>I think this discussion makes it clear that records management is an ART as
>well as a SCIENCE ...  (just a thought)
>

In part I agree with what's been said here by Connie.

I've been letting this thread sit and fester and wasn't really sure if I
would bother to weigh in or not... in a large part, this whole discussion is
WAY TOO MUCH like the John Godfrey Saxe parable about the "Six Blind Men and
the Elephant", and I know I've used this analogy here before, but again I
think it's applicable.

Depends on the angle you approach the question from and how you 'see it'
what the answer is... and not the RIGHT/CORRECT answer, simply THE answer.

If you're in a public or private environment, it's different; if you're
highly regulated and someone else makes the determination FOR YOU, it's
different; if you're in legal or higher education, it's different; if you're
in justice or law enforcement, it's different.... and they're ALL RIGHT for
the situation or industry segment you're in.

Much of what has been posted by some here on this subject is from a
"theoretical perspective", it's been repeated verbatim from texts,
publications, standards, or other authoritative sources that form an
EXCELLENT body of references from which to draw possible conclusions, but in
PRACTICE as opposed to THEORY, decisions are made on a completely different
set of requirements.  And while I agree (again, in part) that context does
come into play, CONTENT is the most critical factor in determining the
"record status" of a document.

Notice I said RECORD STATUS, not choosing to define it as a document or a
record, but the status of the content in the document and how it relates to
a decision, a transaction, an action, or guidance received by or given to an
individual or organization in the course of regular business.  

And your 'business' could be anything from soup to nuts, in this instance I
mean business to include any entity that provides goods and or services to
others.

Each organization has to (by policy) determine what constitutes a record for
their environment and it's up to them to determine how and when a record is
declared.

Larry
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