Substance Seems good to go. Did you want to mention something about tools? Them
to be part of informal early evaluation process for 2001.

In addition to mid-end Oct should we offer him alternative dates? Such as 2nd
week of Nov to mid dec or from mid/end Jan on in 2001.

If the dec or Jan time frame seemed good to them. It might be possible for
either or both to visit early Dec for first part and then follow up mid January.

In my case at least we could have two significant inputs for price of one trip,
since I am considering taking my own leave in Asia for two to three weeks in
Interim. If I did that I could come back for follow up after their office is
through their holidays and they have worked some more with what we had left as
framework.. - Adhiratha
____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Re:Guide File/Record Mgnt: Fin Cir 25, Appraisal Grid detail
Author: Howard Dale
Date: 05-Sep-2000 10:06 AM

Comments???? Howard.

Dear David,

Glad to hear that you found the materials Adhiratha sent to you to be useful.
Sometimes we don't get enough feedback on the materials. I wonder if I could
ask you to be a little more specific, especially on the appraisal grid. Could
you be a bit more precise on: 1) what you liked about the appraisal grid; 2) any
ways in which we might improve it.

Financial circular 25 if usually useful, particularly if you didn't know that it
exists. In fact Financial circular 25 is about the closest we come to having an
accepted set of retention schedules (a retention schedule being: " a listing of
the records series maintained by all or part of an organization, together with
the period of time that each series is to be maintained and when such series may
be reviewed for destruction or archival retention". Saffady, William. Managing
Electronic Records. 1998.). If the bulk of the records you have to deal with
are financial in nature (i.e. fall within the scope of financial circular 25)
then you probably have enough to get going.

What we are lacking at this time is approved retention schedules for programme
records. As you can see from the above definition the retention schedule is
associated with the records series. What I had hoped to do was to visit China
(either Adhiratha, or myself, or both). There we could do an introduction to
the issues related to retention and then go through the "stuff" you have
accumulated. Outputs from the "inventory" process would be: 1) a lot of
materials thrown out because there was no longer a reason to keep them; 2) a
list of the main records series; 3) better organized records (for those which
remain). We could then review the series we have defined and produce some draft
retention schedules. These schedules would then have to be reviewed by HQ
divisions where appropriate, and probably with Internal Audit. They could then
be validated through similar exercises in a few additional field offices. At
the end of this process we would have a series of retention schedules for
programme related records.

I would still like to do this. I'm sorry we haven't been able to get to China
as we discussed with Mark earlier this year. The implementation of the new
Records and Archives Management system here in NY has been very time consuming.
It was also unfortunate that UN archives decided that they would move a the same
time. While we knew that this move was imminent it was unfortunate that it came
when it did. Then there were UNICEF's own internal moves (which required the
transfer of approx. 2000 boxe to the archives). All of this has meant that
Adhiratha has had little time to devote to other things.

We are now coming out of this. It would be possible for someone to come around
end October. Is such an exercise of interest to you. Would this timing work
for you?

Look forward to hearing from you soon. In the meantime Adhiratha will be
sending you some of the other materials you requested on CD.

Regards. Howard.


____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Guide File/Record Mgnt: Fin Cir 25, Appraisal Grid detail.
Author: David Parker
Date: 8/27/2000 4:10 PM

Dear Adiratha,
Thank you very much for your most helpful references, particularly the appraisal
grid and list of documents. I've discussed with Mark Hereward, and these will
definitely be useful for our clean-up here in Beijing. Will keep you posted on
developments, and let you know on any more specific needs.

If it's not too much trouble, and the RAMP documents that you've listed are
easily available electronically, I'd be interested to receive any or all for
my/our background. B.09 especially, but the others as well if they could be an
email attachment.

Hope all is going well with you in NY - is your section affected by the various
moves going on?

Thanks again, and best regards.
David

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Guide File/Record Mgnt: Fin Cir 25, Appraisal Grid detail.
Author: Adhiratha Keefe
Date: 8/21/00 3:07 PM

Hello David, As a quick initial response, below in text form is excerpt from
CF/EXD/1995-023. This and attached financial circular and appraisal grid is what
was used for a "records clean up" at NYHQ.

Financial Circular 25/Rev.1 was useful for detail time periods related to
financial and supply records. The Appraisal Grid was used as a general rule of
thumb for other areas. I believe Howard has recently been working on more detail
for some sections of the appraisal grid.
-regards Adhiratha
Ps. I also attach doc RAM97096.rft which has a list of most of the records
related issuances or drafts from previous or recent work. Let me know if you
want any specific document sent.

Adhiratha Kevin Keefe, Project Development Officer, Information Management Unit

UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund, H-12G; 3 UN Plaza, New York, NY
10017, USA
Office: Phone: 212-326-7667, Fax: 212-303-7989; e-Mail: akeefe@unicef.org
[Residence: Phone: 718-380-8499; Fax: 718-380-1878; E-Mail:
adhiratha@aol.com
____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Guidelines for File/Records Management
Author: David Parker
Date: 21-Aug-2000 9:04 PM
Dear Howard,
I don't know if this question has come to you quite in this way. But failing the
imminent presence of Adiratha or yourself, we're likely to be in the position
soon of needing to review and weed through a big range of office files that Mark
will have described to you.

If/when we do such an exercise, is there a list of simple guidelines to deal
with most files/documents? Presumably other offices must face the same
situation. Candidate 'rules' that come to mind might include:

- Don't keep anything from another section, assume they are keeping it
- Keep just the final version of any reports
- Personal files can be discarded if the staff member doesn't want them
- Check with PME section about whether SitAn-relevant documents (sector
reference) exist in their collection.
- If it's more than five years old and you have any question about keeping it,
discard it. You'll know if a reference is important.

And so forth. The idea as you see is to set out some rules of thumb that can
deal with the majority of document disposition issues. A further step will be to
establish common principles and procedures for the individual section libraries,
containing the collections of what's left.

Thanks for your views.
Best regards.
David
=============================================================
____________________Forward Header_____________________
Subject: Clean-up Records & Discarding copies CF/EXD/1995-023
Author: Adhiratha Keefe
Date: 16-Aug-2000 3:29 PM

Further to questions on what can be automatically discarded as part of various
divisions' file reorganization or move see below excerpt from CF/EXD/1995-023:
"it is important to note that only records that fall into one of the
categories listed in CF/EXD/1995-023 may be thrown out without further
investigation. These are as follows:

a) Copies of original documents issued by other
divisions.

b) Official UNICEF issuances (CF/EXD,AI,IC,...)
available on microfiche.

c) Copies of non-UNICEF produced documents (UN Info.
Circulars, ...) which can be obtained from the issuing
office.

d) Copies of ECOSOC or UNICEF Executive Board
documents (E/ICEF/....).

e) Outdated telephone directories, publications,
newsletters, manuals, etc. published by other divisions.

____________________Forward Header_____________________
Subject: CF/IC/NYH/1995-030 Clean-up Records; CF/EXD/1995-023
Author: Adhiratha Keefe
Date: 05-Jun-1996 11:39 AM
---------------------------------------------------------
Below is the Information Circular jointly signed by OAM and
IRM Office concerning FILE CLEANUP ON 19-21 DEC 1995.
Note Attached Executive Directive: CF/EXD/1995-023
---------------------------------------------------------
U n i c e f
United Nations Children's Fund
CF/IC/NYH/1995-030/R01
12 December 1995
Headquarters FOR ACTION

I N F O R M A T I O N C I R C U L A R

To: All Staff at NYHQ

From: Timothy E.Boakes Anthony Bloomberg
Director, OAM Director, IRM Office

Subject: Cleaning up of Records

1. With reference to the Executive Directive
CF/EXD/1995-023 of 9 November 1995, OAM and IRM are
collaborating to launch the records reduction campaign in
preparation for the move to 633 Third Avenue as well as the
restacking of UNICEF House in early 1996. The purpose of
this circular is to inform you of the plan and procedures
that have to be adopted to carry-out this exercise.

2. IRM is principally responsible for the
preservation of records and the management of archiving and
retention while OAM provides appropriate support services.

