Hi Greg,

I am one who does, but in very minor amounts.  Sometimes a sample of a
building material or structural component is submitted to Island County as
part of a contract bid for a facility, which then becomes part of the final
contract award.  Because of such long retention periods in connection with
public works projects, these contracts and their components have a very long
life span.  In addition, Exhibits/evidence from open criminal cases that are
considered ongoing are part of the picture here, if there is no statute of
limitations that applies, we need to keep them.  Beyond that, we have soil
samples and other natural samples connected with our State Agricultural
College extension office.  Every county in every state will have some level
of this type of record. 

I handle it as I would any other part of an archival collection that doesn't
fit the major portion of the record.  I remove the incongruous items to more
appropriate storage, and annotate the main record that it has been removed,
and to where. It gets an accession sub-number as a separate series, so that
it can be tracked as part of the whole.

Elizabeth Fairfax
Island County Records and Information Services. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Schildmeyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Physical Samples from Procurement Contracts

This has been an interesting discussion.  It has broadened my view of a
records manager's potential responsibilities.  I am of a NARA background,
particularly the Federal Records Centers, that says that physical "things"
don't belong among the paper or other media records that are sent to
storage.  That's not to say that there aren't hundreds of stories among FRC
staffs in the various centers about the kinds of court evidence, medical
specimens, geological samples and other interesting things that have shown
up in boxes over the years.  But ideally, as one poster mentioned, those
kinds of things are supposed to be returned to the records' originator to
deal with.

But as Lorinda and others have made clear, a strong argument can be made in
many cases that physical objects are part of the complete business record
for some organizations.  Given that, the question then becomes how best to
manage the various components of the record.  It seems that it would be
appropriate in most cases to store the various components in different
areas, based on their physical characteristics, with a records management
system that links them all together as one record.  Paper in a records
center, electronic files in an ERM or EDM system, and physical objects in an
appropriate warehouse or storage area.  This third area is a possible RM
responsibility I had not thought of before.

Are there RMs on the list who already manage such (records) physical item
storage areas for the enterprise, or do you require the records originators
to deal with those items?

Greg Schildmeyer, CRM

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Lorinda Kasten-Lowerre
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Physical Samples from Procurement Contracts

Hi, Charis,
Our licensing and trademark department keeps samples of items that they
licensed.  I believe the intent is to compare the sample with actual from
time to time to make sure the contract is being followed.  They also send
to storage items that were not licensed.  The intent here is to be able to
prove that the company is using Honda's name or logo illegally if the item
shows up on the market.  The items cannot be given away, and even pictures
or detailed measurements would not contain the same information as the
actual objects.

Lorinda Kasten-Lowerre
Records Management Analyst, Senior
American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
Torrance, California, USA

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