Glen

You have touched on a subject that near and dear to my heart.  I've heard 
many worthy professionals cite statistics that are based on studies, but 
since I cannot vouch for the methodology, I cannot say that the information 
is accurate, so I will share some of my own personal observations.

When I was in industries where a majority of the records were based on 
transactions (banking, retail), the amount of Non-Record Material was closer 
to the 20% mark and very easy to identify because transaction-based records 
tend to have particular patterns that make the actual record somewhat easy 
to identify.  I could dissect every single transaction associated with a 
retail credit card purchase, cash transaction, or bank deposit without 
question and discard all Non-Record Materials that helped the transaction to 
occur, but were not part of the record.

In industries that are more "event" driven, like railway transportation or 
oil & gas, I am finding the amount of Non-Record information to be closer to 
the 50% mark and perhaps even greater...because the point of record 
declaration is not always easy to define and I am dealing with records, such 
as track right-of-ways, that were established more than 150 years ago with 
the intention of maintaining the rights perpetually (because we have not yet 
invented transporters).  Event driven records are harder to define as 
"complete" and  various departments responsible for managing the company's 
risk are more uneasy about discarding the stray emails and mundane 
correspondence because it might establish some understanding about a 
previous "gray area" that establishes someone's rights or led to certain 
decisions being made.  What seems like Non-Records Material to me may be the 
answer to an attorney's prayer if some stray piece of information 
establishes that a certain practice was in place at a certain time and 
provides undisputable evidence of the context as to why that practice was 
acceptable.

I don't think I helped you much, but I find event-driven records quite a 
challenge to manage in terms of the point of declaration and it is quite 
difficult to determine which records are records and which are the 
"non-records"...which usually makes people want to err on the side of being 
able to store or recover everything they have in case it becomes important 
down the road.  I don't know of studies that have looked at 
transaction-based records vs. event records, but I invite anyone who has the 
time to put me on the contact list if they want to collect statistics.

Peace, love, and information governance!
Angie Fares

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