State Records Management Bulletin: August 2024

This month's topic is one that is probably on many of our minds - the upcoming administration change. You may be seeing colleagues leave or make plans to change positions. Maybe your agency head has announced plans to find something new in 2025. Perhaps some of your agency's executive leadership are looking to make a role change.  

Administration changes are just that - a time of change. To help keep operations running and onboard new staff, a robust records management plan is essential! There are two objectives to keep in mind during a time of transition - managing records for continuity/business use and ensuring the records of your current leadership team are preserved in the Indiana State Archives. These two objectives go hand-in-hand, and you will be most successful if you keep both of them in mind.  

Continuity/business use records are those records that an incoming staff and administration will use to inform them of the day-to-day operations, institutional history, and how the statutory responsibilities of your agency have been performed. The Indiana State Archives is most interested in records from your agency head and/or executive team that include calendars, speeches (text and recorded), policy documents, and photos of events or projects. Keep in mind, that in some cases continuity/business use records and archival records may be one and the same and particularly for electronic records you can always keep a copy for the incoming administration, while also transferring a copy to the Indiana State Archives. 

Begin by determining whose records you need to gather. Common roles whose records have high continuity/business use value and/or archival value include agency head, executive team, C-suite, division directors, chiefs of staff, and policy staff. Look for roles whose records an incoming administration may find useful and roles whose records are scheduled to come to the Indiana State Archives. Check the General Retention Schedule for All State Agencies and any schedules specific to your agency to get started. If you have questions about retention schedules, please reach out to rmd@iara.in.gov.  

The next step is locating your records - these can be electronic and/or physical locations. Some common digital locations are email, Outlook calendars, OneDrive, SharePoint folders, and server folders. Physical records may be stored in desk drawers, filing cabinets, or entire closets/rooms. Physical records and electronic records may be organized or organized chaos or just chaos - all are normal, and all are workable.  

If you find yourself faced with a daunting task and are unsure how to proceed, you can use what are referred to as "buckets": Keep and Destroy. Determine what you do need to keep - don't worry at first about how long you need to keep a record, what format it is in, or what its final disposition is. Just determine what needs to be saved. Also determine what you can safely destroy - again check the General Retention Schedule for All State Agencies and any schedules specific to your agency to get started. Your “Keep Bucket” in SharePoint or on the server might simply be a folder called “Keep,” or you might instead choose to add the word "KEEP" to the end of files and folders. Your “Keep Bucket” in a filing cabinet might be a drawer labeled "KEEP," while in a storage closet or room it might be one side of the room with boxes labeled "KEEP" on them. Likewise, your “Destroy Buckets” might take similar form. It's mostly about making some sense of chaos and finding a way to easily cut down on your work.  

Once you have your buckets, you can begin to fine tune things. In your “Keep Bucket” you will start to figure out how long you need to keep records and what their final disposition is according to a retention schedule - is it destruction X years from now? Is it transferable to the Indiana State Archives? In your “Destroy Bucket” you will do a final pass and make sure that everything is actually eligible for destruction. You will also make sure you know how to correctly destroy confidential records, and that electronic records are really deleted and not just in an electronic recycling bin.  

If at any time you have questions, just reach out to rmd@iara.in.gov. We are happy to meet with you, talk through questions and issues, and offer advice. We know that change can be daunting, but when it comes to the records component of an administration change we are here to help!