> But there's a difference between records and what might have to be
produced.

Another view:  Physical manifestations of information (documents) are
resources that must be managed - in the same way that other resources are
managed, including processes for ridding yourself of them when they are no
longer useful.

In this view, there is really no distinction between discoverable
documentary information and records:  All documents are records.  And
records in your company's possession are your company's responsibility to
manage (the "your company's possession" exempts material under someone
else's copyright as well as your employees' personal records that you allow
them to store using your company's resources - *if* you have a documented
policy dealing with it, though you're still likely to get dragged into a
court case involving an employee's personal life).

So your company still must make decisions about how (and how long) to
preserve the records, who should and can access them, and how and when to
dispose of them.  This includes non-traditional media (voicemail,
instructional/warning signage, clay tablets, whatever) and, yes, notes,
post-its, copies, etc.:  If the RIM program doesn't provide instruction
about managing those, employees are free to keep them for as long as they
want (and they will) and to do with them what they want (and they will).  A
comprehensive RIM program will cover the lifecycle of all recorded
information created/received in the course of doing business, even if it has
the lifespan of a mayfly.

Government caveat:  Yes, governments can and do write laws applying to
themselves to exempt certain types (or lifecycle stages) of documents from
being managed as records.  One exemption that is internally contradictory is
U.S. 36CFR1220.14 (via 44USC3301):  "... and preserved or appropriate for
preservation ...."  Taken on its face, that means that once a record reaches
the end of its retention period (no longer "appropriate for preservation")
and is not being preserved (which is *not* the same thing as "being
immediately destroyed") it's no longer a record - so presumably the rest of
the regulations applying to records no longer apply to it, including those
requiring record disposition.

But most of us aren't governments and have to deal with reality.

Just my two cents.

Peter B. Lundell
Millican & Associates, Inc.

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