Sarah Kazmierczak

Info 755

Winter Quarter 2012/2013

Michael Miller

Case Study Solution

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Name/Signature Sarah Kazmierczak_________________________

Date __3/17/13__________________

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Introduction

The Crystal Lake Shelter for Survivors has been around for over fifty years, and during

that time has helped many victims of abuse. No one doubts the wonderful work that this group

has done, and no one doubts the dedication of the two hundred and fifty employees and

volunteers who work for this organization. What has been called into question is the authenticity

and reliability of the records the organization keeps. I thank the management of the organization

for seeking to address the problem and I am honored to help make sure that the Shelter for

Survivors can continue to do its great work without any allegations of false records or bad data.

To begin I would like to review the situation and make sure that everyone id on the same page.

Background

The Crystal Lake Shelter for Survivors was founded in 1960 by Yolanda Simmons, who

had escaped from her abusive husband and succeeded in putting him behind bars. She wanted to

help other victims like herself not only escape from their abuse but be able to put their abuse

behind them and heal and make new lives for themselves as she did. She knew that in many

ways she was lucky in her situation, because many people either couldn’t escape from their

abuse or ended up killed by their abusers. So she used the money she got from her divorce

settlement to start Shelter for Survivors. The organization provides a safe haven for abuse

survivors gives them the resources to find legal help and helps them make new starts for

themselves. The organization also works closely with law enforcement to help bring the abusers

to justice. Because Shelter for Survivors is entirely local based, it is a small organization with at

most two hundred and fifty people, including management, staff, and volunteers. The records of

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the organization include the various case files of each victim, the correspondence with lawyers

and law enforcement and personnel files, just to name a few.

Organization

The organization is organized with a director at the top and several department heads

underneath (this is the management team, to clarify later portions of the report). The

departments are the department of finance, the legal department, the medical department, the

social services department, department of human resources, department of family services,

department of public affairs, department of community and volunteer services, education

department and job services and daycare (Organizational structure, 2013). Each of these

departments has managed only the records that they themselves generate, with the director being

forwarded copies of anything the department heads felt needed to be sent to the director. Several

of these departments work with law enforcement and local hospitals in order to provide the best

care possible for the survivors, while the legal department works with both local lawyers and the

district attorney. The organization has used SharePoint and Microsoft Office Suite for their work

(Miller, 2013), and other software have been geared towards website creation, job hunting,

resume building and some educational programs for the children. Everything was running

smoothly until the mid 1990’s, when the record keeping practices began to fall behind.

Current Situation

For whatever reason, the program hasn’t been able to keep up with the changing times,

which is why it needs to be restructured. Shelter for Survivors is trying to move towards

electronic record keeping, but right now they are converting all of their records created this way

to paper and maintaining all of their paper records, but there is little to no organization in these

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records (Miller, 2013). Each department is managing their records based on the department

head’s personal style, regardless of any set practice and there is no cooperation between the

departments to manage any of the records (Miller, 2013). In fact, whatever retention policy was

created fifteen years ago isn’t being followed at all, and the policy that was created to manage

records then doesn’t accommodate things like e-mail and instant messaging (Miller, 2013).

The policy hasn’t been updated for fifteen years, and given all of the chaos that happens

with the records, I have to wonder if the department heads are even aware that there is a policy

(Miller, 2013). That part is especially curious, considering how sensitive the information that

many of the department heads manage is. With court cases, accurate information about the

victim’s medical history, treatment and evidence of abuse is essential. Records of where

children end up after coming here for safety are not only essential, but can be a matter of life and

death! With the way things stand, it’s a wonder the Shelter for Survivors wasn’t accused of

unreliable records before now! It certainly isn’t ready for electronic records the way things are

now, but fortunately that can be fixed.

What needs to be done

Before any changeover to electronic records is made, the current records program needs

to be fixed. Right now it would be against the interests of the organization to make any move to

electronic records because of the chaos and confusion that is present with the current system.

The old policies that are currently in place need to be updated to reflect the current times and

need to accommodate modern technology and practices. Even before it’s updated though, it

should be enforced, as I understand that the policy not only hasn’t been updated it isn’t being

enforced at all. The changes that need to be made are extensive, so in order to ease the

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organization into them, enforcing the policy that exists will help pave the way for further

changes. To start with, all of the department heads should be made aware of the existing policy.

Once they know how it works, they can instruct their staffs in how it works and begin organizing

their records to follow it. Records that aren’t covered by the existing policy should be noted and

set aside for analysis and storage once the policy has been updated to accommodate them.

