Digging out: Recycle your non-record materials during Earth Week
April 14, 2014 •
You might not know that April, in addition to being Earth Month, is also International Records Management and Information Month.
To mark the occasion, UCOP’s Less-Paper/Paper-Less Initiative is joining forces with already scheduled Earth Day programming to sponsor an information campaign, recycling drive and contest from April 21 to 25, with the goal of “digging out” of unnecessary non-record materials cluttering your office.
Events will include information sessions to help you figure out what “non-records” you can discard. Recycling bins will be placed in all UCOP Oakland locations throughout the week. You can even win the “most improved workspace” award (and gift card) by taking before and after photos and emailing them to Mike Kusiak at Michael.Kusiak@ucop.edu.
“Non-records” are materials of immediate value only that are not maintained as administrative records. They include things like data entry sheets, rough drafts, multiple copies of publications, blank forms and all manner of things that are not subject to record retention guidelines.
Learn more about how to define a record or non-record by stopping by the Earth Day Fair, April 21, 12 to 1 p.m. in the Franklin Lobby. UCOP Records Manager Laurie Sletten will also hold consultant sessions throughout the week, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., as follows:
- Tuesday, April 22: 7401 Franklin
- Wednesday, April 23: 612 Kaiser
- Thursday, April 24: 401 20th St.
Sletten held information sessions in March covering the same information, which is summarized in her presentation and handouts:
- ReadyTalk audio recording (requires login)
- Digging Out: How to Reduce Paper in the Workspace (pdf)
- Is It a Record? Decision Tree (pdf)
- UCOP Records Retention Management website
CAUTION: Please purge only your own materials, not departmental materials or those belonging to your colleagues. Do not discard records that are the subject of a litigation hold or other records freeze or have been requested pursuant to the California Public Records Act, an investigation, an ongoing audit or other legal process.
If you have any questions about whether records are required to be preserved for legal reasons, please contact the Office of the General Counsel.
Can you let me know which day(s) a bin will be on the 6th floor? I need to clean out my office, but need to schedule time to work on it around other commitments that week.
Hi Charlotte!
We’ll have bins from Tuesday until Friday. On each floor, we’ll have one near the elevator bank of and a second to be determined. If you’re interested in participating in the contest, please make sure to take before and after shoots of your desk. I’d be happy to swing by and take photos as well.
I want to share a handy way to remember what a “non-record” is:
Non-records are R.O.T. = Redundant, Obsolete or Trivial material
Non-records have NO administrative, legal, audit, regulatory, or historical value
Brighten UCOP: Get rid of ROT!