Hi Greg, I am one who does, but in very minor amounts. Sometimes a sample of a building material or structural component is submitted to Island County as part of a contract bid for a facility, which then becomes part of the final contract award. Because of such long retention periods in connection with public works projects, these contracts and their components have a very long life span. In addition, Exhibits/evidence from open criminal cases that are considered ongoing are part of the picture here, if there is no statute of limitations that applies, we need to keep them. Beyond that, we have soil samples and other natural samples connected with our State Agricultural College extension office. Every county in every state will have some level of this type of record. I handle it as I would any other part of an archival collection that doesn't fit the major portion of the record. I remove the incongruous items to more appropriate storage, and annotate the main record that it has been removed, and to where. It gets an accession sub-number as a separate series, so that it can be tracked as part of the whole. Elizabeth Fairfax Island County Records and Information Services. -----Original Message----- From: Greg Schildmeyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:46 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [RM] Physical Samples from Procurement Contracts This has been an interesting discussion. It has broadened my view of a records manager's potential responsibilities. I am of a NARA background, particularly the Federal Records Centers, that says that physical "things" don't belong among the paper or other media records that are sent to storage. That's not to say that there aren't hundreds of stories among FRC staffs in the various centers about the kinds of court evidence, medical specimens, geological samples and other interesting things that have shown up in boxes over the years. But ideally, as one poster mentioned, those kinds of things are supposed to be returned to the records' originator to deal with. But as Lorinda and others have made clear, a strong argument can be made in many cases that physical objects are part of the complete business record for some organizations. Given that, the question then becomes how best to manage the various components of the record. It seems that it would be appropriate in most cases to store the various components in different areas, based on their physical characteristics, with a records management system that links them all together as one record. Paper in a records center, electronic files in an ERM or EDM system, and physical objects in an appropriate warehouse or storage area. This third area is a possible RM responsibility I had not thought of before. Are there RMs on the list who already manage such (records) physical item storage areas for the enterprise, or do you require the records originators to deal with those items? Greg Schildmeyer, CRM -----Original Message----- From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lorinda Kasten-Lowerre Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:14 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Physical Samples from Procurement Contracts Hi, Charis, Our licensing and trademark department keeps samples of items that they licensed. I believe the intent is to compare the sample with actual from time to time to make sure the contract is being followed. They also send to storage items that were not licensed. The intent here is to be able to prove that the company is using Honda's name or logo illegally if the item shows up on the market. The items cannot be given away, and even pictures or detailed measurements would not contain the same information as the actual objects. Lorinda Kasten-Lowerre Records Management Analyst, Senior American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Torrance, California, USA List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message. mailto:[log in to unmask] List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message. mailto:[log in to unmask]