How can a big red bucket help document retention?

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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.