[IARA - State Agency Records Managers] Monthly Bulletin and Chat Invitation, February 2022

 Happy February, Agency Records Managers! 

Welcome to the month where we live in Indiana so whether the groundhog will see his shadow is not even a question; the question is whether we'll have shoveled ourselves out of the driveway by Memorial Day.

Last Month's Chat

On MS Teams, where being snowed-in is luckily never an issue, we had our first Records Managers Chat of the new year on January 27th.  Attending from IARA were Chandler Lighty (our Executive Director),  Samantha Putnam (Records Center Director), Jeannine Roe (Electronic Records Archivist), Amy Christiansen (Records Management Liaison for County and Local Agencies), another Amy who shall remain nameless (spoiler: it was me), and Kara Chinn (Records Management Coordinator). We met with ten Records Managers representing ten different agencies, and we were very happy to see a larger group making their way back to us after the holidays!

We discussed January's bulletin topics, which were our new Records Managers Survey, and an overview of each of IARA's divisions and the services they provide. Special attention was devoted to the differences between the State Records Center (temporary storage for agency-owned records) and the State Archives (permanent collection of records scheduled for historical preservation, with ownership transferred to the Archives).

If you missed the meeting but would like to know more, we now have you covered!

I've posted a transcript of the January 2022 RM Chat to our Monthly RM Bulletins Archive, where you can also find all of the previous bulletins I've sent out, back to August 2021 when we started. I'll try my best to keep providing transcripts of the meetings going forward, though the timetable on those may vary depending on how long the meeting runs and how much conversation there is.

News You Can Use

Our biggest news in Records Management is still our new Records Managers Survey, which is still open for you and any of your colleagues you'd care to share it with.

Please let us know which topics you'd be interested in learning more about, and how we can make our interactions more accessible and useful for all of you.

We've had 32 responses so far, from 29 county/local Records Managers, and three state agency Records Managers. There are some great questions and suggestions in there -- one of which I'm using for our featured topic this month -- but I'd love to hear from more state agency representatives, since you're the folks I work with the most!

News You Can't Use

Because I was low on funny things to say about Records Management this month, I asked Google, your friend and mine, for help.  Not kidding...

 ...and apparently nobody else is either.  (I solemnly promise that I will unsolemnly try to improve that score.)

 

RM Topic of the Month: The Oversight Committee on Public Records

The Oversight Committee on Public Records (OCPR) is IARA's policy-making body. They review and approve all IARA policies, including fee schedules, subject-specific policies that apply to all agencies, and -- this is where they intersect with your life as a Records Manager -- new and updated records retention schedules.

Who are they? 
The Committee is made up of representatives from state agencies, local agencies, and the public. Government agencies represented are those that have administrative or functional reasons to give input on what happens to government records in Indiana: the Governor's Office, the Secretary of State, the State Board of Accounts, the State Library, IARA, the Department of Administration, the Office of Technology, the Public Access Counselor, and a county clerk or recorder who serves on a county Commission of Public Records. Members from the public (who are appointed by the Governor's Office and are called "lay members") include a member of the press and a member of the general public. 

How are they involved with my retention schedules?
The OCPR meets monthly, and during those meetings, in addition to receiving reports from IARA and making decisions on other issues, they vote to approve approve the records retention schedule drafts that have been submitted to them by IARA. Those could be brand new retention schedules for a new agency, division, or program, or they could be updates to your existing retention schedules, to county/local retention schedules, or to the General Retention Schedule for All State Agencies.

How do our proposed retention schedule updates get to them?
Between meetings, IARA's Records Management Team works with your Agency Records Coordinator (or subject experts from your agency who are more familiar with the specific records whose retention is getting an update) to create and agree on a final draft for your new/updated retention schedule. It goes through this cycle (also found in the State Agency Records Manager Handbook), and when it has received final review and approval from IARA's Administration Team and your agency head, it's placed on the agenda for the next OCPR meeting, to be approved, finalized, and ready for you to use!

How will I know when our schedule is being voted on?
When the IARA Records Management Team receives the electronically-signed PDF document that indicates your agency-head's approval,  we'll let your Agency Records Coordinator know that the retention schedule is ready to be placed on the upcoming month's agenda. 

That agenda itself may not exist yet at this point, because it has to contain everything that's going to happen at the meeting, so it often doesn't get finalized until a few days beforehand. Once it does exist, it will be posted on the OCPR Web Page, and we'll e-mail your Records Coordinator a direct link to the finalized agenda. (If you don't receive that direct link, it's an oversight on my part, for which I apologize.)