This will not be a short or easy process, but it is extremely necessary. The director is

going to have to step up and ensure that every department head is following this policy

regardless of whatever objections they make or what style they were using before. This will

have to be done while the normal business practices happen, since the Shelter can’t shut down

while the reorganizing is happening, which will make this process take longer. To aid this

process, I would recommend that additional volunteers be drafted to help organize all of the

records to fit the existing policy. Department heads or another trusted staff member should deal

with the most sensitive records to ensure that no personal information accidently gets out

(volunteers can sign a confidentiality statement if that will help protect the contents of the

records).

Once all of the records have been straightened out in accordance with the policy, a new

retention schedule needs to be set up. Without one, Shelter for Survivors will just keep drowning

in papers like it is now. A smart plan would be for the moment at least set things up so that

papers are retained for approximately five years, and then either archived or deleted. The

retention schedule should include provisions for keeping a document longer than five years, for

example if the records relate to an open court case, they should be retained for as long as the

court case is ongoing. While I am aware that there was a retention schedule, because of the

buildup of papers and the changes in technology and record keeping practices, a new one should

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be drafted to deal with the paperwork. After all, the original policy had no provisions for

electronic records, and this new one can also apply to the existing electronic records: keep them

for five years and then either archive them or delete them.

After the retention schedule has been revised and redrawn, the next course of action is to

deal with the records generated by applications such as Facebook, twitter, instant messaging and

e-mail. These are part of the existing electronic records, but their nature is the reason why they

need to be addressed first. Free speech is a legal right, but sometimes that free speech can lead

to trouble and legal issues if an employee says something on the internet that can be taken out of

context or talks about privileged information over Facebook. This is especially important given

that this organization deals with legal matters such as custody and court cases. Talking about

privileged information in an open forum like Facebook could result in court cases lost or even

lives lost. On the other hand, these types of poor judgment with communications can’t be swept

under the rug either, otherwise the organization could be in even bigger trouble. An example of

why this is important is the case of Lewy vs. Remington Arms, where a gun discharged by

accident and the company had deleted the customer complaint records under the grounds that

they were following their retention schedule (Stephens, 2007, 2010, pg. 112.).

As David Stephens in Records Management: Making the Transition from Paper to

Electric states, “The objective of a records retention program must never be to exercise file

scrubbing or file cleansing, the purpose of which is to rid the organization of unfavorable

evidence” (Stephens, 2007, 2010, pg. 112). That and other reasons is why it’s important to craft

some kind of retention policy and guidelines for electronic communications. All e-mails should

be retained for at least a year, and then either archived or deleted. If they relate to an ongoing

court case, they should be retained for as long as the court case is in progress. Employees and

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volunteers should be forbidden from discussing cases, residents (survivors staying at the Shelter),

other legal matters and any other sensitive materials (decided by the director) over Facebook,

twitter and other social media sites. An in house instant messaging program can be set up and

monitored, and employees and volunteers should use that to discuss work related matters

amongst each other on the computer. These instant messages should be retained for three years

and then deleted.

Electronic Recordkeeping

The way things stand now, Shelter for Survivors isn’t ready. However, if the changes

listed above are implemented, then I believe that this organization can move forward to

electronic recordkeeping, if the management team really feels that they want to. Both paper

recordkeeping and electronic recordkeeping have their advantages and disadvantages. Paper

records have the advantage of being unable to hack, reassuring to those who like having physical

proof of a document’s existence, and can be stored in one location under lock and key. They do

however take up physical space and can get lost, destroyed or stolen. Electronic records are

stored online and on hard drives, so they don’t take up any physical space, and they can be

shared over a variety of devices and read by a larger number of people. They also are in danger

of being hacked and it’s harder to prove that an electronic record hasn’t been altered in any way.

In many ways it’s harder to manage electronic records than it is paper ones, but there are good

reasons to move forward to electronic records. If Shelter for Survivors really wants to make the

jump to the digital age, then I will do everything I can to help get us there.

There are several reasons why Shelter for Survivors should move towards electronic

recordkeeping. The first reason is that the organizations that the Shelter works with have more

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than likely already made the transition over to electronic records, and they would expect the

records and communications from the Shelter to be electronic as well. Another reason to move

forward is the numerous changes in technology and its impact on the information world. More

and more documents are being produced on computers now instead of being written down by

hand. For example, a doctor treating an abuse victim will more than likely enter their injuries

into a computer as well as write them down, and this computer file will be shared with law

enforcement. The number of documents created and/or stored as PDF’s is increasing just to give

an example, and there have been other advances in technology such as the ability to read and

receive documents on phones and tablets. These advances would make it much easier for the

Shelter to do its work. For example, one of the medical team at the Shelter who was treating a

patient could read their medical file on either their computer or their phone instead of having to

go and find the document buried in the office, saving a lot of time.

