Dwight said:  "In Oregon, "permanent" means 100+ years. I think this is a
good approach, as it implies a potential reappraisal in the future."

Dwight makes an excellent point, and something I've tried to do whenever
I've had to give into a longer than anticipated retention period for "just
in case" or other somewhat sketchy arguments - to build in a deliberate
review schedule.

Some lengthy retention periods are based on measurable need - take the EPA
for example.  Waaaayyyy back in the olden days when I worked in Superfund,
most of the records I dealt with had a 25 or 30 year retention period.  That
period of time was based on many things, but a large portion was the length
of time they needed to prove successful remediation of contaminated sites.
There is science behind that retention period.

On the other hand, I see plenty of lengthy retention periods being
constructed not to address known issues/facts, but rather to address future
*possible* need.  I don't have a crystal ball (if you do, can I borrow it
sometime?!), but concede that some records may well have a long useful
life.  So why not adopt a regular review schedule that will take into
account the following things:

1. Has it been used?  If so, by who and for what?
2. Does it still have value?
3. Does that value outweigh the direct costs of maintaining it for another
5/10/20 years?
4. If the value has changed (from say Operational to Historical), does it
make sense to re-classify it under a different series?

In Dwight's example, perhaps the first review comes up at 50 years, then
every 25 years after that?  It doesn't mean the records will necessarily be
destroyed prior to 100 years, just that the organization/entity/agency takes
the time to be sure it continues to spend money on the long-term storage of
items that still truly have value.

Just a couple of thoughts for today.  Back to the tasks at hand ...

Julie

-- 
Julie J. Colgan, CRM

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