Retention
On April 10, 1894, Clara Eby
Steiner writes from the Mennonite Home Mission two days after her
marriage: “Left home for an unknown life in the city of Chicago. Arrived safely in
evening. Cab waiting for us. Grand
reception”. She
and Menno S.
Steiner worked at
this new mission for a year. Clara went on
to form the Mennonite Women’s Missionary Society in 1915, which today
is known as Mennonite Women. Persons have
used Clara’s diaries and correspondence over and over again, and it was
the retention of these materials by the Steiner family that made it
possible today to scan these documents into the Gutenberg
to Gigabytes project and make them available on the Internet.
In 1895, I. G. Plank writes from Macclenny, Florida: the “gardens are doing very well. W. D.
Griffins has one of the finest vegetable gardens I have seen in the
state”. He continues his letter to
evangelist John S. Coffman, Elkhart, Indiana: “My prayer is,
that if it is God’s will, that He will help us to an opportunity to
live in a community of our own people”. It
was to be over thirty years later that Mennonite congregations began
forming at North Tampa and Sarasota (1927). And
today Martin W. Lehman is using these letters to write down the faith
story of the Southeast Mennonite Conference (founded 1967). We can thank Coffman and his family for
retaining this John S. Coffman Collection.
And on April 28, 1992, Jon Harder from jon@uci.com, Bloomington, Minnesota, sent the first e-mail to the subscribers of
Menno Link. “The Peace Tax Fund is about
to have, for the first time ever, Congressional hearings.... Letters in
support of this bill are urgently needed”. By
May 18th, there are 29 subscribers to this Internet service. Jon archived this 2.61 MB of e-mail
correspondence two years later, which by then dated April 1992 -
January 1994, and sent it to the archives. Today
this is found in our Electronic Archives under Menno Link, and one can
use Wordpad to access these files and read
the letters from this extended discussion group.
It was back in 1937 already, that the Mennonite Church instructed the Historical Committee to
establish an archives. This central
repository was located in the Memorial Library at Goshen College, Indiana, with Harold S. Bender as the first
custodian. The library’s name gave tribute
to the cloud of witnesses who “gave devoted service to the cause of
Christ.” While the original focus of the
Historical Committee (1911) had been to write history books, now the
task of custodianship fell under its wings as well.
In North Newton, Kansas, the archives began in 1911 with the
formation of the Mennonite Historical Association at the triennal session of the General Conference held
at Bluffton, Ohio. In part this
was in response to the death of historian C. H. Wedel
in 1910. Names associated with the
archives came to include H. R. Voth, a
General Conference missionary, H. P. Krehbiel,
Abraham Warkentin, Cornelius Krahn and John F. Schmidt.
During the 1940s several prominent church leaders like Daniel
Kauffman (1865-1944), Aaron Loucks
(1864-1945), and J. S. Shoemaker (1854-1936), disposed of most of their
church correspondence. The feeling seemed
to be that it was better for no one to read all the contention that had
been part of the Mennonite Church in the first half of the 20th
century. The archives
is fortunate to have retained some papers from these leaders.
This was when the church formed boards and
committees and was at its zenith of creating a unified church structure
across North America (General Conference – 1898, Education -1905,
Missions – 1906, Publishing - 1908, Music - 1909, Sunday School
Education - 1909, Historical Committee – 1911, Peace
Problems –1917, etc.).
Due to this confusion over the personal or church custodianship
of records, the Mennonite Church asked the Historical Committee to write down
some guidelines for the retention and disposition of church records. This was in 1952:
“Records have disappeared which should have
been retained... A person holding an office in an agency of the church
acts as a servant of the church, not as a private individual...An
office in any agency … is a stewardship to be held in sacred trust.”
This policy was written for the secretary and
treasurer, and also other committee members. It
outlined what to keep: such as minutes and reports, and what to
discard: such as notices of coming meetings. These
policies were officially adopted by the Mennonite General Conference on
August 29, 1953 at Kitchener, Ontario.
Disposition
The archives came to benefit immensely from those 1953
guidelines. Boards, committees and pastors
were conscientious to retain their materials and transfer them to the
archives. But now the church began having the opposite problem: too
many records.
