Wednesday 1st October 2003
Victorian Archives Conference Room
99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, ph 9348 5600
Carparking available via 112 Macaulay Road
9:00 Welcome/Overview
Industry and PROV News.
David Brown - Public Record Office Victoria
9:05 Director PROV
Update on PROV activities.
Justine Heazlewood - Public Record Office Victoria
9:15 VERS Standards
Why is it different and what it means to managing records.
Howard Quenalt - VERS Program Director
9:45 AS 5090
What is it all about and what it means to managing records (including email)
David Moldrich - Fuji Xerox
10.15 Morning Tea/Networking
11.00 Hypothetical – Managing Email
So what’s the fuss, back it up or delete it, problem solved.
Russ James – Enterprise Knowledge Pty Ltd
12.00 Updates
12.00pm E-mail Management in Department of Infrastructure
Lauren Thompson – Department of Infrastructure.
12.15pm What’s happening in Department of Victorian Communities
Alison McNulty – Department of Victorian Communities
12.30 Close
Meeting Chaired by David Brown, Manager Regulation and Compliance, Public Record Office Victoria.
1. OVERVIEW
David Brown welcomed those attending and drew the audience attention to the
various leaflets and brochures provided to each attendee including:
- Sir Rupert Hamer Award (nominations currently being accepted)
- Certificate IV in Business Record Keeping course
- IIM event notification
David also welcomed Justine Heazlewood as the incoming Director and Keeper of
Public Records.
2. UPDATE ON PROV ACTIVITIES BY THE DIRECTOR
Justine Heazlewood provided an overview of PROV’s activities planned for
the forthcoming months.
- Shift in priorities due to joining the Department of Victorian Communities
(DVC). Priority 1 – joining services across government. PROV will assist
in achievement of this priority through promotion and ongoing delivery of its
current activities and programs. Priority 2 – strengthening Victorian
communities. PROV is developing new initiatives including partnerships between
PROV and others in regional areas.
- Certificate IV in Business Record Keeping – 13 people are currently
enrolled in this course, with a small number of additional vacancies still available.
PROV is subsidising the course, and David Brown should be contacted for more
information.
- PROfile newsletter – in place of the paper version, an e-mail version
is due to be issued in November.
- Community Jobs Program – earlier this year 8 people completed their
training and obtained a Certificate III in Record Keeping. PROV had a 100% success
rate with 7 of the people finding employment, and one returning to further study.
As the scheme was so successful, PROV have applied to be part of the 2003/2004
program.
- Relocation – National Gallery staff will move back to their St
Kilda Road address very soon. The Reading Room will be relocated to North Melbourne,
and will continue to be a combined Reading Room with both National Archives
of Australia and Public Record Office Victoria staff. The VERS team is to move
in November, and the Casselden Place Reference staff and National Archives of
Australia staff are planned to move in Easter next year.
3. VERS STANDARDS
Howard Quenalt gave a presentation about the VERS Standard, emphasising that
VERS was a strategy and not a system, and that electronic records must be thought
about in the context of a record keeping system.
Howard identified three key points for the implementation of effective strategies
for keeping electronic records:
i. move it or lose it;
ii. something is better than nothing; and
iii. don’t throw away the original.
These principles are embedded in the VERS Standard. The Standard addresses the
issues of ensuring authenticity, integrity, accessibility, and increased efficiency
of electronic records management. His advice regarding electronic record keeping
systems was to:
- think big, start small, and scale quickly;
- plan early, build good processes and
- build in solutions; rather than tacking them on.
His recent trip to Canada confirmed that VERS is a world leader in the area
of electronic record keeping, and is being adopted within other countries.
Howard’s presentation is available on the PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
4. AS 5090 WORK PROCESS ANALYSIS
David Moldrich provided a brief history of the RM/AS Standards. He identified
Australia’s leading role in the push to develop standards for the management
and hardcopy of electronic records and documents. This is in part due to the
adoption of aspects of British and American record keeping systems in Australia,
as well as influences from other countries. The creation of the first AS Standard
in 1990 was a world first.
David stressed that Enterprise Resource Planning is not financial or enterprise
based, but Information Management based. Although the Records Manager may use
such standards, because the work process an organisation uses is owned by the
Chief Executive Officer, management needs to be aware of them.
David’s presentation is available on the PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
5. MANAGING E-MAIL
Russ James ran a hypothetical which demonstrated issues in managing e-mail and
which highlighted the dangers and pitfalls of poor management of e-mail. The
hypothetical involved all the attendees participating in the production, issuing
and receipt of emails relating to a tender process and potential for appearance
of conflict of interest. The hypothetical was well received by the participants.
Russ emphasised:
- 70-80% of all communications between organisation is via electronic records
including e-mail;
- it is important to have a record keeping strategy which incorporates
e-mail use;
- it is important to have a policy in place for who must keep what e-mail
where, and to capture the subject of an e-mail correctly in the subject line
and the text of the e-mail;
- e-mail was not a private form of communication, that discovery of e-mail
was a real possibility, and that the deletion of e-mail did not mean that the
e-mail no longer existed; and
- care is required in the acceptance and forwarding of e-mails and of the
personal content included. If internal e-mail, send doc-links rather than attaching
documents, and think about other forms which could be used to communicate certain
types of information.
Russ’s presentation is available on the PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
6. E-MAIL MANAGEMENT IN DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Lauren Thompson gave a presentation about the e-mail management processes in
the Department of Infrastructure. Lauren stressed that e-mails need to be properly
managed. DoI processes required that e-mail are managed using the same filing
classifications folders as with paper records and documents. In this way, users
treat e-mail in the same manner as other records, and recognise that e-mails
are records in the process. Lauren highlighted that it is important to avoid:
- printing to file; and
- retaining e-mails in individual mailboxes because of accessibility issues.
Lauren also noted that when implementing a record keeping system that includes
e-mail, users must be given a reason to change their current practices, be trained
in proper usage, and management must be committed to the change.
Lauren’s presentation is available on the PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
7. RM ISSUES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF VICTORIAN COMMUNITIES.
Alison McNulty spoke about the difficulties of organising a records management
system for the Department of Victorian Communities. With 15 agencies formerly
from various departments and each with individual hardware, software and management
processes, DVC has developed a strategy, and plans to manage integration of
records in the short and long term. The plan is to go from paper records (recfind),
electronic records (g:drive), and Ministerial Document systems (MiBS) to Electronic
Document Management Systems by the end of 2004.
Alison’s presentation is available on the PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
David Brown thanked all the speakers and attendees and asked that evaluation
forms are completed and returned. The next meeting will be held in December
to coincide with the Hamer awards and the 30th Anniversary of PRAC.
Meeting Closed: 12.30pm
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