John Montana said in another thread,* "My friend, we are all on the Great
Retention Schedule.  It's only a question of when our trigger event comes
up.  There's no permanent archival preservation, only the possibility of a
small place in the great Cloud in the sky -- for some us at least.  For
others, only the Big Shredder, or in the case of me, Doug Allen and
McDermott, the Mighty Incinerator; without so much as an index pointer left
to show we were here."*
I love your response John, but mostly because it aligns with my definition
of a "record" - all recorded information.  I know this upsets a lot of RM
types, but I have found that over many years it is much easier to start
with that premise and then determine the record category that fits the
"recorded information".

Had this discussion with a group of scientists at Argonne National
Laboratory many years ago and it worked.  Using the base line that all
recorded information is a "record" helped them to focus on the content
rather than the media/format (in those days the question was on format - a
hand written telephone message).  And, of course, a large percentage of the
recorded information fit a record category of "general - whatever you want
to call it" that had no legal retention requirement and could be destroyed
as soon as it was no longer needed or a maximum of 2 years.

As soon as the technology developers will design functions that truly
destroy electronic recorded information, and the IT Governance processes
will actually implement the destruction/disposal based on a timely basis we
will be close to achieving the Records and Information goals that have
worked so well for so many years.
Thanks,
Mary

Mary W. Haider, MBA, CRM
Records & Information Manager and Consultant
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865-983-1371

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