This can be seen from the amount of materials
that came into the archives from 1940-90. 500
linear feet of records had been deposited into the archives at Goshen the first thirty years, 1940-70. One can multiply that number by nine (9) over
the next twenty years. 4,500 linear feet
of records came into the archives from 1970-90. The
church certainly made up for the short fall of the 1930s and 1940s, and
some of these materials included those valuable records from 1900-1950,
which the Historical Committee were particularly concerned that they
not be lost. But the emphasis shifted to
come up with a plan by which to dispose of records.
Because of the rapid accumulation of records,
the Coordinating Council revised the guidelines, and wrote these words
in 1989: “Records are important. However, the long-range retention of
all records is not important.” The focus
had shifted. Now the church focused on
managing the high volume of paper that was been created and distributed. This was a time of “priesthood of all
believers”, with everyone having a copy of the minutes.
The photocopier was just a step away. Now
the problem was that the donkey was getting too much food from all its
owners, rather than starving to death.
And with the personal computer appearing on every desk since
1980, there is now a vast amount of data on floppies and hard drives. Now archiving computer records happens every 3
months instead of every 5-10 years as it was with paper records. The need for the gifts of managing has
increased. But this is also during a time
when the role of secretary and support persons have
decreased – with each one his or her own boss having increased. So now we all need to learn the tools of the
trade, or look to those who can coordinate this for us.
Tools
For many years we learned the tools of farming and sewing. And then what it takes to be teachers and
nurses and doctors, and electricians and mechanics and engineers. And the skills of being a
secretary and administrative assistant and director. Now we need to apply these learning’s to the
trade of administration and organization and management of the
long-term retention and disposition of church records.
“Since not all records have equal value,
discretion must be exercised in determining what records are retained,
[and] what records are destroyed. The
determination of how long records should be retained will be based on a
number of factors” (1989 Guidelines).
Below we identify
many tools for this work. Of these we
recommend two as foundational: a Records Schedule (Tool #6) and Who is called to this ministry (Tool #28). A needle and a thread, and a hammer and some
nails, are key ingredients to sewing and building.
You may decide which two tools are the place
to start for you.
Sometimes one wants to turn this work into a science, with a
highly organized management system with forms and procedures. All the t’s are
crossed and i’s are dotted.
Other times one applies the lessons of art to this work, where
one needs to add the colors of green and yellow to mix with the blues
and blacks. Keeping some records and
throwing others away is not always an exact science, and one uses the
strengths of ones intuition. Both the left
(linear) and right (creative) side of the brain need to be used to turn
this work into something enjoyable. And
the result is satisfaction that records are being destroyed and that
the valuable ones are being kept.
Tools of Management (#1-6)
1. Current
Records. Identifying your
records within a life cycle of current, semi-active and archival is a
good starting point to get a handle on ones records, and may be the
single best ingredient to make the whole system work.
One can also assign different persons to work with each of these
kinds of records.
In general, current records
are held in the office 1-3 years, and are then weeded using the tools
below. Electronic records should be
examined every 3 months (every quarter). E-mail
boxes soon become full, and patterns of filing computer documents can
easily change. This regular review of
paper and electronic records sets up a strong filing system for the
whole organization. At the offices of the
Historical Committee and Archives, a whole week is set aside at the
beginning of each fiscal year to allow staff time to concentrate on
this task. It also provides time for the
CEO and records manager to review their guidelines.
2. Semi-Active Records. The
semi-active records are those transferred to an
accessible place in your building where one can access these files if
needed. These files usually hold this
status from 3-10 years. Finding a good
place to place these “semi-active” records may in itself
take time. It can be a closet, or storage
area, but not a junk area. One will need
to have access to these records from time to time, and there should be
enough room to be able to retrieve and
replace the files in its respective box or
filing cabinet. Keeping a list of the
boxes and their contents at your desk is a good way to know what
records are found in this semi-active area. Numbering
the boxes also keeps them in some order, and ensures that boxes can
easily be found by staff members.
At the offices of Mennonite Mission Network
in Elkhart, Indiana, certain filing cabinets have been deemed
“archival”, which holds files that are from 2-10 years old. These cabinets sit next to, or near, the
cabinets holding “current” records. On the
11th year, the oldest set of records are
transferred to the archives in a five year block. At
this point, they are evaluated again. Sometimes
a person has been assigned to go through the entire set of program
files, and keep 25-40% of the vital correspondence and reports. This set is then identified as archival
and sent to the archives at church archives at Goshen, Indiana. It is also
good to establish a method on how the remaining ones are to be
destroyed – an industrial shredder, or a safe disposal system. Again, tools listed below helps one evaluate
the records after 10 years.
