I just finished the Cohasset survey yesterday.  I stopped twice because of what I perceived as poorly worded and 'agenda' type questions.   I wonder if anyone else had the same reaction to the survey? 

My biggest complaint was the number of questions that had the underlying implication that records management and records retention policy is somehow different for different formats.  Questions such as do you have a records retention policy for email?  voice mail? IM? (Yes/NO) imply that if you don't have a policy that specifically addresses records in these formats/media, you should.

Records Management and retention is, at the heart,  the art of managing records, regardless of format, media, repository style, type based on the business purpose of the records.  

Addressing records retention based on any media or format is simply incorrect.  

Further in the survey is a question addressing the responsibility of determing records retention. It lists four entitie but doesn't even list the one that is most important to the operation and that is the record owner.  How can any other operation, IT, RM, Legal, Admin staff, or repository manager know if a record is important unless it comes from the business?  Doesn't make sense.  

Some questions force you to choose between two wrong answers or choose an answer where you may not have expertise.  I thing the questions concerning compliance are especially suspect.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.  but I has such a bad reaction to the survey, I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar reaction.

Tom Owens
Records & Information Analyst

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