You are really talking about documenting your organisations email
configuration.  In a fully documented system you should be able to prove
that your system always attaches a disclaimer to any email leaving the
company so even if you do not receive a reply you know what is in the
bits at the bottom.

In WCC we use a common software called Mimesweeper to perform functions
on incoming and outgoing mail.  One of these functions is write a
corporately agreed disclaimer on the bottom of all emails (another is
virus checking). This means that, as Mark said, if there is no reply to
an email there is no evidence of the disclaimer and it is not included
in the record.  However provided this system is fully documented, along
with any changes, problems etc. making it fully auditable (and it is
regularly audited), it should be possible to prove that a disclaimer was
being added to emails and from that what the content of the disclaimer
was.  

I am not sure we could do it at the moment, but I am sure that with work
it would be acheivable. 


Chris Tinsley MSc
Wiltshire County Council
 
Information is the key

-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Brookes
Sent: 15 February 2007 14:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Email Disclaimer

I agree it forms an integral part of the record, it makes for an
interesting challenge how to manage this.

Our disclaimer, I assume must be placed by the server when any email
goes outside of our organisation. We internally don't see it until
someone replies back (it is not visible even in the outboxes). So
technically I suppose we here are not keeping a representative copy of
the actual record received by the recipient. 

Initially I am not sure how to overcome this, and I suppose the degree
to which you address this is dependent upon the levels of evidential
weight you wish to give to these records. It would be interesting to
know whether any provision by authorities/businesses tackles this area?

Depends upon the technical configuration of the email server as well,
but this is something I am not familiar with.

>>> "Eldin Rammell, Rammell Consulting" <[log in to unmask]> 15/02/07
13:09:29 >>>
Eva,

My immediate reaction is that if your servers add something to the
record prior to it leaving your organisation and is an integral part of
the record that the recipient receives, then the email you are retaining
without this information is not the full record.

It's a bit like sending out a paper letter where somebody else in your
organisation adds an "approval statement" or similar before it goes into
the envelope and gets dispatched. If you're just retaining the letter
without the approval statement, you're not retaining a copy of what
actually went out to the recipient.

Just my initial thoughts. Any other thoughts, folks?

Regards,
Eldin.

-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eva Martinez
Sent: 15 February 2007 12:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Email Disclaimer

Hi,

I would like to know if anyone has had any issues for declaring emails
as records in those cases in which the disclaimer has been removed or
hasn't been added by the email server. 
I realise is actually a template added to the email, but my concern is
in case the email can lose integrity as record if the disclaimer is not
kept when the email is declared as record and saved into and EDRM.
What do you think
Any opinions and experiences will be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Eva Martinez
Solutions analyst
[log in to unmask]


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