I agree with John that electronic records back-ups are only a part of
the disaster recovery process and should fall under the schedule of the
IT department's regular back ups.  Understand there is a distinction
between the back up of electronic records for disaster recovery purposes
and the archive of electronic records for retention purposes.  If the
electronic records are archived off-line, there should be a schedule to
review these records for data degradation to ensure that the information
is still reviewable and will meet their retention period, particularly
if these records have a longer retention than 5 years.  

As to the e-mail issue, we are all grappling with a way to capture this
information efficiently - I haven't found one yet.   In any event, a
separate e-mail management system can help.  If you have a policy in
place that requires official business decisions to be in a "formal"
context, such as an internal memorandum form, that can help - the
transmission may be by e-mail but the information is in a form that can
be saved.  Acknowledging that many people fail to do that, I have been
creating a .pdf of the e-mail and saving that as evidence of business
direction and decisions.  The ABA has a book on creating e-mail policy
which may be helpful, "Employee Use of the Internet and E-Mail: A Model
Corporate Policy With Commentary on Its Use in the U.S. and Other
Countries".  This provides guidance on developing an e-mail policy and
provides some caveats when dealing with other countries.

Hope this helps. 

Rae Cogar, Esq.
Information Management Mgr. 
Louisiana Energy Services (LES)
P.O. Box 1789
Eunice, NM  88231
505-394-5208 - office
505-818-9444- cell
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