E-mail and all E-mails with
attachment(s) in a chain of E-mails.
--Again this is to minimize the risk of multiplication, without the loss
of any E-mail attachments.

All Transitory Messages (Records that are created primarily for the
communication of information, as opposed to communications designed for
the perpetuation of knowledge; Examples of Transitory Messages are: My
Phone number is 555.555.5555 or Meeting reminders) and Personal Messages
(Examples are: Discussion over lunch meetings, out of work activities or
Health issues) can & should be removed from your E-mail Account.
--This minimizes the risk of Junk E-mails being cataloged into the
system and encourages the users to clear out their E-mail Accounts 

If a user has E-mails that contain Personal Information, that they wish
to keep, they are required to transfer those into a Outlook folder
marked as "Personal" or an network folder marked "Personal E-mails" on
their computer.
--Even so we hope to have the majority of E-mails in the Records
Management System we still need to search the active E-mails when
responding to records requests. This procedure helps us identify easily
personal E-mails that should be exclude from the responds.

If a user wishes to catalog E-mails that they received internally,
because they feel the E-mails contains vital information, they are free
to do so.
--This was added to provide the user some flexibility to achieve higher
buy in from them. User X does not trust User Y.

No user should write anything in an E-mail that they would not write on
any other type of communication (Letter, Fax, etc..). 
--This is a important point to be made during any training session. Too
often we hear about inappropriate E-mails hurting a Company or Agency.


Cataloging = Dragging an E-mail into a linked Outlook Folder that
represent a Classification/Record Plan that the user was trained to
understand.
If you don't have ECM/EDRM yet, than you can just exchange the word
catalog with keep.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they
were to success when they gave up. 
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)  

Simon De Witt

Tampa Bay Water scans all email for viruses, 
worms, and inappropriate material and blocks email
deemed harmful or inappropriate. Email service is
provided to Tampa Bay Water users for business
purposes.

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