18 tons of records dumped during Records Compliance Week
August 29, 2014 •
Participation in last month’s Records Compliance Week was so brisk that many departments filled shred bins faster than they could be replaced. The result? More than 18 tons of records removed and destroyed.
That’s the equivalent of the contents of 135 four-drawer lateral filing cabinets, like the ones lined up end-to-end on many Franklin floors, purged from UCOP offices and its storage facility.
It was UCOP’s second big push this year, after Earth Week, to get rid of clutter. In conjunction with unsubscribe week and similar efforts, it supports the Less-Paper/Paper-Less Initiative and will ultimately help OP build a more sustainable and records management–responsible workplace, said ITS Client Services Officer Shirley Bittlingmeier.
“Thanks to everyone who participated in Records Compliance Week,” said Bittlingmeier, who oversaw the effort. “We still have a long way to go, but I think people are beginning to understand that we need to do ongoing records management to prevent the buildup in the first place.”
While 579 banker’s boxes of records were pulled from storage and were among the items shredded, 8,334 boxes remain. Sometimes boxes are brought back from storage to OP offices for review, but until they are destroyed or permanently checked out, we’re still paying storage on them. And those charges add up quickly. Additional efforts will be coming this fall to target specific departments who generate lots of paper records that need to be stored off-site.
All these smaller efforts lay the foundation for what will ultimately be an “information management life-cycle process,” Bittlingmeier said, a system that incorporates regular review and purging according to UC’s records retention schedule. It includes scanning to reduce the need for hard copy storage as well as email management.
Three OP staffers submitted historic and entertaining documents to compete for gift cards, with the winning entry submitted by Regents Deputy Chief of Staff Gail Riley. The Research Grants Program Office (RGPO) in Kaiser also received special recognition for their local motivational campaign to support the purge, under the direction of RGPO Executive Analyst Lee Ann Beckley.
