Paula:
For years I have taught that the retention designation "permanent" should be used sparingly.  By stating something must be kept forever (which, basically, permanent means) you are locking the organization into costly preservation, tracking, housing, and migration procedures for a very, very, long time.  If someone really means a record should be kept "until they retire" or "until we merge with XYZ" then they need to give a possible time frame for this value and a good reason why (other than what they really mean).   If the actual value of the record is 100 years (or whatever) - the retention should be 100 years (or whatever) - not permanent.    And specific time periods should always be used.  "Indefinitely," "until no longer administratively needed," and others of this ilk are useless from a defensible disposition (destruction/deletion) standpoint.  

Ginny Jones 
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI) 
Records Manager 
Information Technology Division 
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities 
Newport News, VA 
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