With electronic records, one may
only need two divisions, current and archival, to manage these
materials. The first step is to be able to
figure out how the current files are managed. A
second step is to then create an Electronic Archives on one’s hard
drive, or server, where files can be transferred which are no longer
used, or which are only semi-active. This
continues to be a new area of management, so one can experiment what
works best. However, the key is to make
sure there is an archival area on the computer, since persons will want
to get rid of their current minutes and reports. Yet
persons also want to be able to have access to the older set of their
reports, and minutes of the organization.
One solution that the Historical Committee
has come up with in ensuring that their electronic records are
preserved is to burn a set of CDs of their entire electronic records. Each staff member is responsible to burn their
files onto a CD, and clearly mark on the CD the contents of that disk. This ensures that all the files have been
saved for every year, and reflects the ongoing changes of the
organization each year. For example, the
web site may change, but one can go back and examine what that
organization’s web site looked like a year ago.
These electronic files have not been weeded, or appraised as to
their long-term value, and access, but at least there is a permanent
set of the files on disk.
3. Archival
records. When records have been identified as archival, an
inventory of these files is made. This list with the boxes are then transferred to
an archives. It is this inventory which
becomes the main access point to these files. The
archivist uses this list to understand these records, and to catalog
them in the proper place of an organization’s archival collection. This inventory (along with the catalog, box
and file numbers) is then posted on the web, so the organization has
ongoing access to their files.
In practice, the archives also acts
as a record center for semi-active records for organizations. The Mennonite Church does not have a records
center, like the state archives does, so it can become convenient for
an agency to transfer records that are somewhere between the stage of
no longer used and archival. On the other
hand, agencies have sometimes retained historical records for a very
long time, and not transferred them since they get billed by the
Historical Committee on the based on the linear feet of records sent to
the archives. Both of these scenarios
prove inadequate, and is one of the main
reasons for revising these retention and disposition guidelines.
The archives main goal is not to work with
semi-active records. And if an agency
keeps historical records too long, they are then not taken care of and
inaccessible to the wider church. It means
agencies and archives need to work together to come up a single records
schedule that builds confidence in the long-range preservation of
valuable records and in the destruction of records that have been
identified as having a short-life span.
4. Paper and
Electronic Records. These
guidelines treat paper and electronic records in the same fashion. In other words, both need to be well managed. There may also be an overlap of these two
formats in with your files. The end goal
is that the filing system (and management) of both should be similar,
and mirror each other. One should be able
to find a full set of Annual Reports, for example, 1980-90 are in paper
copy, and 1991-2004 in electronic copy. It
may take another 10-20 years of working with both paper and computer
files to figure out how best to retain files for the long-term.
5. Electronic Records. A
whole section will be devoted to computer files and e-mail, but it is
mentioned here to ensure these files get included in the overall
management of records. Printing out e-mail and documents, and filing
paper copies, is one way to preserve these computer files, but the
volume can get too large to make this feasible. So
one needs to try and preserve the files electronically through the
years.
The archives is
committed to the electronic medium, and in finding ways to preserve
this magnetic records for the long term. This
decision is also based on the experience of working with reel-to-reel
tapes, 16mm films, and color slides at the archives.
These materials date from 1930s-60s, and have all held up
through time, and can be transferred to newer formats.
Conversion of files from older formats into
newer ones becomes important for the long-range retention of electronic
records. One needs to figure in this
knowledge in understanding the ongoing use of this medium.
For example, one may need to migrate data from the old 5 1/4”
diskettes (used from 1980-1994) onto the 3 1/2” disks (used from
1989-present). And old Word-processing
files from 4.0 need to be converted to Word
2000. That in itself
can take a learning process. Even if there
the files are found in a mixture of software formats, one can use Wordpad to access the data.
Decisions can also be made at this point on the value of various
sets of records, and spend time to convert the ones identified as
“permanent” and “archival”.
Naming of computer folders and files (or
e-mail boxes and e-mail subject lines) becomes important to easily
organize and access the materials. By
adding dates, one can also manage them chronologically.
This naming becomes even more important in offices that are
working with the same computer files. Materials
in electronic medium make them accessible through word searches, or
through the “find folders of files” in Windows Explorer, so again the
naming of files becomes important.
