Hi Susan,



We had a company-wide "Cleanup Campaign" last April and, while it entailed no moves to a new building, perhaps your situation can benefit from our "lessons learned".



1. The idea for this Cleanup Campaign came from our President, whose idea seems to have germinated early in the week with a planned one-day execution ... the Friday of the SAME week. Lesson Learned:  you need to spend some time planning the campaign (the President was convinced to put it off by a month).



2. The promotion of the Cleanup Campaign was handled by our Marketing Department, which supplied all sorts of ideas, such as 'goodie bags' (trays filled with cleaning tools and supplies), awards for best overall cleanup, publicity on our intranet and at the company-wide meeting, etc. Lesson Learned:  you need to (a) publicise this event to the hilt (shouldn't be a problem for you, since you're moving), and (b) offer PERSONAL incentives.



3. We arranged to have confidential shred bins at multiple locations on each floor. They were deployed a couple of weeks before D-Day (as in "Destruction Day"). Lesson Learned:  you need to make it quick and convenient. Yes, there's a risk someone will get rid of "stuff" that should be kept. But that risk exists anyway (especially in a mass event), and the best solution is to educate the users (see # 7 below).



4. The President's Office wanted a shred truck on site. From a purely records management perspective, this was a waste of money (and a parking nightmare--we're in the Financial District of Manhattan, which features street layout from BEFORE the American Revolution), as we had already arranged for the shred bins. But the President's Office saw it as a symbol of the event, so we ordered it. Lesson Learned:  consider this part of the marketing effort.



5. On D-Day, the Records Management Department and the Facilities management staff arranged to "float" through the building to help users figure what to keep, what to shred, and what to recycle. Lesson Learned:  hand-holding is crucial and makes for good long-term relationships.



6. The company arranged for 'swaps' of equipment, books, CDs, etc. So if you had a pile of books or a desk fan, instead of throwing them in the trash, you could include them in the swap. Lesson Learned:  there's more than records out there, and you need to help folks deal with them, too.



7. We published, over and over again and in many places, reminders of what could (should) be destroyed or recycled without review, and what could NOT. Our records management Help Desk has boilerplate language to cover this (see below). Lesson Learned:  be as clear and as specific as possible--and assume everyone has forgotten your message by the next day.



What to recycle and what to shred

Separate your documents into what can be recycled and what can be shredded.



What you can recycle (what we call non-records):

Copies, drafts, notes, working papers, worksheets, research articles, calendars, travel schedules, mailing lists, summaries, indexes, logs, printouts of emails (email on paper is not a record); and all non-EDC materials: brochures, reports, magazines, etc. that are not created for or by EDC.

a. Personal Papers - Personal papers are not considered records and are therefore outside the scope of the records retention program.

b. Duplicate Copies - Duplicate copies of records can be discarded when they are no longer needed for the purposes for which they were created.

c. Drafts, Notes, and Working Papers - When drafts are created in the preparation of NYCEDC records, they can be discarded upon creation of the final version. Working papers and notes may be discarded upon creation of the final version of the record to which they pertain, if no longer needed to support or corroborate its findings, analysis, or conclusions.

Reminder: any records, whether duplicates or not, that are covered under a litigation hold must be preserved and marked as under a litigation hold. This applies to both paper and electronic records.

You only need to save one copy of official EDC final documents. All other copies can be recycled. Most RFP responses, for example, are considered "duplicates." Since the Contracts Departments files the official copy of record, all other copies are "duplicates." Copies of Pinks (official copy comes from Accounting), department budgets (from Budget), personnel records (from HR); contracts (from Contracts and Legal): all of these are considered convenience copies: worthwhile for the user but not meant for storage.

What you can shred

Non-records that contain confidential, sensitive, or personally identifiable information (e.g., Social Security Numbers, banking information, etc.). If your records fall under the shredding category, submit an e-mail request to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. You will receive an e-mail reply asking you to confirm that the records that you wish to destroy are eligible for destruction. Once the reply confirmation is received, the records will be picked up by Records Management for disposal.





BTW, I recommend you troll through the records management listserv archives for information on this topic--it's come up before.



Good luck!



Fred

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Frederic J. Grevin

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212-312-3903 (w)



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