MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS

In offices large and small, private and public, for-profit and not-for-profit, people create and destroy records, file and misfile them, and store them in boxes, desks, and cabinets. Eventually the records accumulate and are a nuisance as they become more and more difficult to use and store.

Given all the demands on an organization, how can one justify spending scarce resources on managing these troublesome records? There are real advantages to controlling these records, and the expenditure, in terms of time, money, and personnel need not be great.

In fact, most groups are already taking steps to ensure an organized approach to their records. Every organization maintains certain records in an orderly manner--financial records necessary for meeting tax, payroll, or accounting obligations, for instance. In addition, groups maintain files of their important historical documents such as a constitution, bylaws, or articles of incorporation, and those that hold regular meetings generally keep files of the minutes of previous meetings. Furthermore, some organizations maintain scrapbooks, photo albums, and similar mementos of the group's activities and interests. Even if these records are not organized or arranged, their mere existence holds promise for the future success of an organization's records program.

A records maintenance program, usually referred to as a records program, is a systematic plan for dealing efficiently with organizational records. It is an important management tool, giving a group control over its records so that material is useful to the organization and the community. A records program establishes control through a system of records management and facilitates the establishment of an organizational archives.

First, some definitions:

Organizational Records

Organizational records, the product of an organization's day-to-day activities, include memos and letters, minutes of meetings, newsletters, publicity materials, policy papers, and any type of printed record of the activities of the group and its members. Records may be temporarily useful--a phone message, for instance-- or permanently essential for the operation of the organization, as in the case of the bylaws or constitution governing the group. The latter records are important documents which should be preserved and permanently protected from loss, damage, or destruction. Records useful only for a short time can be discarded almost immediately. Other records are retained and filed for several years and then discarded.

Records Management

Records management is a tool used by managers to determine which records to retain, and for how long, and which records to discard. The discipline of records management applies tests and standards to an organization's records determining their value both to the group and to other potential users. Records managers survey and categorize records by type and function. They evaluate each category to schedule records for retention and disposal.

Archives

Some records are permanently useful, either to the organization itself or to other interested parties. We say these records have permanent or archival value. If properly retained, organized, and preserved, these noncurrent records become the organization's archives. They reflect the values, activities, and goals of the organization. This body of records tells the story of the organization's past, and hence becomes the basis for understanding its history.

Benefits to the Organization

The advantages to setting up a program to deal with past, current, and future records are considerable. They include not only tangible, practical advantages but also intangible, philosophical ones.

First, some practical benefits:

.Order and efficiency

Having a system in place guarantees that records are filed in a logical, orderly fashion to facilitate retrieval. Whenever records are needed, it is a simple matter to confirm their existence, determine their location, retrieve, and consult them, all with a minimum of labor.

.Daily operations

Daily operations frequently require the use of noncurrent records. For example, a report outlining the organization's achievements is significantly easier to produce if an organizational archives exists. Much of the information necessary for this report is readily accessible to produce an accurate account of the group's past activities.

.Advertising, promotion, and public relations

Organizational archives are useful in advertising, promotion, and public relations. A group's past successes are a drawing card in attracting interest, commitment, and contributions, whether in the form of civic and political support, volunteers, or even financial donations. Being able to discuss, document, and illustrate past activities lends an organization credibility in its current efforts. An archives puts a group's history to work and translates past glories to current political capital. Successful programs developed and implemented five, ten, or twenty years ago demonstrate the organization's credibility, strength, and longevity.

.Strategic planning

Likewise, the existence of an archives gives a real boost to strategic planning. Current members can look back at their group's history to learn which efforts were successful or unsuccessful in the past, and why. Knowledge and understanding of previous errors, as well as previous successes, can determine future strategy. An archives reveals in black and white which activities were advantageous to the organization and its intended beneficiaries. Current areas of interest are compared with past efforts and evaluated in terms of their potential for the future.

.Litigation

Finally, archives are useful for legal purposes. Whether defending itself against actual or threatened litigation, or acting as plaintiff, the organization can rely on the archives. In legal proceedings, information is power, and the archives generally contains accurate, unbiased, and readily available information for a legal strategy beneficial to the organization.

Besides all of these practical advantages to maintaining an archives, there are also some intangible benefits.

.Organizational pride

An archives contributes to the organization's sense of pride and improves morale among members and beneficiaries. An exhibit of materials culled from the organizational archives illustrates a group's history, stimulates enthusiasm, and may even encourage members to maintain the group's standards and promote its future. Organizational pride is more than empty vanity: it helps motivate the membership and creates a climate of strength and conviction.

.Social responsibility

An archives contributes to the organization's overall goal of promoting social responsibility. If the organization exists to provide a benefit to the community, and to improve the moral, political, or social climate, then maintaining an archives is an act of social responsibility in itself. An archives preserves historical information about the organization by documenting its past. This documentation is invaluable to society and is informative and educational to a variety of potential archives' users.

Benefits to the Community

When organizations maintain archival records of their past, the public benefits because the records often have educational or historical value.

The records of all types of organizations are available for public use in archives repositories throughout the country and are in great demand by researchers. Large national groups as diverse as the Sierra Club, National Urban League, YWCA, and Salvation Army make their historical records available through a repository to researchers including school children, college students, professors, authors, filmmakers, teachers, journalists, artists, and genealogists. Small, local groups likewise find that their records are used by researchers to produce term papers, books and articles, news programs, documentaries, exhibits, and plays.

Researchers investigate the archival records of organizations not only to find out about the group itself, its members, leadership, structure, and activities, but also to discover whatever they can about the topics, issues, and principles of interest to the organizations.

Neighborhood organizations, for example, participate in and promote grass-roots political organizing, citizen participation in government, voluntarism, and social activism. Students and scholars investigating these topics, as well as related disciplines such as immigration or ethnicity, discover invaluable information in the archival holdings of these groups.

In summary, organizations benefit themselves and the public by directing some of their efforts towards preserving their records, organizing them, and making them available for use to those inside and outside the group. The commitment to responsible record-keeping begins with records maintenance.