Greg,

Can you give us some more detail on the Why's of retention being assigned 
at the file level ?  Simpler I'll agree with  but essential will take some 
convincing.  I'm also confused when you say file or record level- I think 
those can be different.

Truer words were never spoken, John.  It's not just easier, but essential,
that retentions be applied at the file or record level, not an individual
document level.  This point so often gets obscured in discussions of
retention, especially of emails.


Some examples I can think of are
Multiple documents that make up a record being stored in different files. 
It happens in todays electronic world
Filing systems that are set-up/managed by project and or have event 
triggers to start a retention clock.  You could have multiple retention 
periods all starting under a single trigger event,in single files.
Instances where security access is assigned to a record series instead of 
the file level .  This could cause an entire folder to be locked down for 
restricted access when in reality only a small % of the documents are 
actually affected.  This is an actual example on trying to make Foreign 
nationals more productive at my company.

I've struggled with this myself and trying to dump docs into defined files 
is much different in the electronic vs. physical world.

Let the flogging begin

Thanks

Steve Petersen CRM
Records Manager
Rockwell Collins Inc
319.295.5244

"Bringing Order Out of Chaos"

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