The archives is taking this
electronic archives one step further. It
has launched a project whereby selected historical records get scanned
into the computer and can then be available to look at on the Internet. It is aptly called from Gutenberg
to Gigabytes. For example, the diaries
of Clara Eby Steiner, the correspondence
of John F. Funk, and the reports of Mennonite General Conference, 1890
– 1971 have already been digitized. This
also provides added preservation of these documents, in another medium.
6. Centralized or Decentralized Management. Some organizations hire one person to do the
records management for the entire organization, like Mennonite Central
Committee. Other organizations, like
Mennonite Mission Network and Goshen College are decentralized
with each department taking responsibility to
manage its own records. Usually there
needs to be one contact person to coordinate the decentralized activity. In either case, it is the cooperation and
support in working with files that makes both systems work.
In our Historical Committee offices, we have
found that computers actually aid in centralizing our work. All staff share files on one drive on a
computer server, and can easily work together on many projects. Each staff has been assigned major
responsibility for their specific folders which reflect their work. All staff also have
their own private e-mail and a private drive which can only be accessed
by them.
Record Survey and Schedules (#7-8)
7. Records Survey. I
have found that doing a survey of existing records helps me to assess
the current health of an organization when it comes to its files. This
includes what is in the filing cabinets, what are on the shelves, and
what is in the desk drawers. This also
includes what is in the computer, on the hard drive, with the e-mail
program, with the web files, with the databases, and the software.
This also includes all the semi-active
materials found in boxes in closets and shelves throughout the
organization. And one can also check
to see what archival records are already found at the archives from a
particular department, or entire agency.
To do a records survey, one can easily go
from office to office, interviewing persons on their records. Make a list of the various sections of records
that they use, and to add dates next to each type, including location,
and person.
Minutes, 1991-2001,
1 Historical File Room
22
Director, John E. Sharp
Invoices &
Receipts, 2003-04,
1 File Drawer
Cage room
Bookkeeper, Ruth Schrock
Archives Administ. 2002-04, 1
File drawer
Room 23
Archivist, Dennis Stoesz
Assist. Working
Files, 2001-04
1/2 File drawer
Room 21
Assistant, Cathy Hochstetler
It then means typing out this list, and
making recommendations on whether there are too many semi-active or
archival records in the offices, or if there are too few.
It is also a simple way to get a handle on the whole
organization, and to see the management from a bird’s eye view. Doing this once a year also ensures the
ongoing transfer of records out of offices, and that values are being
assigned to the different sets of materials.
8. Record Schedules. It
is the recommendation of these guidelines that the schedule will become
one of the most important tools for the long-range management of the
church’s records. A records schedule is
defined as “A document describing records of an agency, organization,
or administrative unit, establishing a timetable for their life cycle,
and providing authorization for their disposition.. Also referred to as a records retention schedule, ...and transfer schedule.
(Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and
Records Managers, by Lynn Lady Bellardo,
et. al., Society of American Archivists, Chicago, Illinois, 1992)
Sometimes an organization types out the
records surveys, and then begins to appraise the value of each set of
records. The schedule indicates specific
dates for how long each type of record needs to be kept, and when it
can be destroyed. It also shows if it
should be transferred to semi-active, or to the archives.
I think such a schedule is one of the biggest
practical tools available to us. But it
takes time to develop one, and takes time for everyone to agree on what
to keep and what to throw away. Below is
one produced by the Methodist archives for congregations (1998), see
below. One difference in Mennonite congregations is that annual reports
would be retained permanently instead of destroyed.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
And here is a schedule produced for Indiana
Public Schools, in 1995.
______________________________________________________________________
Here is the Schedule produced by the Central,
Illinois, Indiana-Michigan and Ohio Mennonite
Conferences for their congregations in 2000. This
schedule would vary within congregations because some do not produce
annual reports. This schedule also
encourages congregations to keep a set of Historical Files in their
congregation:
__________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Here is the report on Schedules at MCC, by
records manager Irene Leaman, 2000.
These schedules can lead to a collaborative
effort, between administrators, historians, lawyers and boards. And once such a schedule is in place, it
becomes an effective tool for a church agency and archives to state the
position on what records are considered of long-term value, and what
gets destroyed.
Tools of Record Types (#9-12)
9. Record
Types. A good understanding of
the different types of records in one’s office may be the easiest way
in which to manage one’s files, both paper and electronic.
