I agree with Doug.  I attended the "Big Bucket" session at the last ARMA
conference and if memory serves me they had reduced the number of items to
three (3) with retention I believe at permanent or extremely long term which
makes it easy to dump documents into the ......  Towards the end of the
session the speaker mentioned there was a one or more small groups that
didn't fall into the big bucket, but I don't recall they passing on what
they did with them.  My guess into a "Little Bucket".  You still need a
systematic approach putting the documents into the bucket, i.e., what record
series are you dumping into the bucket.  The user still needs to know what
documents go into what bucket with some method of retrieving the documents.

Doug has stated very well the differences between Federal Agencies and from
those that are being regulated.  Anybody working with FERC or NARUC
retention requirements (and probably many more requirements required by the
Federal and State governments) understand the futility of trying the total
big bucket approach.  


Robert W. Dalton, CRM
Dalton Consulting
1-253-229-4555
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Allen, Doug
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 08:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Everything is a record until it is not

John,

I would disagree that those involved in pursuing the big bucket approach
are limiting themselves to email.  Most are focused on all electronic
records - all of them pose challenges for the end-user's understanding
(or lack thereof) of the organization's file plan, and methodologies for
categorization into specific retention buckets.  Efforts to limit user
requirements for that understanding are commendable, ongoing and
important to efforts that vendors and practitioners make to ensure
employee compliance with organizational policy here.

Given that, my view is that the "big bucket theory" is relative.... U.S.
Federal agencies may have an easier time developing and implementing
such an approach than are those in other organizations that they tend to
regulate!  
While many organizations can limit or consolidate their "buckets", the
regulatory environment in the U.S. is not fully compatible with very
large buckets, given the very granular and frequently inconsistent
manner in which
Regulations establish retention requirements (frequently down to the
level of a specific report or report type, with supporting
documentation).  

Thus.... continued work on the development of Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles.... can only help us all. (I just knew I'd be able
to strike some ARMA theme here!)......

Doug Allen, CRM, CDIA+
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