Hi Nancy.....

In my last job, we allowed the full calendar year to pass before
destruction took place and then destroyed all the records for the past
year.  Typically this meant that records created in the month of January
could be retained 1 year beyond their retention period.  

Although not a perfect scenario, we were a small department with many
tasks and the once a year destruction meant that we put aside a period
of time to perform these duties.  This was easy to do with an electronic
system.  Your email does not mention whether you manage paper
electronically or through spreadsheets.

Hope this helps.  


John Annunziello, CRM, CDIA+, ermm
Records and Information Audit/Compliance Officer
Corporate Services Department
Office of the Regional Clerk
The Regional Municipality of York
Newmarket, Ontario

(905) 830-4444 x1318

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Freeman, Nancy - APHIS
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 3:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: how to "flag" records for destruction

All,

I need some tips and hints to pass on regarding marking or flagging
files for destruction.  Here's the background and a refresh of who I am.

I work for a wildlife research facility which is part of the USDA,
although we're several bureaucratic layers down.  We're a small slice of
government heaven, about 150 employees at headquarters and throughout
the US.  A staff person here is responsible for the Worker's Comp
program and given our size, he does other duties too as our volume of
Workers Comp files are small.  As an aside, we have a small volume of
just about every other type of record except research data.   My
dealings with Worker's Comp files are to make sure retention is
followed, which is 3 years after the case is closed or when deadline for
filing a claim has passed. (that's from our records management schedule
and Worker's Comp Program.)

Our parent agency wants to standardize how agencies handle their
Worker's Comp records and to that end, is developing a Standard
Operating Procedure (SOP).  When I reviewed the SOP, I was troubled by a
statement that "all files will be purged periodically according to a set
schedule (to be determined.)"  I said if the retention is 3 years,
that's when destruction happens.  The response back was that the every
few years files will be purged.  The reasoning is that since claims are
initiated constantly and therefore have various start dates, they want
to go through every file just once, rather than destroying cases one by
one as they come across them if their 3 year period is up.  I countered
that what that means is that some files will be past retention by
several years and that's not a good thing for all sorts of reasons

Now that I've set the situation up, here's where I need assistance.  How
do others flag or mark files so that it's easy to pull at the end of a
retention year?  That's the info this person needs, particularly for
large amounts of records.  I thought of color coding, moving files to a
different drawer or area by year or something like that.  What I need is
to know what some of you do with files like this.  What works for you?
I know the case to make to her that what she proposes is problematic but
I also want to be able to say "and here's exactly how you can make this
happen to follow retention."

Many thanks and feel free to respond offline!
Nancy

Nancy Freeman, CA
Records Manager/Archivist
National Wildlife Research Center
4101 LaPorte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO  80521
Ph:  (970) 266-602
Fax:  (970) 266-6010
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