For example, where are the minutes of your organization kept? Can you identify a full run of them from the
very first meeting since you began? Minutes
are a record type. It means being able to
list all of these types of records in your office and computer. An example of this was already given in the
section on doing a records survey:
Minutes, 1991-2001,
1 Historical File Room
22
Director, John E. Sharp
Invoices &
Receipts, 2003-04,
1 File Drawer
Cage room
Bookkeeper, Ruth Schrock
Archives Administ. 2002-04, 1
File drawer
Room 23
Archivist, Dennis Stoesz
Assist. Working
Files, 2001-04
1/2 File drawer
Room 21
Assistant, Cathy Hochstetler
One needs to
include beginning and end dates, and also location, and the person who
creates these records. At this point one
is not assigning value to them, but trying to describe each set of
records.
Minutes. Minutes continue to be an important source of
information about one’s organization. It includes names of persons,
actions taken, and information about how decisions were made. Depending on the secretary, minutes can also
be descriptive and provide a good deal of knowledge about the agency. There also made be minutes by several
departments in the organization, and by the board itself.
It means knowing where all these materials are kept, and which
prove the most essential.
Reports. Does your organization generate reports? By whom, and where are they kept?
Can you find a copy of the 1980 report, the 1937 one, or last
years? Sometimes reports capture the
activity of an organization in such a way that these may become one of
the most important items to keep. This is
especially true if a lot of organizational energy goes into producing
that report. On the other hand, for
example, some congregations don’t produce any annual reports, so one
has to keep the minutes and maybe also the taped copy of a
congregational meeting to capture this report.
Correspondence. This may be too general of a designation for a
series of records. Usually a name of a
person, or the function of the correspondence, would be listed next to
this record type.
Program Files. These files are usually associated with a
specific name of a program, or by the name of the person running a
certain program.
Financial records. Includes audited reports, budgets, summary
statements, journal entries, tax returns, bank statements, canceled
checks, donation records, invoices and receipts, payroll records. And this includes all electronic spreadsheets
or database programs.
Electronic records. Although it may be easier to identify types of
records within the electronic records, it is mentioned as a record type
here to remind persons to also list the files found in the computer
sitting on the desk.
Subject Files.
Publicity materials. Includes newsletters, brochures, newspaper clippings.
Constitutions,
and such things as incorporation papers, by-laws, mission statements,
property deeds, legal documents, agreements, contracts.
Membership records, or files reflecting your network with other
groups.
Personnel Records.
Academic Records of Students.
Photographs, or other drawings, maps, brochures, made or
kept by your organization.
Videos, CDs, DVDs, audiotapes, films created or
important for your agency.
Books, articles written on your organization,
yearbooks, alumni directories.
Artifacts, like peace signs, or mission banks for the
Mission Board, which provide meaning to you and your organization.
The purpose of the list above is not to come
up with a standardized list. Rather the
list should help explain the various sets of records within a office or department.
10. Dates of
records. One also needs
to assign dates to each record type. How
old are these records? And how long do
each set of records remain useful to the person using them? 10 years or only 1 year. Invoices and receipts often have only a 1-2
year life span in the current office. Minutes,
on the other hand, can be retained for 5-10 years.
11. Person
creating or using the records. One
also needs to identify the name of the person, or the office, in charge
of a particular set of records. Often this
becomes an easy way to clarify who is then responsible to the ongoing
disposition of those materials. In our
office of the Historical Committee, each computer folder has the
initials of the person responsible for the folder on it.
That way each staff person knows what to manage.
12. Location of
current, and semi-active and archival records.
Identifying the location of the records becomes important since
files may be scattered all over an organization. It
is also easier to leave the records where they are (even it they are
stored in a closet), and write this information on the records survey,
rather than try to find a new place for them. This
is also an easy way to get a bird’s eye view of the physical location
and quantity of the files.
This proved most useful in the records survey
done at East Goshen Mennonite Church. The files were
found in at least 7 locations, with various persons connected to each
set of records. The library held old video
and cassette tapes which the librarian took care of.
Several old batches of financial records were found in three
locations. Rather than move them, the
materials were just listed on the records inventory.
In conclusion, making a list of the
significant record types in your organization will give you a sense of
the whole, without getting mired down in the detailed files. And this list can easily be turned into a
records schedule once it has been determined how long to keep each set
of materials, and what to then retain and dispose after 3 years, and
after 10 years.
Electronic Records and
E-Mail (#13-16)
Computer files have already been mentioned throughout the
preceding pages, but are included in a separate section here. In a way they could be seen as a record type. And yet they are used so often and in so many
different ways, that they deserve special mention.
