Hi Tim: I would look to what your fellow states are doing in this area
    * here in Ohio our guidance is through the Ohio Electronic 
Records Committee (http://www.ohiojunction.net/erc/email/emailguidelines.html)
    * In New Jersey, where I was until 6 months a go our guidelines 
were in the form of a circular letter 
(http://njarchives.org/links/circular-letter-03-10-st.html).
    * State of New York 
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/nysaservices/ns_mgr_pub62.shtml
    * 2002 Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council Whitepaper, 
Managing email http://ec3.org/Downloads/2002/managing_email.pdf
I hope some of this is helpful -- Dan Noonan

At 3/1/2007 10:10 AM Thursday, you wrote:
>Well, I knew this would come up sooner or later.  I just hoped I would =
>be better prepared when it did. =20
>
>Background:  In 1996 the state created an office within state archives =
>to help local governments manage their records, along with a committee =
>to meet quarterly to review and approve retention schedules submitted by =
>or through that office.  Ideally, fine.  Reality, it's a one-man office. =
>  Once the core schedules were approved, he's spent more and more time =
>directly helping the smaller cities and counties sort through their =
>years of records, since only a few counties and cities have formal =
>records managers.  The committee now rarely meets.  In the meantime we =
>can't dispose of any unscheduled records.  Correspondence, including =
>e-mail, hasn't yet been scheduled. =20
>
>Our situation:  Our minimal Internet policy, developed by IT, doesn't =
>address e-mail retention.  Since e-mail goes through the main server =
>directly to the user's PC, most people I've seen either save everything =
>or delete everything.  Most people consider records management to =
>involve only the old boxes and books in storage (what else is new?). =20
>
>I was eating lunch yesterday when a "roving meeting" moved into the =
>lunchroom.  It was among our IT head, our imaging system's vendor, his =
>IT head and two people from the ECM software company they use, =
>discussing an e-mail archiving system.  I listened in, then inquired =
>about it with both our IT head and our vendor's IT head later.  The good =
>news is that the archive will save only one copy of every e-mail coming =
>or going through the server; the bad news is that they believe that we =
>must save every e-mail forever.  They haven't gotten to retention issues =
>yet, but didn't agree with my opinion on the matter ("The courts say you =
>must save everything," they said). =20
>
>I know we shouldn't be deleting emails that could be considered records =
>until we get retention schedules, but in the meantime I see no need to =
>save junk mail, personal mail, Listserv mail and such.  I need something =
>in writing from a reliable source to show them that we don't have to =
>save everything and shouldn't save most e-mail beyond a certain point =
>("normal course of business").  And, unfortunately, that has to be more =
>"official" than a Listserv response from Larry or Peter.  I've found two =
>books in the ARMA bookstore, "E-Mail Rules" -- one author is a =
>consultant to the software vendor -- and the ANSI/ARMA standard =
>"Requirements for Managing Electronic Messages as Records."  Can anyone =
>recommend something that would directly address the court issue? =20
>
>Tim Barnard, Records Management Clerk
>Harrison County, Mississippi
>[log in to unmask]
>Phone (228) 865-4121 Fax (228) 865-4140
>
>List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
>Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance

Daniel W. Noonan, MLS, CDIA+
Electronic Records Manager/Archivist
University Archives
The Ohio State University
600 Ackerman Road, Room 5822
Columbus, OH 43202
614.247.2425
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/  

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance