Something for consideration here and it's a key factor that comes into play
for us as the Records Management Program.

While we set and write the policy and procedures and manage the retention
schedule, when it comes to running the Records Center, we are a SERVICE
PROVIDER. At no time in the life cycle do the records belong to us- we only
provide space for storage of the information assets that belong to our
client organizations.

Seeing as we aren't the owners, we don't have the right to simply dispose
of them because the retention has been met. And no, we don't see it as our
"duty" or "responsibility" to automatically do this- we see our
responsibility being the notification to organizations that records THEY
OWN being close to meeting their retention period and requesting them to
provide approval for the destruction, by returning a written
acknowledgement.

We provide first notice 30 days in advance, follow up 30 days later and
once more 30 days later, if we haven't received a response, we elevate the
notification to someone who will ensure we receive a reply.... because we
tell them if we don't get a response in 14 days, we will deliver the
records to their office for their further handling.

I've never felt that just because we have an approved retention schedule it
gives us the "authority" to discard records entrusted to our care.
Organizations restructure, business issues and priorities change and
although Federal records *DO* have a pretty clearly prescribed retention
schedule, it is a MINIMUM retention period... many times there are business
needs that could exceed those required retention periods.  We calculate
these into the scheduled retention period, and we review the schedule every
6 months for changes from NARA or our parent Agency, and every two years
with business organizations, but that doesn't carve anything in stone.

To put this on a more personal level, think about the stories you routinely
read about people who collected baseball cards opr comic books as a kid and
20 years after they moved out, they go home and ask their parent "Whatever
happened to that cigar box/shoebox of baseball cards I had?" or "Do you
know where my box of comic books is?" and they're told "Oh Honey, I threw
that junk out about 2 years after you moved out!"....  They had no idea of
the intrinsic or historic (potential) value of those "records" and because
they had custody, they felt they could simply discard them without asking
the owner.

Maybe it's because my parents never did this to me that I don't do this to
my client's records.

Larry
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-- 
*Lawrence J. Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972*

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