Ruth,
In this situation, it appears your "archives" (or, record center) is
functioning as a "file room" for the business units, keeping active case
files for them. I imagine your archives is busy pulling files to return
to the business unit or interfiling documents for them, as transactions
occur over time with each customer. You can't start your 4 year
retention period on a case until it becomes closed or inactive
("expiration").
The question to discuss with the business unit is whether there is a
specific event or occurrence that causes a case to expire, or whether
they just fade into expired status over time with no notice or
recognition. If a closure event can be identified, then it should be
written into the retention schedule, and the business unit should pull
cases out of the active files as they expire, group them, and re-enter
them into the record center as a different series with their 4-year
retention clock ticking.
If there is not a distinct closure event, then the problem remains - how
can you systematically determine whether cases have closed or not?
About the only procedure I can think of is to periodically ask the
business unit to review an identified group of cases and make a
determination whether they are active or closed. Clunky and
time-consuming for sure, but the alternative is, as you say, to keep a
bunch of closed and useless files "permanently."
IMHO, this would apply equally to scanned images as to paper records.
Greg Schildmeyer, CRM
Director of Records Management
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Colgan, Julie J.
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 9:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Managing retention condition
Can you image them and destroy the paper right away? If so, it will be
much easier to manage unknown retention periods and you'll likely end up
saving a ton of money.
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Hurst, Ruth
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 10:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Managing retention condition
We have several record series with destruction requirement of 4 years
after expiration date. These records are sent to archives prior to their
expiration due to the large volumes, and since they are customer
contracts the expiration date is unknown when sent to archive. Other
than retaining these documents "permanently" , does anyone have any
recommendations on how to monitor destruction? Any suggestions would be
appreciated!
Thank you
Ruth Hurst
Team Leader, Document Services
Nevada Power Company
Phone: 367-5028
Fax: 579-0964
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