There has been a lot of press recently about the "˜transition' from the outgoing Bush administration to the incoming Obama administration. The focus has been on the change in personnel and potentially on changes in policies. As a records manager, transitions have an additional concern for me "“ the transition of the records.

What happens to the records of those transitioning from office? We have heard a lot about White House emails but what about all of the others records in the custody of outgoing staff "“ all across the federal government? Are those records captured, organized, classified, and protected? Will paper records be left in file drawers, file cabinets, and broom closets? Or will they be packed up and shipped off to storage? Will they be indexed for easy search and retrieval?

Will electronic records on their computers, file shares, and thumb drives be left behind? Will hard drives be erased and recycled? Will file shares be deleted?

Unfortunately, these things occur during transitions and all too often whenever any employee departs from their former job.

I wonder if federal records officers are taking the appropriate steps to capture and manage the records of departing personnel. I wonder if steps will be taken to protect the records out there on file shares to prevent their deletion. I wonder if email accounts are handed over to records staff. I wonder if anybody is sorting through all of the documents and data that have accumulated during the previous administration and sifting out personal papers and non-records from record data.

Presidential transitions only take place every 4 or 8 years. In the business world, transitions, of one form or another takes place every day. This is routine as staff retires and new replacements come on board. Is the management of records during these transitions handled routinely too?

Transition is an opportunity to:

• Clean up record clutter




• Sort personal papers and non-record data from official records




• Discard duplicates




• Update record files




• Update retention schedules




• Preserve the records of outgoing personnel




• Transfer those records to records officers and to incoming personnel as appropriate

If your organization does not have policies and procedures in place to capture, manage, and protect records during transitions, now is a good time to implement one.