Electronic records have been growing since the 1970’s, and their importance to business

and organizations has increased as well (Saffady, 2009, pg. 3-4). There is also a lot of software

that is capable of producing electronic records as well as information processing equipment

(Saffady, 2009, pg. 4). These advances in technology will allow Shelter for Survivors to

function even better and much more efficiently and smoothly. Administrative records are

already being maintained in a single administrative support database, so there is already some

experience in maintaining electronic records (Miller, 2013). Due to the increase in electronic

recordkeeping overall, the victims the Shelter helps, the people who help them and the agencies

and organizations we work with will expect Shelter for Survivors to respond very quickly to

requests for information and if a person’s life is at stake, we will need to respond very quickly

(Stephens, 2007, 2010, pg. 10). In summary, this organization needs to move towards electronic

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records in order to keep up with the times and keep up with the demands of the people it’s

working to help and the demands of law enforcement, hospitals and law offices. There are

however many steps that need to be taken in order to reach that goal.

Steps to Take

To begin with, this will not be a short process. It will take several years to get this

organization transited over to electronic records after decades of paper recordkeeping. I don’t

think that it will take longer than five years though, since this is a small organization. While I

don’t think that paper records should be entirely phased out, I do think that it would be best for

all vital records to be made electronic. The types of records I’m referring to are things like

medical records, abuse reports, background information, and the types of records that this

organization would need to share with other agencies. The management team can and should

also offer input on which kinds of records they want to preserve. One of the first steps that need

to be taken is to train the department heads and other necessary staff member in the technology

needed for electronic records keeping.

Everyone involved in producing and maintaining records is going to need to be computer

literate, which will involve more than knowing how to turn a computer on and type in a word

processor or make a spreadsheet. It will involve learning what metadata is and how to manage it,

as well as perhaps learning a bit of computer programming in order to understand the coding that

goes into creating records and databases. They will also need to be able to use the internet and

know how to do internet searches and even create PDF’s. The database that is currently in place

can serve as a guide to creating a new database to handle the electronic records created and

everyone who accesses it will need to know how to search for what they need. Everyone

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involved will need to know how to create and operate the system, and if no one does, then it may

be necessary to bring in some additional people with the required technical expertise.

The next step needed will be to create a system for these records. It is possible to work

with the existing database, but it would have to be expanded, so perhaps another database needs

to be created to store these records. Since the database was created for administrative support, it

probably isn’t best to work with that database. But it could be used as a template to design

another database to house the vital records. For this part, it might be best to hire someone to

create the system for us if no one has the technical know-how to create and program the new

system. The system that is created will depend on what the records management goals of this

organization are. Given that we are a small organization, the system created might reflect the

size of this organization, especially if the only records that are electronic are the most vital ones.

A new database should be able to serve the needs of the organization quite well. Since there is

already familiarity with using a database to store administrative records, it won’t be as difficult

to get the staff used to using something similar to store their records. This new database should

be located on a secure server though in order to protect the integrity of the documents and needs

to have safeguards in place to prevent hacking. The database should be created specifically to

meet the needs of the organization and the type of records stored in it, which is why the entire

management team should be involved in creating it.

While the system is being developed, the entire department heads and the director (and

myself more than likely) should come together to create a new policy for the records stored in

this system. The new policy needs to clearly state what the main purpose of the recordkeeping

is for the organization, the responsibilities for proper recordkeeping and archiving, the

organizations principal decisions about how the intended recordkeeping and archiving should be

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carried out, a preservation strategy which determines how records with long-term value must be

preserved and resource planning for recordkeeping (ICA, 2005, pg. 39). The new policy will

also need to state what is and isn’t a record and what percentage of those records should be

electronic, as well as to what extent the organization will go to electronic recordkeeping. A

retention schedule needs to be drawn up as well for the electronic records, one that should be

similar to the one recommended for the existing electronic records mentioned earlier in this

report. Alongside the retention schedule, plans for long term storage should be discussed at the

very least, and some kind of long term retention policy will need to be implemented eventually.

The last step that needs to be taken before the transition and implementation process can begin is

to go through the existing paper records and decide which records should be digitized and which

records should remain paper as well as which records should be disposed of altogether. The

program that is developed will also have to comply with the ISO 15489 standard (Stephen, 2007,

2010, pg. 29).

