>
> I have been told that my Records department is going to be put in charge
> of mail.


Hmmm... wonder if this was run by legal, seeing as some of what comes in the
mail may contain PII and the employees who are handling it would need to be
trained in the procedures regarding PII.


>  We have been asked to write a procedure and once that is in
> place we will take on the responsibility of the mail.


Guess the starting point would be documenting the existing process/procedure
and then determining where there are gaps or concerns.  Not suggesting that
you continue doing things the same way (unless they work near flawlessly),
but it's important to understand the existing process before becoming
responsible for taking it over.  May be critical to document the existing
time frames from receipt to delivery, staffing levels, funding, etc.


>  Our office is
> relatively small (approximately 70 staff) and part of the reason we have
> been given the mail responsibility is to ensure that items that need to
> be put on file actually make it to Records rather than sitting in
> someone's Inbox.


While in theory this makes sense, are you ALSO going to be expected to
deliver, sort, scan, process all junk and bulk mail, periodicals,
subscriptions, trade journals, packages, etc?  How do you handle packages,
scan the packing list and assume the content match?  What about the
(limited) volume of personal mail some employees may have sent to their work
addresses?


> We are currently scanning older archived documents
> into Laserfiche, but have not started using it for our current files.


Interesting... typically it's the other way around.  Start electronically
processing or direct capturing day forward work, then looking at back file
conversion.

 I
> would like to distribute our mail electronically and keep the paper copy
> for immediate filing.  I would be greatful to recieve any insight,
> experience, policy/procedure, opinion, or other information anyone might
> be willing to share with me regarding a similar project or how their
> organization/department handles mail.


I'd question this process (hold onto your hat, Steve W... I'm gonna say
something that MIGHT shock you!)  If a decision is made to image the
incoming mail, then aren't you adding a step to the process rather than
improving it?

Existing-  mail arrives, is distributed to recipient, opened, processed and
retained where applicable (if they're 'doing the right thing')

Proposed- mail arrives, RM opens it, scans it, indexes it, stores it,
processes hard copy to (some location) files it. What happens to junk, bulk,
magazines, etc?  How is recipient made aware it is available to view
electronically... then?    Do they act on it, file it (again), declare it as
a record, tell someone it's junk?  How do you completely remove non-record
material from your system, or do you just remove the pointer and the image
remains there forever?  What about setting retention, after all, it won't
ALL be the same, it's based on the value of the content...

Would sure like to hear how this one turns out...

Larry
-- 
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972

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