Hi Deb,

I work for a pipeline company that runs from Houston to the Newark, NJ area, just outside of NYC.  We operate in 15 states plus DC, and have a number of facilities along the way where each has an Operations Manager (OM).  There are some records that are created/used in the field, but the office of record is at our corporate office.  Those records are sent to corporate, but convenience copies are made and kept in the field.  In order to cut down on the amount of paper in the field, some records are scanned and made accessible to field personnel via our SharePoint site.

For other records, however, the record copy is expected to be at that field location because they may have to be available for regulatory inspections, audits, etc.   The OMs are expected to know the records retention schedules for all field records, and are authorized to destroy records accordingly.  None of them want to get dinged on an inspection or audit because they don't have the appropriate records, so they tend to be pretty good about keeping what they are supposed to keep.  They're also good about destroying records that are eligible for destruction, primarily because they don't usually have the space to keep old records, nor the resources to manage them.  With the exception of some of the old paper logs and charts (which are now automated), most no longer need to send those records to offsite storage.

We did records cleanup projects at several of our major facilities a few years ago, and worked with field personnel to review, inventory, and destroy over 70 tons of dusty, dirty, and old records as per our records retention schedules.  The OMs and other field personnel were extremely grateful for that kind of help, and none of them wants to go back to those old days.

I am not--and nor do I want to be the records police, so we've worked with--and trained them, and management has supported and empowered them to manage their records.  Our pipeline is divided into three districts, and each has a district compliance coordinator (DCC) in place.  Compliance is BIG in this industry, so in addition to their compliance responsibilities, two of the DCCs are also records liaisons who also work with other records liaisons in their districts on records issues.  The third DCC is not a records liaison, but still works closely with other records liaisons in his district--and I work with all of them very closely.  The good news is that since most of our field operations work in the same way with the exception of a couple of states (VA and NJ namely), most of the records are the same from one end of the pipeline to the other, and that makes managing and dispositioning them easier.

I am curious about one thing, however... what is a "repurposed record?"

Thanks, and I hope this helps.
Earl

Pipeline Records and Information Management Excellence... Get PRIMEd!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earl Johnson, Jr., CRM
Corporate Records Manager
Colonial Pipeline Company 
1185 Sanctuary Parkway, Ste. 100
Alpharetta, GA  30009
Email: [log in to unmask]  |  Internet: www.colpipe.com  
Office: 678-762-2586  |  Mobile: 404-402-4420  |  Fax: 678-762-2315

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