Thanks for your response Larry! I have only been in this position 6
months, the decision to use Laserfiche as an electronic archive (and
nothing more) was made long before my arrival, and I'm not certain it
was a decision made by the records department. It seems to me a shame
that we have invested so much in the software and aren't using it
anywhere near it's full potential - I have been pushing to change this.
There really have been no mail procedures put into place.
Unfortunately, we have a few but very serious problems with deliberate
information "hoarding" and so the information friendly/saavy records
people have been asked to ensure that all who need a copy receive a
copy, and that items that need to be filed are in fact filed and not
discarded or hidden in an office.
The reason I would like to do the mail electronically is that I can scan
once and then distribute to multiple people. Otherwise, we have been
instructed to make photocopies (which as you can imagine would be
expensive and time consuming).
Thank you for the points you mentioned, this provides some excellent
food for thought. I will ensure that I consider and address each one as
best I can in my procedure.
I will keep you posted on how this goes.
Emily
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Larry Medina
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mail Procedures
>
> 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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