The personal computer began landing on everyone’s desk in the
early 1980s as IBM marketed a smaller computer which could be used by
everyone. Now everyone began using those 5
1/4” floppy disks which were replaced by 3 1/2” diskettes in the early
1990s. How many of you still have kept
those 5 1/4” floppies, or migrated that electronic data into newer
formats? Or to put it another way, what is
the oldest computer file on your computer? The
archives has retained hardware that can copy from the older to the
newer floppy disks, and recently recovered some 1986 minutes of the
African-American Mennonite Association, which retained their computer
records.
Financial departments had already been using the larger
computers in the 1970s, because of its number crunching capabilities. OCLC (Ohio Library Cataloging Service)
began a large data base used by libraries all over North America by 1976. Sociologist
Howard J. Kauffman had put all his data from the Church Member Profile
into a computer already in 1972. That
allowed him to ask various questions to the computer, the answers which
were then published in the book Anabaptists Four Centuries
Later. This data is still available on
1/2” x 11” magnetic tape.
But how does one try to work with the changing hardware and
software through the years?
13. Technology Person. First, the records manager should become
acquainted with the technology person of the organization, and how the
entire computer system works at storing records. There
may already be a management system in place which helps one manage the
electronic records. And can one
identify on the computer, where the e-mail
and attachments are stored, the financial records, the program files,
the computer software programs, the backup disks, etc.
It may be that the technology person can act as the electronic
records manager, and work as a team in coming up with a united approach
to managing paper and electronic records. This
may then enhance both systems, rather than compete with each other.
14. Data
Policy Committee, Mennonite Church USA. It was at the
General Assembly at Nashville, Tennessee, that the delegates received a report and
proposal for the “formation of a committee of representatives from
church agencies to recommend data policies for Mennonite Church USA.” (Delegate
Workbook, pages 130-33)
This data policy committee has met at least several times since
2001, and it includes the executive board, publishing network,
education agency, mission network and mutual aid, as well as guests
from Mennonite.net. Its focus has been on
identifying the databases used by the different groups such as Mennonite Directory, Youth Census, a
congregational database. Each agency also
has many other computer programs to run various aspects of their church
program.
The Data Policy Committee has talked a little bit about “record
retention”. At present the agencies use
the period of time set by their financial auditors to retain and
destroy electronic records. The 2001 report gives guidance to this work
under the section “archiving electronic materials”:
The guidelines recommend that MC USA agencies maintain a list of
designated positions with archiving responsibilities and outline the
type of email, web-based information, databases and files to be stored
electronically and in preferred formats.
The Archives of the Mennonite Church (Goshen and North Newton) are working to provide electronic as well
as traditional forms for archiving materials.
The full test of this Nashville 2001 “Data
Policy Proposal Synopsis” is included as Appendix B at the end of these
Guidelines.
15. E-Mail Correspondence. Writing
and checking e-mails seems to a large part of the activity of an
organization today. Along with this then
comes the work of having to file that correspondence.
Sometimes this just piles up in ones in and out e-mail boxes,
arranged in chronological or alphabetical order. Often
one creates separate mailboxes for each of the activities one is
involved in and transfers that in and out mail to those boxes. Sometime someone just deletes everything, or
saves everything in a chronological archived
e-mail boxes. Keeping this material
organized and manageable takes time. It
means someone in the organization needs to monitor how this is going
for all staff.
One organization, Mennonite Central Committee
(MCC), set up a system whereby a copy of all e-mail would be sent to a
centralized mailbox for each department. That
way each staff member did not have to go through everything and
evaluate what to keep and what to delete. Staff
could also decide to turn off this cc. function for an e-mail that they
would send. In other words, all
correspondence was filed centrally just like MCC had done since 1935.
Here is a report on electronic filing at MCC
by records manager Irene Leaman (April
2000):
E-mail is often controlled by each individual
in the organization, and is often seen as personal.
So it often takes cooperation and some guidelines that the
valuable correspondence be retained, and that it also does not pile up
so much that no one could find anything. This
includes ensuring confidentially of the correspondence, by clearly
marking on the CD that access is limited to a specific department or
person for a certain length of time (for example, 10 years) at which
point it become archival.
Where did you put your 1997 e-mails can put ones correspondence
into perspective? Either it is entirely
gone, or one printed and filed only hard copies, or one kept this in an
archived computer file. It does not mean
one has to keep all correspondence, but does anything survive? And can you pull up that e-mail and read it
today?
