Hi Lori,

I would suggest that this depends very much on the knowledge base and
experience of the various department liaisons with whom you might deal in
your operation.  

As the originator of a records management program in my couonty government,
I found that there was insufficient understanding of all the components and
regulations attending the destruction of records, especially the selection
of them given state oversight of retention and permanency, that it was
impractical to allow each department to handle their own.  I therefore
centralize the operation and pull records for destruction based on
appraisal,  schedules and research.  We hire a state-contract mobile
shredding company to destroy our files on a monthly basis. This gives me a
certificate of secure, witnessed destruction for specific record series and
dates, and I don't have to worry about people selectively picking and
choosing things "of interest" from the files.

If your operation has very skilled and knowledgable persons in each
department, you might think about centralizing the operation to start with ,
train them to the standards you know you must observe, and then release them
to perform their own destructions if they certify them to you/the
centralized records management program.  This way, if you find that the
standards are slipping, you can always call the responsibility back.

Good Luck

A.S.Elizabeth Fairfax, MA, CA
Island County Records and Information Management Program
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
x5569


-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Lori Calovich
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 6:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Destruction of Records-How do you manage?

Since I am not a records manager, only thrown into the midst of a part-time
records "helper" I am curious how your programs handle the destruction of
records.  

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