Walk-Off Homerun, a gobble gobble finish!

This has been a very busy month. We have worked hard to finish all of our projects. We have spent nights worried about other projects for other classes. We have met up before and after class to make sure everything has been done and on time. Now Turkey day is around the corner and we can relax and eat with family and friends. So what do we have to look forward to coming back???

1. Having a hard copy of the deliverable
2. Last minutes edits
3. And the biggest of all PRESENTATION TIME!!!

So, what is there to expect for our presentation?

• the butterflies in the stomach,
• the nervous personality, 
• not sounding too rehearsed,
• not sounding prepared enough,
• forgetting all your words, and so on.....

And so we go on to our break, ignoring all that upcoming work for a least a little bit longer. That is all that we hope for.

So everyone lets enjoy the break and soon enough we will all be up there, talking in-front of everyone, acting like we do it all the time!

Happy Gobble Gobble!!!!

The Foundation for Sound Records Management

During our project we have researched several documents about the different methods used for instituting a retention method.The Foundation for Sound Records Management was an article that we chose because it talked about the development of a sound retention schedule and following it all the way through, to the implementation of the retention schedule. This article describes the steps that need to be taken in order to execute a useful retention schedule. In step one, the authors describe that businesses need to use functional buckets of an appropriate size for the organization.

 In the next few steps the article discusses various ways of researching the retention requirements. In our project most of our retention times are based on legal requirements set by the Colorado Board of Education.

The last steps described are about implementing a retention schedule in a way that will be accepted by employees. Fortunately, most of these issues do not apply to us because of the size of the Peyton School District. If we were working with a larger organization, it would be imperative that we implement the retention schedule in phases and possibly use a pilot program to work out the kinks, in order to ensure the acceptance of the new plan. The article describes a situation where great retention schedules have been created and are now gathering dust because they were not implemented properly.

Going further into our project we would like to relate this to the records management project for the Peyton School District.

If you would like to read the entire article please follow this link:
http://www.aiim.org/Resources/Archive/Magazine/2008-May-Jun/34790

7th Inning Stretch

It's hard to believe but we have already made it halfway through the Fall semester! We have been busy with completing the steps to starting our project for the Peyton School District.

Just this week we have sent our proposal off to our client for approval to begin our project! Writing the proposal went smoothly with each member of our team writing a section. Once we got our rough draft copy of the proposal finished, we participated in a workshop in class. The others groups in ENG3080 were given a chance to review and edit the proposals of the other teams. This was really helpful because we were given great advice by our fellow classmates. For example, the voice throughout our proposal varied from section to section and having an outsider reader point out these spots helped us correct the tone. It was also helpful to read other proposals and get ideas from how other classmates put theirs together.

The proposal outlined our ideas for the project so that Tracy would have an understanding of what our deliverables will be. Upon the approval of Tracy, we hope to begin the manuals that she has requested/accepted. We will continue to split tasks and continue to work together as well as we have so far.

How can a big red bucket help document retention?

Click for article

For the past couple of  weeks our team has been looking at different ideas about document retention. We also thought about how management is connected to the retention of records. One interesting thing about this article was the big red buckets.

How to Win the Compliance Battle Using 'Big Bucket'  

Written by Susan Cisco, Ph.D., CRM

 

   Here are our thoughts on this article:

   This article is about whether or not organizations should implement the big bucket approach for records retention. Using the big bucket approach allows organizations to have fewer records categories while still keeping everything accessible and organized. The big bucket approach allows records managers to dispose of unnecessary documents. A system that allows companies to dispose of unneeded records in a timely manner controls the costs of records retention.

    It goes on to explain how some executives say, on average, companies will have around 100 buckets of different records.  It explains that developing the right buckets can be hard because certain records can become vague.

    The Big Bucket method has sparked many debates about how records are to be categorized into series ("buckets") and how many of those series there should be. Some believe that reducing the number of buckets improves how the user can accurately and consistently classify the recorded information for retention purposes.

    Our main questions are, can we relate this method to our own project with Peyton District Schools? Is it better to have numerous buckets with little amounts of records or the other way around? 

Our first meeting with the client

       Last Thursday, September 23rd, two of our group members met with our client Tracy. It was a very informative meeting, where we gained insight into our monumental task. The task includes developing a system for better records management, finding answers for how long to keep certain records, and what documents can be disposed of. As of right now, the records management system consists of several filing cabinets and a room filled with boxes and boxes of records. When our client first started her position as business manager of the Peyton school district there was absolutely no records management system. In her scarce available time she has started to implement a rudimentary system.

Currently, we are working on our communications audit which consists of an interview transcript, field notes, document analyses and a contextual analysis report. we have completed our interview transcript, which consists of the questions and answers from the interview. We are currently working on our field notes, which is our interpretation of what we experienced during our visit with Tracey. We are currently analyzing five documents that we are using as resources as we progress throughout this project. The last task we need to complete is the contextual analysis report, which will tie everything together. Our deadline is fast approaching on Thursday, September 30th.

We would appreciate any suggestions from our readers as we progress.