16. Concerns about conversion.
This subject was mentioned earlier under tool #5, but is
repeated here. The archives
is committed to the electronic medium, and in finding ways to
preserve this magnetic records for the long term. This
decision is also based on the experience of working with reel-to-reel
tapes, 16mm films, and color slides at the archives.
These materials date from 1930s-60s, and have all held up
through time, and can be transferred to newer formats.
Tools of Appraisal (#17-27)
We now move on to talk about making decisions on what to keep
and what to throw away. The process of
determining the short and long-term value of records is called
appraisal. And this appraisal can be done after 1-3 years when files
are moved into semi-active storage, and after 10 years, when some
records are transferred to the archives. And the appraisal of records
can continue to be done at the archives with the older records that
have been kept.
This appraisal decides how long to keep
records, when to destroy them, and when to transfer them to the
archives. It is this decision of “retention and
disposition” that then gets written down on the records schedule.
Annual reports continue to hold their value through time. Bank checks,
however, do not. Correspondence may be
harder to judge.
17. Administrative
Value. Do the records you are
examining have value for the conduct of the current and future
activities of your organization? This could be a mission statement, a
constitution, bylaws, personnel records, or reports and correspondence
about a project. If they are not needed,
they are transferred to the semi-active records, where you can consult
them when needed.
Some of the administrative records you may
consider permanent, such as bylaws, or personnel records, even if they
may be quite old. These documents reflect
key decisions made, a major shift in
program, or current personnel. Often these
materials are found in a binder on a shelf, for easy access and use.
18. Legal
Value. Do some of the files
you are looking at reflect written agreements, or contracts, made
between two parties? This could have to do
with land, or money, or relationships. Staff
personnel records, minutes of meetings, or
correspondence may contain these kind of formal or informal contracts.
Sometimes these documents are filed by the
date of the transaction, and can be placed with inactive and then
archival records. They can then be
accessed by year. Or they can be kept in
with a section of the current administrative records by their function,
contracts, minutes, etc.
Once these contracts have been fulfilled, or if there is a
long-standing relationship that has stayed the same, these files can be
transferred to inactive status. When a
person retires, for example, that personnel record may be placed in the
inactive section, and upon the person’s death, that record, or portions
thereof can become archival.
19. Fiscal
Value. How does one decide
what to keep of all the financial records that are generated? First one looks for an audited report. If there isn’t one, where is there an annual
statement of income and expenditures? And
does the statement provide enough details to allow one to see where all
the money came from, and where it went? In
the past the journal entries provided this information, but how is this
information stored now?
There are government laws which govern the retention of
financial records, usually for a seven year period.
This makes it even more important to set up a specific place in
your organization (or on your computer) for semi-active records. This ensures that one can easily access them
on regular basis.
20. Evidential
Value. This value is sometimes
less understood. Just like a rabbit leaves
tracks in the snow, so do e-mails and correspondence show evidence of
activity. Evidence of your work! This doesn’t have to be a major report, or
show a decision. It just shows that there
was work being done, and for that we need
to be thankful. It doesn’t mean all the
e-mails have to be kept, or all the invoices and receipts.
But keeping a month’s sample of the various kinds of work you gives credit where credit is due.
It provides evidence of the person who created the material, and
shows the functions and activities of the person. We
need to have enough self-esteem to keep this kind of material in the
files.
21. Informational
Value. What information can
you find in the files you are looking at? About persons, or about subjects, or about places? Maybe they contain articles and stories of
your organization, or about the work your organization does. Annual reports, and newsletters,
correspondence between a person in Africa and North America certain provides lots of information. One can compare the nature of the information
against the mission statement of your organization.
22. Intrinsic Value. Sometimes a document or item has worth simply
because of its age, or its long and continuos
use, the circumstances of its creation, or by the signature of the
persons who signed it. Here I can think of
the Mission Savings Bank of the former Mennonite Board of Missions
which were widely and heavily used for many
years.
23. Condition of the records. Sometimes the contents of a file do not prove
very useful. For example, long handwritten
notes on meetings or courses, which are not legible.
24. Archiving by originating agency. This tool was been identified in the earlier
1989 Guidelines, and has been especially useful. Reports,
minutes and other documents created by one agency and used by another
should be archived by the originating agency and not by the other
agency. In other words if the Executive
Board collects annual reports and minutes from the Publishing Network,
the Executive Board does not have to archive them since that is the
responsibility of the Publishing Network.
