There never seems to be a consensus with the RIM community on how to do 
this. For me there are 3 scenario's:

There are some who say the retention policy is the governing piece to 
authorize destruction.  When it reaches the end its retention life, it is 
destroyed.  Of course if it is part of litigation the destruction process 
is put on hold.  Or if the record has historical value, it could be 
archived.
Others say it needs to be signed off by the owner and until that happens, 
the destruction process is put on hold.  Many people on this list say pass 
this onto senior management or give it to legal.  Legal seems to hold a 
lot of power within organizations and this seems to be the impetus for 
staff to sign off.  Of course if you don't have a legal department in your 
organization, this can be a problem.
The last group says this is due for destruction, notify the user of 
impending destruction, then communicate this well to the user and the 
potential consequences..  If there is still non compliance, the records 
manager collects the records, authorizes its destruction and has a 
champion in senior management sign off on destruction.

Each organization is different.  We originally followed the first rule. 
But due to utter frustration and wasted time, we just started to follow 
rule 3.   I know there will be some backlash from users (and perhaps RM 
listervers) when records are destroyed and they may still contain some 
value or the user feels they may.  Some people are packrats and want to 
keep everything forever (any of you have someone like that in your 
organization).  This is the first year for this so it will be interesting 
to see what happens.  For my staff though it means that some files stored 
and forgotten under peoples desks for over 5 years will be collected and 
destroyed.  My guess is that this will only happen this year.  When 
destruction notices go out next year, those individuals will be quick to 
respond and sign-off on those records or advise accordingly.

So IMHO, opinions are all over the place.  Good luck to those who struggle 
with these thoughts. 

John Annunziello, ermm
Manager, Records and Information 
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
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