Susan,



At this point, we're dealing with a destruction backlog of really old records (1970s to 1990s). So we don't check with the department:  if the records are past their retention (usually LONG past) and not on lit hold, they are GONE. EDC has a huge turnover rate in the LOB departments (around 20% per year) and they are looking to the next big project, so records that are fifteen years old don’t even register on the current staff’s radar screen. Policy supported by our GC.



That said, because the inventories of those Really Old Records are poor to non-existent, we're re-inventorying all of them (at the folder level), so we have a much better sense of the content. And we can and do catch the oddball stuff that we want to keep, such as materials of archival value and 8” floppy disks.



Once we catch up to more recent records, we may switch to the "notify, but don't ask for permission" approach presented by several of the respondents to your posting.



I tried the "ask for permission" approach in an earlier position, and it simply didn't work:  getting ANY sort of response was excessively difficult, and when we did get a response, it was usually "because the sky is blue" (thanks, Larry!) and THEN the department would get up on its hind feet and scream Napoleonically (thanks, Bill) if we applied "you have justify it" rule. Just did NOT work.



Best regards,



Fred

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Frederic J. Grevin

Vice-President, Records Management

New York City Economic Development Corporation

www.nycedc.com

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212-312-3903 (w)