Thank you all for answering my questions and concerns!
I've been reading the contributions over the past few days and the related RAIN articles, and education suggestions. I'm an example of someone who 'landed' in Records Management, and have been educating myself through job experience, and research and seminars. My major was in Communications-New Media. I am seeing how great it would be to obtain education and certification, as I believe it would give my 'voice' more clout. It's easy to forget that, since I am involved in these concerns on a daily basis, that there are many who still don't even think about Records Management and how it may affect all areas of litigation/audit for a company, not just those cases concerning member/client records.
I am gathering as much research as possible, and will be going through the archives for the list concerning this as well. My goal is to try and emphasize the importance of at least having a better back up plan for the vital records, as there is not a clear understanding of the risk of having back up tapes being the only copy of some of these records, and scheduling the destruction of the original hard copies accordingly. (i.e. making sure that these are not lost in transit to the vaults). I also do not believe there is a clear understanding that it is not easy to retrieve those images from the back up tapes.( time and cost). If a disaster were to occur that destroyed the systems we have in place to retrieve and print those images, then we would have to outsource to another document mangagement company, etc. I'm trying my best to get documented controls in place, and communicated clearly, as the destruction proposal has already been requested.
A Good Holiday weekend to you all!
Counting down the hours to a good Aussie wine.
These views are mine alone, etc.
Amy J. Dymond
Supervisor Business Systems
American Airlines Federal Credit Union
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817-963-0037
>>>>rcogar wrote:
One size does not fit all - like retention schedules, you must research the
nuances of the law to determine you are not failing to meet the
requirements. There are still some states that require certain records to
be retained on microfilm - not electronic. The UETA or E-SIGN Act do not
pre-empt any state that has more stringent requirements for certain record
types. It may be that the legislature in a particular state has not
revised the code - but if so, the law remains that you must comply with the
media requirements for that record.
Many companies that generate a great deal of paper, like USAA, have used
imaging for many years - and do destroy the hard copy. But I do not know
to what extent that imaging is done for vital records or other significant
records within the company.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this - but I would venture to say
that at least 75% of business records could be imaged and the hard copy
destroyed without any problem. The other 25% would be records that have a
binding legal effect and could jeopardize the company if they were
destroyed. Even if imaged, there should be a duplicate copy for disaster
recovery purposes retained off-site of vital records.
I guess this might be a good topic for an ARMA conference session.
Rae N. Cogar, Esq.
Cohasset Associates, Inc.
5874 Shamrock Ct.
Hamburg, NY 14075
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716-646-6192
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
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