The one exception to this is if the specific material has been
used as part of an agency’s program. The
other exception to this is that if minutes of an overseas church is found, for
example, in the Mennonite Central Committee’s files, these minutes may
not exist anywhere else in North America, and so should be saved.
25. Culling and weeding. Through time one can also begin assigning
value to certain sets of correspondence. Maybe
with one set only samples are kept. With
others, the entire set is kept. Or with
another, like a central filing system, a person is assigned to go
through it once a year to keep only the 25-30% of the letters which
reflect the organizations’ life and work.
Correspondence continues to hold high value
at the archives because of its personal nature, and because it is
filled with story. And it helps if the
letters have been organized and clearly identified as to who and where
and when.
26. Archival Value. Archival
value is given to a set of records when there is enough justification
for their long-term preservation and use. In other words, if you have
used all the values described above to make judgments on some records,
and found that the records continue to have use, these documents then
have archival value. For example, church
membership records become historical since they are so useful in doing
family research, and in verifying birth dates, and in finding out
information about a person’s faith pilgrimage, etc.
27. Tools
of Function and Time. Understanding
the ongoing function and use of records is one of the joys in working
with archival records. And the advantage
is that one can see this over a hundred years in the Mennonite Church. The one
example of the changing role of secretaries and minutes will suffice.
The role of secretary seems to have changed
through the years. In the first half of
the 20th century, secretaries seem to do the bulk of the
work, including taking minutes, and having treasurer duties, and doing
all the correspondence relating to decisions made.
This was often a voluntary position, and the person worked out
of the home. This was the case for
example, with Levi Mumaw, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, who served as the first secretary of
Mennonite Central Committee, 1920-35.
In the second half of the 20th
century it seemed that secretaries became Executive Secretaries, and it
was the administrative assistants, usually women, who did the work of
recording minutes, and typing and filing correspondence, keeping the
treasurer’s books, and managing
all the records of an organization. Persons were now paid to run the program of an
organization. Now it was not as clear
where the official minutes, and files, were kept, and by whom. The Executive Secretary wanted a set of
minutes, and so did the persons sitting in meeting, and so did the
person having to file them. And the same
could be said of the electronic copy. Maybe
it ended up as an attachment to an e-mail of one of the staff persons,
but not accessible by other staff.
Today it means cooperation and communication
between persons who use and take care of the records to know, for
example, where the official set of minutes are kept, both paper and
electronic. And it also means establishing who is responsible for
maintaining the records currently and also as they become inactive and
archival.
.
Tools of Who, What,
Where, When, How and Why (#28- 33)
One can describe this work by answering the
six questions, Who, What, Where, Why, When and How?
And the most important one to start with is who.
28. Who
is the person you think of in your organization who is willing, and has
the gifts to set up a long-term management of records, both in
destroying them and retaining them? This
work includes at least three kinds of offices or roles.
Someone needs to help in making the policy decisions on records. One person needs to know how to manage or
coordinate the overall organization of such a record schedule. And one person needs to know the technical
side of computers, and how electronic data gets filed and managed.
Is someone assigned to these tasks in your
organization? Is this person an office
manager, an executive secretary, an administrative assistant, a
recording secretary, a treasurer, a business manager, or an assistant
to those positions. Or
is it the web master, or computer technical support person. Or could it be the conference historical
committee, the congregational historian, or a specially appointed
person interested in history who is willing
to tackle this task for an organization. What
gifts and ideas to you bring to this task?
29. What
are we talking about when we talk about current records? Semi-active records? Archival records? Would you consider all the records you work
with as current? Or is everything else
non-existent, or at least out of sight, out of mind?
30. Where
would you go to look for your current records? Inactive? Archival?
31. When
do you work with these records? When the
old boss has left, and the new one will be arriving shortly? Or when you have a free moment which never
comes? Or when you can’t seem to find that
vital report or e-mail about that major decision? Or when you can’t find those architectural records of
the church which are needed for renovation, and could cost you a lot of
money if you can’t find them.
32. How
do you go about deciding what to keep and what to throw away? Have you had to clean out an office, or the
storage closet? Below find some tools on
how to do this.
33. Why? Do you or your CEO need a reason why before
embarking on this task? The mission
statement of the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee below may
suffice.
"God calls us
to preserve our heritage,
to interpret
our faith stories, and to proclaim God's work among us"
(Mission Statement of
the Historical Committee, Revision 2002)
