Great question (thanks, Angela, for raising it) and great responses!  
 
My coworkers and I have been tossing around thoughts and language on this topic for the past few days because one of our attorneys - let's call her Ms. Torts - wants to meet with us tomorrow to discuss the definition of "record."  She's been very immersed in public record request issues lately (we're a public agency) so she is concerned about the RIM program's definition of "record" she has seen in our training / guidelines materials.  Here's my pocket explanation:
 
RETENTION
When we RIM folks use the term "record" when, for example, we're helping staff decide which emails and other documents "rise to the level" of "record" and what can safely be considered junk (excuse me, I mean ephemera), we're generally talking about materials that must have retention applied to them.  Also, "records" cannot be destroyed without going through a formal destruction process.
 
DISCOVERABILITY 
When lawyers, judges, and other muggles use the term "record" they are often referring to anything in the building that is discoverable or must be produced in response to a public record request.  If a public record request comes in asking for everything on Ken's desk plus all drafts for the OMG Contract, we must produce those items if they exist.  So, Ms. Torts would refer to all of those items as records - and I would say, OK, but let's agree that they're not records in the sense that they're items we should be retaining.  We're under no obligation to manage and retain the junk that accumulates on my desk, but if a request comes in for it AND it exists, we have to turn it over.  I remember reading a case where a judge deemed a piece of piping with some scribbling on it to be a record, and therefore admissible as evidence.
 
In my opinion, everybody is right, there's just some confusion about the varied uses of the word record.

Ken Begley
Metro Regional Government
Portland, Oregon
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--This is all just my opinion and nobody should get excited that I'm representing my employer--
 		 	   		  
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