email retention policy

7/31/2019 Email Retention Policy

1/39

ELECTRONIC MAIL MANAGEMENT,

RETENTION, AND DISPOSITION

Electronic Records

Management


2/39

This presentation will focus on how to

apply records management procedures to

email.

Records Management

Email Management

Archive

Is email overwhelming?


3/39

Definitions: Record

Recordas defined by GRAMA is a book, letter,document, paper, map, plan, photograph, film, card,tape, recording, electronic data, or other documentarymaterial regardless of physical formor characteristics:that is prepared, owned, received, or retained by a

governmental entity or political subdivision; and where allof the information in the original is reproducible byphotocopy or other mechanical orelectronic means.UCA 63G-2-103(22)(a)

Documents that are considered non-records include:

drafts, personal notes or communications, proprietarysoftware, copyrighted material, junk mail, commercialpublications, and personal daily calendars. UCA 63G-2-103(22)(b)


4/39

DEFINITION: EMAIL

An asynchronous message, especially onefollowing the RFC 2822 or MIME standards sent via

a computer network held in online accounts to be

read or downloaded by the recipients. Email

consists of a header, with routing information, and abody, which contains the message, separated by a

blank line. Email records include metadata and

attachments.


5/39


6/39

WHYMANAGEEMAIL?

State and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure compel

civil litigants to preserve and produce electronic

evidence on demand in discovery.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(a)(1)(A) amended in 2006

provides that any requesting party may inspect,

copy, test, or sample any designated documents

or electronically stored informationstored in

any medium and that electronically stored

information stands on equal footing withdiscovery of paper documents.


7/39

WHYMANAGEEMAIL?

By managing email accounts, governmental entities

can manage records and dispose of obsolete

records and personal information appropriately.


8/39

EMAILMANAGEMENTSYSTEMS

Email records should be placed in some kind of

record-keeping system.

Centralized Systems are available which can automateemail records management.

User-managed folders within an email system are asimple electronic recordkeeping system.


9/39


Centralized systems:

Local Area Network(LAN)

Archiving software

Electronic Document Managing System forEnterprise Content Management (EDMS/ECM)


10/39


Agencies lacking a centralized system will need torely on user-management.

Not identifying or preserving a record appropriately due

to a lack of processes ortechnical capability does not

lessen the legal standard for the retention of records.


11/39

EMAILMANAGEMENT

To manage email:

1. Identify and categorize email by record seriesretention schedules approved by the StateRecords Committee

2. Set up folders in a record keeping systemaccording to record series for retentionmanagement and disposition

3. Follow best practices email managementguidelines

4. Adhere to acceptable use standards


12/39

1. RETENTIONMANAGEMENT

Currently most retention actions are managed

manually at the discretion of the employee and

specific agency policies within the context of the

current email environment.

Individual employees will need to manage their email

records.


13/39

IDENTIFYTHERECORDSERIES

Identify the record series which will indicate theemails legal retention schedule/period and itsultimate disposition (i.e., destroy or permanentpreservation and access).

Administrators and records officers should worktogether to identify which record series should be usedfor the agency.

Employees need to work with the agency recordsofficer to identify the appropriate, approved recordsseries retention schedules for the agency.


14/39

RECORDSSERIESRETENTIONSCHEDULES

Approved record series retention schedules can be

found on the State Archives website.

Administrators should use the philosophy of big

buckets, limiting the number of choices (to a dozen

or fewer).

The agency should appoint a destruction officer to

approve and review destructions.
http://archives.utah.gov/recordsmanagement/retention-schedule-menu.htmlhttp://archives.utah.gov/recordsmanagement/retention-schedule-menu.html


15/39

VALUEOFRECORDS

Most agencies will have:

Transitory Correspondence

Routine correspondence, meeting agendas, etc., that

have limited and short-lived administrative value only.

Administrative Records/Program, policy, ordecision-making correspondence

Business-related messages that provide substantive

information about agency functions, policies,procedures, or programs. These emails documentthe discussions and decisions of the agency and

must be saved.


16/39

PURCHASING PLAN

FOLDERSDISPOSITION

Transitory Correspondence 2 years Destroy

(GS, Item 1-9, Transitory Correspondence)

Solicitations 5 years Destroy

(Series 16591, Solicitation files)

State Cooperative Contracts 6 years Destroy

(Series 16593, Purchasing contracts)

Agency Contracts 6 years Destroy

(Series 16593, Purchasing contracts)Performance Measures 4 years State

Archives (Series 16584, Administrative correspondence)


17/39

2. EMAILMANAGEMENT

Folders within the

email system can be

set up according to

function and retentioncategory, or series.

When an email worth

keeping is sent or

received, it is movedto the appropriate

folder.


18/39


19/39


20/39

IDENTIFYTHERECORD-COPY

The record-copy is the official

copy for reference and

preservation to which the

retention schedule applies.

Both the received and sent

messages will need to be

managed.


21/39


22/39

RECORD-COPY

Incoming (therecipients) email

originating from

outside thegovernment is the

record-copy.


23/39

PRESERVETHETHREAD

Preserve the thread of

the correspondence.

The records series

retention schedule

applies until a responseis made to the initial

email, at which point a

series of

correspondence(thread) is created.


24/39


25/39

ENSURETHEAUTHENTICITYOFTHERECORD

Saving just the conversation and not the thread leaves room for data manipulation.


26/39

MEANINGFULSUBJECTLINE

In order to provide accessibility and promote efficient

searching mechanisms, all outgoing emails related to

government business should have a subject line that clearly

reflects the content of the email. Index terms to the

metadata may be applied to further promote ease of access.


27/39

CONDUCTSTATEBUSINESSONSTATESYSTEMS

Government business conducted via email should use

established and approved agency email systems.

Work done from personal accounts could be transferred

to the state system so records may be managed

appropriately.


28/39

SEPARATEBUSINESSANDPERSONALEMAIL

Do not combinemessages ofbusiness (records)with messages of apersonal nature

(non-records). If thecontent of an emailcontains bothpersonal informationand business-relatedinformation (record),

it must be kept as arecord.


29/39

DONOTSAVENON-RECORDS

Emails that arepersonal messagesnot related tobusiness, me-toomessages,listservs, [oralready capturedby someone else]should not besaved. Dispose ofall non-recordemails to reducethe amountneeding to bemanaged andstored.


30/39

DONOTSAVECOPIES

Copies do not need tobe retained. Email canbe broadcast tohundreds of people atonce, and each of

those duplicatesshould not be saved.Only those recipientswho then respond tothe correspondenceneed save copies.


31/39

PERSONALCOPIES/COPIESOFRECORDS

Often employees argue

the need for keeping

copies of records for

their personal work use,

past the retention

period, or copies of non-

records. However, these

records and information

will still be

discoverable.


32/39


33/39

ACCEPTABLEUSESTANDARDS

The states acceptable use rule, Rule R895-7.

Acceptable Use of Information Technology

Resources, provides basic policy,

No expectation of privacy.

The email system is a state product and all data isowned by the state.

Email can be broadcast and forwarded by individuals

outside the states control.
http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htmhttp://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r895/r895-007.htm


34/39

REVIEW

Remember, to manage email records,

Identify and categorize email by record series

retention schedules approved by the State

Records Committee Set up folders in a record keeping system

according to record series for retention

management and disposition

Follow best practices email managementguidelines

Adhere to acceptable use standards


35/39


36/39


37/39


38/39


39/39