Newsletter: Plant Best Practices, Harvest Records Success!

Your Text Messages Are Records

Texting is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to communicate with the people in our lives, including our co-workers. It is so easy that many of us text without thinking twice before hitting that Send button.

However, being UW employees and the UW being a state agency, it is vital to remind ourselves that we should give our work-related text messages a first and definitely a second thought. In 2015 the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the Public Records Act (PRA) applies to text messages sent or received by public employees, regardless of the device used - work phone or personal.

In simpler terms: text messages are public records and thus subject to the Public Records Act. It is our responsibility as UW employees to apply proper retention to these records, just like we do with any other official university records. Before the anxiety starts to set in as you’re reading this, we are here to give you a few helpful tips on how to manage them best. The good news is that it's almost as easy as texting and you probably already know how to do it but simply weren't aware: 

• Use your work cell phone - If the University provided you with a cell phone, make sure you use it for University business. Refrain from using your personal cell phone to communicate anything related to official University business.
• Transitory or substantive? - The "content-over-format" rule applies to text messages too and, like email, they fall under two different categories: transitory or substantive. Most texts generally fall under the transitory category and can be deleted. Remember that this thought process should be applied to both sent and received communications.
• Think before you text - Ask yourself if a text message is the best way to communicate the information you're about to send. A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending anything sensitive or substantive via text message. Due to the complex process of capturing and extracting text messages, we strongly advise against using text messages for approvals for purchases or to give unique advice to a student and/or employee, for example.
• Schedule quick clean-up sessions - Get into the habit of cleaning up your work phone messages by scheduling 5-10 minutes each month (or more depending on volume) dedicated to deleting transitory texts. If you discover any messages containing substantive information, you need to save and store them to a proper repository (e.g., shared drive, email, etc.). To find out what the retention requirements are, consult the University General Records Retention Schedule and keep in mind that your department/unit/office may also have its own unique Departmental Schedule.
• Cloud Providers - Do remember that it does not matter where your text messages reside.  Whether they are on your mobile device or stored with a Cloud provider, they are still considered University records and may be responsive to public records requests, litigation, or investigation.  And they still should be deleted if they are transitory or if substantive retained and then purged after the end of their legal retention period.

Being proactive by incorporating these 5 simple tips today could make a significant difference later and save you (and others) a lot of stress in the long run. Do you have any nagging records requirement questions about this? Contact our team at recmgt@uw.edu and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Trivia Question of the Month

This month’s question may be one for the particularly nerdy records managers. How would you rate your ability to weed out transitory records from substantive ones? 

Our question this month may help you assess this extraordinary ability:

All these materials may be disposed of without a specific retention period EXCEPT…?

1. Drafts
2. Duplicates
3. Extracted Data
4. Annual reports

Want to challenge your co-workers? Feel free to forward this email to them and see if they know the answer. Scroll down to see the answer below.

UW Google Changes Project

Google has announced significant revisions to their education offering which means changes are on the horizon for users and business processes. It is imperative that users move forward to preserve their data including taking the following actions:

• By March 2023, any unit with a UW Google Shared Drive must have a current UW employee assigned the Manager Role by March 2023, per UW-IT’s recent email. The current employee will be responsible for the risk management, data privacy, records management and by July 2024, responsible for budget approval.
• By August 2023, migrate substantive material off UW Google Accounts using Shared UW NetIDs by August 2023. All UW Google Accounts using Shared UW NetIDs will be deleted August 29, 2023.
• Prepare your UW Google Accounts to be set at 100GB storage quota. By June 11, 2024, accounts in violation that contain more data will be deleted.
• By July 2024, UW Google Shared Drives will become a fee-based service.
• Visit UW-IT’s website for the latest up-to-date news, changes, and timelines.

Visit our UW Google Changes resource that explains the most immediate impacts, the need to evaluate which records should be migrated, and even step-by-step instructions on how to migrate documents off Google. Do you have questions, concerns, or want a personalized consultation? Contact Sean Whitney at seanw13@uw.edu.

Need More Email Help?

Email can be a challenge for a lot of people (It doesn’t stop! There’s so much of it!). But the good news is that most of the emails we send and receive are transitory and don’t need to be retained.  Unsure how to identify them? The ROT Squad can help!

Last year, the ROT Squad hosted many Email Deleting Parties - virtual events with over 500 attendees. Whether you were one of those lucky guests, or you heard about it and could not make it, or this is new to you: this is your chance to finally clear out transitory emails from your inbox!

We created a recorded Email Deleting Party, that will be just as useful and fun as the virtual events. In this posted online version, we will describe the specific types of emails that you can delete, demonstrate the best ways to search for each type, then give attendees a few minutes during the party to delete those emails themselves. Feel free to replay the Party quarterly to dramatically cut down on your overflowing email! Even though we won’t be there live, Lynn and Emily will still be there in spirit cheering you on. If you have any questions while viewing the online Email Deleting Party, you can let us know at rotsquad@uw.edu.

Celebrating Records Management Month

April is National Records Management Month, and it is now in its 28th year! The goal is to emphasize the significance of organizing and maintaining records and information effectively.

To celebrate National Records Management Month, we’ll be hosting the following events. Please watch our 9 minute Introduction to Records Management Training before attending if records management concepts are new to you, because these sessions will be slightly more advanced. 

Go Green, Go Digital!

If you still have any work processes that are in paper around your office, sometimes it can be overwhelming to figure out how to transform them into a digital workflow. You’ll have to consider where and how to store the records and make a plan for review and deletion. It’s also good to note all the different electronic records, like email notifications and receipts attached to Ariba, that do not need to be retained. Attend this information session on how to go digital and go green just in time for Earth Day.

When: 11:00 am on April 21, 2023

Zoom link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/99094224628

All About Offboarding: Prepare for Takeoff

Are you leaving your position soon? Even if you are not,  if you are a supervisor it’s good to be informed about offboarding so that you can be prepared when your staff members depart in the future.

For in-depth information, attend our Departure Information Session. It will cover important items that should be on the to-do list for any employee who is preparing to leave their position. What can be deleted? What will need to be retained and transferred to someone else in your office? We’ll cover all formats of records, lay out practical actionable steps, and let you know how you can get even more help.

When: 11:00am on April 28, 2023

Zoom link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/98082307224

FETCH THE FUTURE...GO DIGITAL
Click here to watch the video on this new University-wide initiative.