Practical Records Management: Establish Roles & Responsibilities

Practical Records Management for Districts, Large or Small (Part 2 of 7)

In our first article (published in the February edition of the TASBO Report), we discussed having current documentation of your District’s Records Management Policy, Records Management Officer, and Declaration of Compliance on file with TSLAC.

The second strategy for successful records management is to identify who in the District is responsible for which District records, from creation to ultimate disposition. Understanding how records are initiated and how they will be managed is key, but so is documenting that information. This includes understating things such as:

1. Where Does the Record Originate? Knowing what actions or activities result in the creation of a record is important, not only for consistency in capturing every incidence of that action or activity, but also capturing complete information about each occurrence.
2. Who Is Responsible for Creating the Record? Knowing what actions and activities to record is important, but it is also important to know whose responsibility it isto capture and generate the formal document to record an occurrence.
3. Who Will Fill a Request for an Open Records Request for the Record? Creating and maintaining a record is essential but knowing how you will provide appropriate constituencies the appropriate access to the record is also critical. Having a clear process in place to identify the responsible party for providing access to each record will help ensure that records requests are acted upon in compliance with the law.
4. Have You Documented Your Process? Once you have determined the Department and individual with primary responsibility for creating, managing, and providing access to each record, document it. This includes making sure the appropriate individuals are aware of and trained on the District’s procedures.

In the next edition, we’ll discuss establishing a centralized Records Retention Center.