Who Actually Has the Official Record? (And Why Everyone Else Needs to Know)

Last month, I talked about all the different players in our retention and disposition game—and the disconnect that can happen when different people or departments have different understandings of how long a record should be retained, who is responsible for it, and ultimately who gets to make the decision about when it can go.

Since then, I’ve had some really meaningful conversations with colleagues about this topic, and there seems to be pretty strong agreement:

This is a problem.

But this month, I want to talk about why it becomes such a problem.

Because sure, we all know the left hand needs to talk to the right. But what does a lack of communication actually look like, functionally, in records management?

I’ll tell you.

Let me paint you a picture.

It Was 2015, and I Was a Baby Deputy

I was starting a new job at the second municipality I had ever worked for. This organization was about three times larger than the previous one I had worked for, so right off the bat, I noticed there were a lot more resources, a heck of a lot more policies and procedures, and a boatload more bureaucracy to navigate to make even the smallest of changes.

I got a glimpse of that on my very first day.

I sat down with my new-to-me clerk (best boss I ever had, to this day!), and he showed me something that would apparently be taking up a good chunk of my time:

Making copies of different pages of meeting minutes to put in alllllllllll the associated files.

If an ordinance was passed at a meeting, for example, a copy of those minutes went into the ordinance file. And the agenda packet file. And the committee meeting file for whichever committee had discussed it. Potentially its “other” file—think LID, annexation, vacation, acquisition, etc.—and essentially any file in our office that associated with adopting that one ordinance.

So there I stood at that poor, overworked printer/copier, making copies upon copies…and then locating file upon file to put all those copies into.

I don’t remember everything exactly—it was so, so long ago!—but I’m pretty sure I made it maybe five hours before I couldn't go any further.

I finally asked:

Why are we doing this?

The answer?

“Because we’ve always done it this way.”

Sound familiar?

And remember: these were just the copies within my own department. I can’t even imagine how many additional copies existed throughout the entire City.

Thankfully, I worked for a clerk who was not only open to hearing alternative ways of doing things, but actively encouraged me to be creative. So very, VERY quickly, we came up with a different way to manage those records, and everything evolved beautifully from there.

(Side note: even after all these years and all the different places I’ve worked, the way they ultimately decided to organize their records is still the “model” I find myself going back to!)

So, What Does This Have to Do With Today’s Problem?

Everything.

If we are all playing telephone and have no idea what everyone else is doing, we start taking matters into our own hands.

If I don’t know that you have the record, where you’re keeping it, whether you’re retaining it appropriately, or whether I’ll actually be able to find it when I need it, what am I probably going to do?

Keep my own copy.

And then someone else keeps their own copy.

And someone else keeps theirs.

Suddenly, we don’t have one record. We have copies of that record living in different offices, filing cabinets, shared drives, inboxes, electronic systems, and who-knows-where-else - and likely all named differently (so they aren’t even easy to identify as duplicates)!

This is NOT the answer.

Duplicate and transitory records continue to be the number one problem record I encounter when working with clients. And the problem goes beyond simply keeping more stuff than we need.

Imagine the department responsible for the official record reaches the end of its retention period and appropriately destroys it.

Great! The record has been dispositioned.

Except…has it?

What if three other departments still have copies?

What if an employee saved another version electronically?

What if someone printed it and stuck it in a project file five years ago?

Now, no one really knows what records still exist—or where they exist.

And once that starts happening across an entire organization, it becomes an extraordinarily difficult problem to unwind.

The Bigger the Organization, the Bigger the Problem

I’m currently helping a client work through this issue on a very large scale, and it has been such a good illustration of why organizations should address this before it becomes overwhelming.

This is an organization with more than a century of history and hundreds of employees. Over time, people naturally developed filing systems and processes that worked for their individual needs.

Now multiply that across decades, departments, employees, paper records, and electronic systems.

The challenge isn’t simply determining whether a record has met retention anymore. It’s identifying where all the copies of that record might exist so the organization can confidently and accurately document its disposition.

Something that should be relatively straightforward—dispositioning a record once it has met retention—can become exponentially more time-consuming and complicated when you first have to locate and account for duplicate copies spread throughout an organization.

And that is the situation I want to help other organizations prevent.

Okay, So Let’s Talk Solutions

I’ve talked about transitory and duplicate files many times before because, again, they remain the number one problem record I encounter with clients.

Last year, I developed the Purple Sticker Policy as a simple way to identify transitory physical records - including duplicates. The concept is pretty straightforward: clearly identify something as a copy so there is no confusion later about whether it is the official record.

And I still love that solution.

But I’ve also learned that we can’t always rely on everyone remembering to label their transitory records. Electronic records make this even harder. You can’t necessarily color-code individual files in a folder, and duplicate electronic records are rarely nice enough to gather themselves together in one convenient location.

So we need to go one step further:

Make it clear who holds the official record.

If your department is the official holder of a particular record, create an internal Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that spells that out.

And I mean actually spells it out.

What types of records is your department responsible for?

Where is the official record saved?

Who is responsible for retention?

Who handles scanning?

Who handles disposition?

What access is provided for other departments needing access?

An internal SOP can give your department a practical resource for documenting those responsibilities while also giving everyone else in the organization something incredibly important:

Clarity.

You Don’t Have to Control Everyone Else’s Filing System

I learned very early in my records management career that I canNOT tell an engineer how to organize the records they need to access. (IYKYK)

And you know what?

I don’t necessarily need to.

I can control how the records I am responsible for are organized.

I can clearly communicate where the official record lives.

And I can make it clear to that engineer that the version they are keeping for convenience is the duplicate—not mine.

That distinction matters.

The goal isn’t to force every employee in an organization to organize information exactly the same way. The goal is to make sure everyone understands which record is official, who is responsible for it, where it lives, and how to find it.

Because when people trust that the official record exists, is being managed appropriately, and can be found when they need it, they have a whole lot less reason to create their own unofficial archives.

And fewer unofficial archives means fewer duplicates to hunt down years—or decades—from now.

Because five hours standing at a copier making copies of copies was enough for me.

I’d really prefer the rest of you not have to learn this lesson the same way.

Want a Head Start? I Made You Something.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re thinking, “Okay Megan, I get it…but how do I actually start documenting who is responsible for what? I don’t have time to write an SOP!”

I’ve got you.

I created a Department Records Responsibility and Disposition SOP template to give you a starting point.

It helps you document your department’s responsibility for the records it creates, receives, and maintains; establish expectations around retention and disposition; and build a simple inventory showing your record types, where the approved versions are maintained, their format, and when disposition should happen.

And I’m giving it away exclusively to my newsletter subscribers, who subscribe before October 9th, 2026.

Already a subscriber? You don’t need to do anything! Keep an eye on your inbox because this month’s freebie is headed your way.

Not on the list yet? Sign up for the newsletter and you’ll get access to the SOP template, along with future freebies and practical resources to help make records management a litle less complicated.

➡️ SIGN UP HERE

Then—and this part is important—actually USE IT.

Don’t download it, let it disappear into your Downloads folder, and rediscover it eight months from now while looking for something completely unrelated. (You know who you are.)

Start small.

Pick one department. Or pick a handful of the records that seem to get duplicated the most.

Then ask three questions:

Who owns the official copy?

Where does it live?

Does everyone else know that?

If you can’t answer all three quickly, congratulations!

You just found a really good place to start.