A serious case of "it depends" here.

I think the first thing that struck me is your comment about policy and
procedure not addressing what is done with unofficial records. This makes it
difficult to address how to handle them. That said, in MOST organizations,
unofficial DOCUMENTS are NOT considered RECORDS, and therefore are NOT to be
stored in the organization's official record keeping system.

'Drafts' or 'working papers' are typically stored on desktops or local
servers outside of the official record keeping systems and then when they
meet the organization's definition of a record, they are moved into the
system.  One exception is policy/procedure documents that are undergoing
cross-functional review and you want all versions tracked and available for
access by all parties.  But in many policies/procedures these types of items
are RECORD from the start.

As for your proposed options:

Option 1 makes sense, but why can' tit show version #s or dates?  If you
policy says all documents must be reviewed prior to disposition and the
users are the ones that will have 'heartburn' over the effort required,
maybe they'll stop storing so many versions.  Even when you go to the
restroom, you have to do your own paperwork! 

Option 2 sounds as if it actually fits within your policy as it currently
exists- if they are 'non-records', they shouldn't require review prior to
dispositioning. 

My suggestion would be establish a task force, discuss the problem and the
options, get agreements to modify policy/procedures to address the problem
for 'day forward created items'. Then gain user agreement to participate in
an "Option 1" process on all existing content until the backlog is gone.

Larry
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