3. In this connection, we have designated the
following dates for divisions to review and clean-up their
records:

Proposed Records Clean-up Schedule for December 1995:

Schedule Dates: Dec. 19 Dec. 20 Dec. 21

DHP floors 40,48,49
GCO Floor 3
UNICEF House 10,11,12,13 5,6,7,8,9 1,2,3,4,B2

4. Three hampers will be provided by OAM HQs Services
on each floor on the dates indicated above. One hamper being
reserved and marked for recycled materials (white paper
only) and placed near the freight elevator. Two other
hampers, one on each side of the floor, will be provided for
garbage e.g. flattened cartons, torn folders, plastic
sheets, plants, etc. All the hampers will be removed from
the designated floors at 9:00 p.m. on the dates indicated
above.

5. For questions relating to any of the above
arrangements, please contact Mr. Nicholas Lananna (x:7632).

.../2

6. From IRM Office's perspective, it is important to
note that only records that fall into one of the categories
listed in CF/EXD/1995-023 may be thrown out without further
investigation. These are as follows:

a) Copies of original documents issued by other
divisions.

b) Official UNICEF issuances (CF/EXD,AI,IC,...)
available on microfiche.

c) Copies of non-UNICEF produced documents (UN Info.
Circulars, ...) which can be obtained from the issuing
office.

d) Copies of ECOSOC or UNICEF Executive Board
documents (E/ICEF/....).

e) Outdated telephone directories, publications,
newsletters, manuals, etc. published by other divisions.

7. A blow-up of CF/EXD/1995-023 will be posted in
strategic locations on your floor for your easy reference.
An IRM Office team, reachable through Mr. Pratap Bushek
(x:7662), will be on full time alert during this exercise to
answer any queries you may have concerning the preservation
or non-preservation of records in your office.

8. IRM and OAM will be meeting on 18 December with the
divisional move coordinators to review different records
management issues with them and to brief them on the
arrangements that will be put in place during the three days
of this exercise. We recommend you review matters with your
divisional coordinator before calling OAM or IRM.

9. CF/EXD/1995-023 states that each person should
spend one day on the file cleaning process. On your day, we
suggest you dress casually and come to work prepared,
mentally and physically, to seriously review your files and
other documents and throw out whatever may be thrown out.

Thank you.
U n i c e f
United Nations Children's Fund CF/EXD/1995-023
09 November 1995
Headquarters F O R A C T I O N

E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T I V E

To: All Staff at NYHQ

From: Karin Sham Poo
Deputy Executive Director, Operations

Subject: CLEANING UP OF RECORDS

1. As the end of 1995 approaches, and with it the move
to 633 Third Avenue and the restacking of UNICEF House, all
staff must invest some time to clearing out unnecessary files
and papers. This will considerably reduce space requirements
in both premises and identify materials that need to be
properly appraised, preserved and subsequently archived.

2. I am asking division directors to co-ordinate the
clean up process with the criteria defined below in mind.
This initiative in no way replaces the established
procedures for managing and archiving UNICEF records. I
would like each and every staff member to devote one day
between now and the end of the year to cleaning records in
his/her work area.

3. Records that answer directly to one or more of the
following statements may be discarded. These statements are
as follows:

"I may discard this record because:

a. it is a copy of an original document issued by another
division and is no longer needed for current working
purposes".

b. it is a copy of an official UNICEF issuance (CF/EXD,
AI, IC, ...) which is available on microfiche stored with
DRU or library".

c. it is a copy of a non-UNICEF produced document (such as
a UN Information Circular ST/AI, ST/IC, ...) which can be
obtained from the issuing office".

d. it is a copy of an official ECOSOC or UNICEF Executive
Board document (E/ICEF, etc.)".

e. it is an outdated, telephone directory, publication or
newsletter and neither I, nor my division is responsible for
its publication".

f. it is a manual that is no longer current or for which I
have no further need. I know that the original record copy
may be obtained from the issuing office if necessary".

4. Further to this, I am asking OAM to provide
appropriate hampers on each floor to centrally collect all
discarded materials. I am certain that these will often be
filled to capacity as the clean up exercise is put into
practice.

5. Finally, and in parallel to the above initiative,
IRM Office will continue to encourage all staff at HQ to
attend RAMP training and then properly list their important,
and/or historical records. I want to encourage staff to
transfer records to the archives for safekeeping as this will
also help with our space requirements in UNICEF House and 633
Third Avenue.

Thank you.