Basics of E-mail Retention 8/2018

Your inbox is where your email arrives -- it's not where it is supposed to live. Some of those emails are well past their due date. Yet we still keep them in our inbox. Rhonda Scharf

Plano ISD Records Retention Schedule

Page 16 of the Records Control Schedule E-mail cannot be scheduled as a single record series, but depends on the content and function. Generally, you should keep only those e-mails that are your records.   Value of Records – Identify the content and function of e-mails and attachments for record retention requirements. E-mail records follow the same criteria as paper records. Record Copy – Sender copy is the record copy and the sender is custodian (owner) of that record copy. Recipient copy is also a record if: You need to take action based on message Message required for adequate documentation of action Convenience Copy – Determine if it is something that needs action taken or Administratively Valuable.

Administrative Correspondence – Decision making correspondence   Incoming/outgoing correspondence pertaining to the formulation, planning, implementation, interpretation, modification or redefinition of programs, services, or projects and the administrative regulations, policies and procedures that govern them. *Apply the Records Control Schedule – once they have met retention, e-mail records should be disposed of or kept permanently according to the retention schedule.

General Correspondence   Non-administrative incoming/outgoing and internal correspondence pertaining to or arising from the routine operations of the policies, programs, services or projects. These records are related to your specific job responsibilities. *Two years – The 2016-2017 folder can be deleted on July 1, 2019

Transitory Correspondence   Routine correspondence, meeting agendas, etc. that have limited and short-lived administrative value only. *As long as Administratively Valuable (AV) Delete at any time Personal e-mail Spam Unsolicited e-mail (vendor ads, news articles, non-work related e-mail from coworker CCs: E-mail that is the responsibility of someone else Convenience copies (usually attachments) – record is retained elsewhere

Helpful Hints   Do not combine business and personal e-mail. Work done from personal accounts should be transferred to the school district system and e-mails not valuable to work should be transferred to personal accounts and never saved. E-mail on personal devices or in personal accounts regarding business is subject to legal discovery. Use meaningful subject lines to correctly identify the record. Identify sender, recipient(s) and date and time message sent and/or received Set up Folders and Sub Folder to organize e-mail – Identify and categorize according to function and retention schedules. This process makes it easier to find records and delete at the appropriate time Preserve the “record-copy” – this is the official copy for reference and preservation to which the retention schedule applies. (Who is the “owner” of the retention for the record?) Preserve the thread, not each individual e-mail. The last e-mail in the thread containing the entirety of the correspondence, becomes the record copy. Delete email regularly – “Delete Delete” Review your Sent folder regularly – clean up threads, apply retention

Questions to ask yourself:   Is the content related to your job? Are you the custodian of the record (owner)?