Dear Stephen & List,
I have two anecdotes:
1) When I was the Departmental Record Officer & Chief Registrar for a major UK central government department, circa 1989, the Minister was discussing a major policy matter - as I recall, it was about what we now call CJD. He asked the civil servants for advice about "what we agreed last time" (ie: some years earlier). He received three conflicting answers: One policy-maker 'seemed to recall' one thing; a second referred to 'personal notes' he had kept; and a third referred to what she was "sure" would be in the Minutes - which she could not find. She blamed this on "the filing system". This enraged the Minister, and embarassed the Permanent Secretary, who was not pleased about that. The Permanent Secretary ordered officials to "sort out the filing"! That was delegated to me (as Chief Registrar) and I was able to use it to initiate a full review - and that led to 'Operation Springclean' (to remove semi-active files to our own off-site storage in the North-West); and "For The Record" - the issuing of best practice RM guidelines; and a programme of RM awareness raising training for over 2,000 HQ staff; and to a review of our file (First & Second) review procedures in the light of the "Open Government Initiative". The rest is history - the thousands of files that were reviewed and sent to the PRO definitely are!
2) During HQ office relocations to two brand new buildings, it was decided that the old filing cabinets should be replaced with modern ones. Staff decanted files into crates, which were taken to their new offices. However, some departments also re-structured, and some staff were granted Early Retirement. Some left prematurely to take new jobs. Some never got around to decanting their files....which remained in the cabinets....which were taken away and disposed-of via local second-hand office furniture shops on the high street. One of my RM team happened to pass by, and caught sight of an open drawer...full of HQ Policy files (which he had the good sense to impound)...which were about to be 'sold'. That led to a review of security, and disposal policies, and to a re-tightening of RM controls.
Neither event was catastrophic - but they could have been. The point was, lessons were learnt, and RM benefited.
Mike Marsh.
-----Original Message-----
From: Howard, Stephen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: mardi, 11. février 2003 09:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Second of Two Questions
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WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL
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Dear List
I think the responses so far on developing the RM business case have been
excellent. However a few "scare stories" quoted during your presentation to
the board might also be very effective. Can the list share their experiences
of organisations who have fallen foul of bad RM? UK examples would be a
bonus.
Stephen Howard
Corporate Records Manager
Westminster City Council
16th floor, 64 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QP
tel: 0207 641 6060 mobex: 03156 fax: 0207 641 2833
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