>I am a Records and "Information"
>Manager.  I am about managing all types of information and that includes
>records and non-records.  I work for a Financial Institution where RIM
>sets uniform practices, standards, and guidelines (UPSG).  RIM also
>makes recommendations for policies regarding RIM that is approved by the
>board.  Policies are issued at the Board level.  UPSGs are issued at the
>RIM Division level.  IT carries out the practices, standards, and
>guidelines by way of automatic deletion.  It is not the responsibility
>of IT to decide what can and cannot be disposed of.  They follow the
>UPSG and set server criteria where they can. 

>A legal hold wants ALL information - not just records.
>I must be able to identify and hold whatever is found until the hold is
>released.  My opinion.

Okay.... well....  Many of us are RIMs and many of us have responsibility
for providing guidance to our organizations and staff on the effective
management of all content, whether it is a record or not.  However, it is
also our responsibility in that role to ensure that POLICY is complied with,
and part of that is done by making sure employees are aware that retaining
non-record information that serves no business purpose (typically this is
the case with non-records) can result in costly impacts to the organization,
especially in a legal action where a request is received requesting the
production of "ALL INFORMATION RELATED TO XYZ".

One of the guiding principles in developing RM Policy is establishing the
definition of "a Record" for your organization- what constitutes one, what
purpose it serves, who is responsible for managing it, and for how long it
is to be retained. The true measure of how effective your RIM Program is
will be based on ensuring you can find records, that they are being retained
(irrespective of media, form or format) for the appropriate periods of time,
and that they support the operations of your organization.  

Retaining information that is not a record can call question to the validity
of your Program just as quickly as retaining records for longer or shorter
periods than called for in your retention schedule.  In most organizations
I've been in, policy calls for non-record material (and yes, we DO have a
definition for non-records) to be stored independent of records and to avoid
commingling them with records.

So while I support the comment that an organization's RIM has responsibility
for all forms of information, I suggest hat part of that responsibility
extends to ensuring employees minimize the volume of non-records retained
and that they are excised from other information that meets the definition
of a record. 

Larry Medina

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