Location of the program

As these steps are being completed, the decision on where the records program should

reside needs to be made. The program will work best as an administrative staff function, where

its administrators can focus on policy planning and training in addition to managing the records

themselves (Stephens, 2007, 2010, pg. 21). I don’t think that any one department should have it

due to the different records that each department produces and how it would strain and distract

them from the jobs they already have. There are two options available here. The first option is

to create a new department to handle all of the records created by the organization. The second

option is to have the director handle all of the recordkeeping. The first option is probably the

best choice due to the fact that the director already has her job to do, and there could be

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allegations of favoritism of one department or the other. So to prevent those problems the better

option would be to create a new department to handle all of the maintenance, storage and

disposition of the records.

A factor to consider though is the cost. If the organization has the resources to either

create a new department or perhaps merge an existing department with another in order to free

up funds, then creating a new department would work. If this isn’t an option or the funds simply

aren’t there, then the director should handle the maintenance, storage and disposal of the records.

Another option attached to this one would be for the director to delegate one of her staff

members as the records manager. For the time being I could manage the program and would be

happy to stay on and direct it if the management team would like me to. Whatever the choice,

the maintenance, storage and disposal of the records should be the records manager’s top

priority. They will need to work closely with the department heads in order to ensure that the

records are handled and stored properly, and so that the department heads understand how the

system works and how to access the records they need.

Three Year Goals

My three year goals will be to get this program up and running, deal with the decades of

paperwork already built up and train the staff so that they know how to utilize and maintain the

new records system. The goals that I have for the program will be to have the ability and

expertise to digitize paper documents, safely store vital documents, allow for easy recall and

access of those documents by the authorized personnel, have provisions of the long term

retention of documents or the disposal of them (perhaps it would be possible to have some kind

of automated system is place to automatically delete documents after a set period of time unless

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otherwise indicated), create provisions for the documents that will still be paper and demonstrate

that the new system will work much better than the old one, which will hopefully put to rest any

doubts over the authenticity and integrity of the records for this organization.

The priority that I would give for the program amongst all of the goals that I listed would

be a two part priority. The biggest priority would be for the system to safely store vital

documents and to have the provisions on place for either archiving or disposing of the documents

after a set amount of time, which I would recommend to be around five years. The reasons for

this priority relate back to the original problem this organization was having. The reason for this

report was because the reliability and authenticity of the records this organization keeps was

being called into question. Therefore, one of the most important goals of the new recordkeeping

system will be to prove that the documents are secure and not tampered with.

Along with that goal, making sure that the system had the right provisions in place to

dispose of records after around five years is also a priority since if the records are properly

disposed of or stored, then no one has to worry about them falling into the wrong hands or being

tampered with. The reason that I recommend a five year retention policy is because the Shelter

isn’t meant to be a permanent residence for the survivors. It is meant to be a safe haven for them

while they file charges against their abusers and a place where they can seek new jobs and new

lives. This process shouldn’t take longer than five years, even if court cases can drag on for a

long time. If there is a reason for them to still be here after five years, their records can be

retained longer, but once a survivor leaves and transitions into their new lives, their records

shouldn’t be needed any longer and can be deleted. The records could also be transferred to law

offices or law enforcement (depending on the type of record) for preservation.

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One year planned accomplishments

For the first year, there are two major accomplishments planned along with a few minor

accomplishments. The first of the accomplishments will be to get the records program up to the

old standards, because as this report stated earlier, before any new changes can be implemented

all of the records need to be organized and either filed away or disposed of via the old system.

There are at least fifteen years of records that have piled up, and the first priority will be to use

the system that should have been implemented to clean them up. Records that are electronic and

therefore not covered by the policy will be set aside until the new system in put into place. At

the same time that this process is happening, the management team will need to work on creating

the new policy, retention plan and records system, which I will be happy to help lend my

expertise to. I would recommend the management team use their existing database as an

example of what a new database for electronic records could look like and how it could function.

The second accomplishment would be to prepare and train the staff for a transition over

to a largely electronic records system. While the staff should stop making a paper copy of every

electronic record like they are now (which is only adding to the mess of papers the organization

is drowning in), there will more than likely still be paper records, and especially if the

management team decides that they only want to digitize some records and not all of them. Or if

the team decides to make a completely electronic system, there will likely still be things written

down, but whether or not a digital copy will be made of those will depend on whether or not they

fall under the definition of a “record” by the new policy. The training will be partially to get the

staff used to making a digital copy instead of a paper one, and to get them to stop making paper

records of everything digital.

