So far most of the public comments on this thread have been from the government sector. My thoughts from the corporate perspective....
While we in the corporate world do not have a concern over FOIA, we do have to respond to various audits (internal & external), whatever subpoena duces tecum is thrown our way, requirements imposed by SOX, HIPPA, FAA, FCC, EPA, IRS, et al, and much more. We retain our intellectual property for lengthy time periods and know that much of our wealth is in our email system. Regardless of our size, we wrestle with email management & archiving and do realize we have many other issues that reside in the realm of electronic communications management. 
 
Not all our records are destroyed at the end of their retention period. Some are reviewed for historical purposes (I have only worked for 3 companies in my career and they all have had an archivist). We can be public or privately held, so our presence on the stock market may impose other records creation & retention requirements. 
 
Staffing is an issue for many of us as well. Some of us hold the title of corporate records manager which may imply staff, but it certainly seems the trend is more towards a subject matter expert often reporting in a legal team. Where we report seems to be another often visited topic on this list. Many of you remember that I have been a part of the legal team at my current employer. Recently we decided that for the position to evolve my function should report inside our IT division. Lacking a CIO, I moved under our business applications support director. This is a move that I requested and that our GC was willing to explore. 
 
Regardless of where we reside - public or private - we face the same challenges. Our work is never done and our chosen career path allows us to grow as much as we desire. I love what I do. I am energized by so many new people joining our field. 
 
Rock on!
Sharon
Sharon Burnett 
[log in to unmask] Washington USA "If it ain't broke, take it apart and see why. If it is broke, take it apartand see why."
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