Whether the agenda is ready or not, you will always be able to check when the next meeting is by going to the OCPR Web Page. If I've told you that your schedule is ready, then you can count on it being voted on in that meeting, unless the meeting itself ends up being cancelled or re-scheduled. (If that happens, your Records Coordinator will get an e-mail from me explaining the situation and letting you know the date of the next meeting.)

Does someone from our agency have to be there?
You don't have to be there - but you're absolutely welcome to. It's an Open Meeting, which anyone -- including the public, and definitely state agency staff -- may attend. If there are substantial or unusual changes to your retention schedule and it might help to have agency staff present in case the Committee has questions, I'll let you know ahead of time. Otherwise, it's optional.

When will I know that our retention schedule update has been approved?
As soon as possible after the meeting itself. I try to let Agency Records Coordinators know on the day of the meeting, but sometimes unless a packed calendar or unexpected absence means I don't actually get back to my desk to send out e-mails that day.

However, even if you don't hear from me right away, you can usually assume that if the meeting is over, your schedule was approved. That's because in the rare case that there's a problem and the schedule isn't approved, you will hear from me right away, and I'll make sure to explain what's going on and what we need to do to fix things. (To give you an idea of how rare this is, in the last 20+ years, it's happened perhaps three times.)

When can I actually use my new retention schedule?
When I e-mail your Records Coordinator either a finalized copy that's signed by IARA's Executive Director, or a link to the version on IARA's website, which is generated by our catalog system. One or the other usually happens within a week after the meeting, and either of those counts as Good To Go!

(You'll always receive the signed, finalized copy, but because that involves document cleanup and getting that final signature, the website link may be ready first.)

What if I have questions about the OCPR process or the status of my retention schedule that's up for approval?

• You can always contact me and I'll be happy to help!
  
  
• You can also always check the OCPR Web Page for meeting dates, time, and location, or to see whether the agenda has been posted yet.

 

February Records Managers Chat

Our next Records Managers Chat will be happening next week! 

Date: February 24th, 2022
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. eastern time
Place: Microsoft Teams

About the Meeting

This 30-minute meetup is an informal setting in which to ask questions or talk about records management concerns; normally I'll begin by introducing any IARA colleagues attending, talk a bit about the topic of the monthly bulletin and make any announcements, then open things up for questions and discussion.

I've included an agenda to help keep me us all on topic, so there'll be plenty of time for your questions and records management discussion once Amy remembers to click Mute!

Adding the Meeting to Your MS Outlook Calendar

✉ Desktop Outlook

• Save the attached MonthlyStateRecordsManagersChat.ics file to your desktop.
• Make sure Outlook is open.
  
• Double-click the .ics file.
  
• Outlook will open it up as a traditional meeting invitation.
• Click "Accept" to add it to your calendar.

✉ Outlook on the Web

• Save the attached MonthlyStateRecordsManagersChat.ics file to your desktop.
  
• In your web version of Outlook, go to the Calendar page.
  
• Choose "Add Calendar," then in the left pane, "Upload from file."
  
• Click "Browse" and find the .ics file, then click "Open."
  
• Choose a preferred calendar from the dropdown list. (Even if you only have one.)
• Click "Import."
• Outlook will add the meeting to your calendar.

Meeting-Up in MS Teams

Are you new to using Microsoft Teams? No worries, IARA can help you navigate.

MS Teams is a collaboration app that many state agencies are now using to stay organized and have conversations with colleagues inside and outside of the agency.

But if your agency doesn't use Teams? No worries. You don't need to have the software installed on your computer to participate in a Teams call. 
 

To Join the Meeting By Phone

1. Dial 1-317-552-1674 at the designated meeting time, then enter this PIN when prompted: 
   489 794 94#
   
   
2. We'll let you into the meeting.
    

To Join the Meeting by Computer

1. Click here at the designated meeting time.
   
   
2. A new tab or window will open in your default web browser. From there:
   
   
   • Choose the option to join on the web if you don't normally use Teams, then click "Join now."
     
     
   • Join through your desktop or mobile application if you're familiar with using Teams and would prefer that to the web version. 
      

If you have other questions about how to use Teams, or about the meetup, just contact me and we'll figure things out together!

. . .

Looking forward to seeing you,

Amy A. Robinson  (CIP) | (she/her)
State Government Records Analyst
Indiana Archives and Records Administration

o: 317-232-3285  |  f: 317-233-1713
e: arobinson@iara.in.gov |  w: www.in.gov/iara
a: 402 W. Washington St., Room W472, Indianapolis, IN 46204

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• Monthly State Records Managers Chat February 2022.ics
• StateRMChat-agenda-2022-02.pdf