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These initiatives go hand in hand by getting the staff used to following a system (even if

it’s one that will be replaced) while at the same time teaching them how to use and follow an

electronic one. Fortunately, the staff is already used to using applications such as Microsoft

Office and SharePoint, so they are used to creating electronic records. This is why I think it’s

possible to both organize the records and train the staff within the first year. The staff simply

needs to get used to not printing out a copy of everything and storing and viewing their records

online. These goals also relate back to the three year goals. The goal of organizing the existing

paper records in accordance with the old policy will prepare the ones left over for digitization

into the new system for either use or long term storage. By training the staff, they will be

prepared for safely storing the records and be able to recall and view them in either the database

or on whatever device they’re using after downloading the record from the new database.

Some minor accomplishments planned would be to create plans for long term storage,

which would either be handled here or perhaps the documents selected for long term storage

could be stored in a location offsite or given to the agencies Shelter for Survivors works with.

Another plan would be to restructure the staff for all of the departments in case there are staff

members would like to be part of the records program as well as deal with staff members who

are hesitant about switching over to a new system. During the first year, I would also like to get

to know each of the department heads so that I know what restrictions they would like placed on

their records, what their style is and what records they feel should be stored in the new database.

With that input, a decision can be made on which records will be stored in the database and

which ones won’t be considered important enough to keep.

Staff Plans

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For the two staff members that I have, one of whom is a certified records manager and a

trainee without any experience with records (Miller, 2013), I have a few plans concerning them.

The records manager will be a valuable asset in creating the new system and crafting a new

policy. He will also be a great help in training the staff in how to adapt to a changing system and

learn how to work in a more electronic environment. Once the system is up and running, he will

help teach everyone how to use it and be there to provide support and knowledge when the staff

has any questions. He can also help make decisions over what should and shouldn’t be a record,

which will make it easier for everyone to know what documents they should upload to the new

database. The trainee, because of her inexperience should learn alongside the staff. She should

also be heavily involved in going through the paper records to organize and purge them before

prepping them for digitization and/or storage. The logic behind that is that because she is

inexperienced, this will be a great way for her to learn how to organize and manage records as

well as giving her experience in handling the records themselves. As she gains experience, she

can start assisting the records manager in his job and perhaps become an assistant records

manager once she has gained enough experience and expertise.

Conclusion

I would like to once again thank the management team of The Crystal Lake Shelter for

Survivors for bringing me into their organization and allowing me to help. It is an honor to help

an organization like this one with its noble goal. The report on the organizations current status

regarding its records program and readiness for electronic recordkeeping may be harsh, but

pretending that the situation isn’t as bad as it is won’t help solve the problem. In this report I

have analyzed the situation and provided my recommendations as to what to do next. To

reiterate, the first thing that needs to be done is to organize all of the paper records that have built

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up over the past fifteen years using the system that was already in place at the time. While that is

being done, a new database can be created to store all of the documents the organization deems

necessary to be retained. This database will need to be located on a secure server in order to

prevent hacking or tampering with the records, and a new records policy, retention schedule and

disposition policy will need to be created. Once these tasks are done, existing records can be

digitized into the database. This process will take a few years, and many of the staff will have to

become more computer literate and learn how to search and retrieve documents from a database,

but one this is done, Shelter for Survivors will be functioning even better than it was before. It

will also be able to work much more effectively with its partners in law enforcement and in the

law offices as well as serve its survivors even better by being able to get information to them at a

much faster rate. This report concludes that if the changes and recommendations listed in this

report adopted and the necessary steps taken, then this organization will be able to transition to

electronic records keeping.

References

Miller, Michael. (2013). Assignment 3. Downloaded March 16th, 2013.

https://learn.dcollege.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?

course_id=_28198_1&content_id=_909392_1

Stephens, David O. (2007, 2010). Records Management: Making the Transition from Paper to

Electronic. ARMA International, Overland Park, KS.

International Council of Archives (ICA). (2005). Electronic Records: A Workbook for

Archivists. International Council on Archives, Paris, France. Retrieved March 18th, 2013.

https://learn.dcollege.net/bbcswebdav/pid-909390-dt-content-rid-2763875_1/courses/

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24708.201225/24708.201225_ImportedContent_20121212111103/MI_INFO755-

ONLINE_mlm397_ImportedContent_20120323034401/Course%20Materials/General%20Items

%20ICA%20Workbook%20for%20Archivists/ICA%20Study16ENG_5_2.pdf

Saffady, William. (2009). Managing Electronic Records 4th edition. ARMA International,

Lenexa, KS. Retrieved March 18th, 2013.

https://learn.dcollege.net/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=

%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id

%3D_28198_1%26url%3D

Organizational Structure. (2013). Retrieved March 17th, 2013.

http://www.dss.virginia.gov/division/index.cgi

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