> From:    Patrick Cunningham <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Backup Tapes as a Records Series - (Some humor??)


On Aug 17, 2007, at 12:00 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system wrote:

> If the IT department decides to bundle
> up the archived tapes and ship them off to a barn in the back of a
> pickup truck, should we act on that? Perhaps.  It's dumb and it is
> risky and it likely puts the company's ability to maintain records at
> risk. On the other hand, if the IT department does the same thing with
> backup tapes, should we care? Perhaps not, other than as a stockholder
> or employee who might be concerned about security as well as the
> ability of the company to recover from a disaster.

If you take that approach, then we might all miss you over the next  
10 to 20 years while you server your time. By Code  you are "The  
Responsible Party".  Some corporations are making the IT Manager sign  
the yearly financial statement because the spoliation issue scares  
them.  But technically if any record is mssing, as an executive  
officer I would have the attorney which I am paying lay the blame on  
the records manager.

This is your job.  Manage records.  They're all yours baby!  In New  
York they refer to this as setting someone else up to take the fall.

Records are being stored digitally.  You are the records manager.  If  
the records are paper or microfilm or 0's and 1's running around on a  
server, they are still your responsibility.

>
>> I think that some records managers step outside their bounds  
>> because that
> thing over there is "cooler" or "higher visibility" or preceived as
> "more important". Don't fall into that trap.

I disagree here. There is no other side and you are never outside  
your bounds.
That is what is so troubling. We will quickly move out of the realm  
of back up tapes.
Records are now electronic and they sit on a server here and a RAID  
system somewhere else.
Or a disk to disk system mirroring.  Or soon holographic records.

We now have virtual tape and with VMWare we now have virtual servers.  
(By the way watch
this spin off from EMC.  Its stock is supposed to rocket. I am not  
buying it but the techies say
it is going out of the stratosphere.) So 97% of your records are  
running only electronically.
What are you left to manage?

The IT guy is spinning in circles trying to keep up with technology.   
Who is there to help and guide him or her?

Peter be sure to put the first RAIN posting where they take the  
records manager to court for failure to preserve the records in BOLD  
Letters so we can see the change in tide that this will represent.

Riddle:  How is a records managers who fails to protect and manage  
the records different from an accountant who fails to manage the  
funds and the money under his care disappears?

Answer: After they get out of prison, the accountant can still afford  
to go to Hawaii.

Are you thinking like old line records managers?

I am seeing this the same way the jury will......

"Larry is it true that Bill Gates paid you $90,000 a year to manage  
his records?"
"Yes that is true."
"So how is it that the IT guy sent the computer records off in a  
pickup truck to be stored in a dusty hot barn?"
"Well computer records aren't really records."
"Really?  Larry can you define spoliation as in the context of SOX?  
How can their be spoliation of records if you are saying computer  
records aren't records?  Is the meaning of SOX's definition of  
spoliation not clear?"

Bye Bye Larry.  See you in ten.

Not only can you not make the case, the good attorney is working for  
the CFO and CEO and they see you as the bad guy; or they want the  
jury to see you as the bad guy.

> Look for ways to ensure that records are
> not retained beyond their retention period, regardless of form.

But how can you do this if you are not helping to manage the  
process?  See you are admitting that records are in different forms.

You might be able to make this case to three or four CRM's but the  
jury will not understand you. And I guarantee your CEO won't get the  
difference. Nor will the CFO.  Perception is reality.

Why would ARMA create an Electronic Records  Storage Guideline if  
they were not records?



Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM



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