What
is a Records Retention Program?
Records
management requires that the organization develop a
comprehensive program that stipulates how long to maintain
or archive record documents. It generally will be policy
that has been approved by the Chief Legal Officer or the
Board of Directors of the organization. Record keeping
requirements include legal, regulatory and fiduciary
responsibility.
The
process usually contains three separate stages: records
classification, retention scheduling, and disposition
management.
The
arrangement of like records into homogeneous grouping;
e.g., accounts payable, personnel files, litigation files.
Rule
of Thumb:
a code is usually assigned to each homogeneous grouping.
This is called a "record series code".
The
process of discerning the life of the record in each stage
of the record life cycle.
Retention scheduling includes regulatory requirements of
federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as,
the practical business life of the records.
Common
myth:
All records have regulatory or legal record retention
requirements. This statement is false since the vast
majority of records by volume have no particular
retention requirement.
This
represents the manner and method of final destruction of
the record or the conversion or migration to another media
type.
Rule
of Thumb:
the most commonly accepted method of destruction is
confidential recycling and the most common form of
migration is from paper to electronic form.
A
record on the records retention and disposition
schedules for routine destruction, as it has no
predictable value to the organization after its
initial use
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