“The chief administrative officer of each governmental entity shall…establish and maintain an active, continuing program for the economical and efficient management of the governmental entity’s records”
–UCA 63A-12-103(1)a
Utah’s seven-member State Records Committee (SRC) was established in 1992 by the Utah Legislature under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) – one of Utah’s records laws. One committee responsibility is to “review and approve schedules for the retention and disposal of records” (UCA 63G-2-502b). This is a function records managers may have encountered when scheduling a new records series or using existing general schedules. Once a retention schedule – the length of time a record is kept before either being destroyed or sent for permanent storage to the Archives – has been approved by the SRC an agency is then required to maintain records in accordance with the adopted schedule (UCA 63G-2-604(1)b). All general schedules have been reviewed and authorized by the SRC. If records are described in an existing general schedule, then there is no need for the SRC to approve a unique retention schedule for that series. However, the SRC must approve retention periods for agency-specific records when an existing general schedule does not provide sufficient guidance to assign a retention.
Currently, the records analysis section manages the process of scheduling records. In addition to obtaining approval for retention, records must also be scheduled before they can be microfilmed or transferred to the State Records Center. In order to schedule or update a record series an agency submits a request to the Archives. This begins a process of negotiation between the agency and the Archives to obtain a retention period that satisfies any legal requirements and meets the needs of the creating agency as well as the public. Once the agency and Archives agree on a period of time for the records series to be held the schedule is submitted to the SRC for approval. The committee discusses the merits and any concerns regarding the proposed retention period and either approves it or sends it back to the agency for clarification. It is the Archives’ responsibility to facilitate this process.
The SRC typically meets once each month on the second Thursday of the month. To ensure that the SRC has enough time to review and consider proposed retention schedules agencies must submit a signed copy of the new series retention schedules by the 15th of the previous month. For assistance in creating a new series or updating retention schedules contact the analysis section at (801) 531-3863 or recordsmanagement@utah.gov.
