• A Message from the New RMO
• UT First Showcase
• Calculating Disposition Eligibility
• Upcoming Training Sessions

A Message from the New RMO

Greetings, UT Austin! The Records and Information Management Services team has gone through some big changes in the last few weeks. After many years of dedicated service, Maryrose Hightower-Coyle has retired from her position as Records Management Officer (RMO) and Director of RIMS at UT Austin.

My name is Jenny Alexander, and I am the new RMO and Director of RIMS as of September 1. While I am new to the university as an employee, I am a proud graduate of the UT Austin School of Information and am excited to be back in this new role! In previous positions, I have managed records programs in the public health, regulatory, and social services sectors.

As part of this transition, I would love to get to know our DRMCs and other records management partners. RIMS will have a table at the UT First Showcase in October (see below), so if you plan to be on campus, please stop by to say hello!

UT First Showcase

The UT First Showcase is hosted by Document Solutions and features units within UT Austin that provide top quality services to your departments. RIMS is just one of the many units that will present at the next Showcase coming up on October 10.

• What: UT First Showcase 2023
• When: Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 8:30-11:30 a.m.
• Where: The Texas Union, Santa Rita Room

This event is open to all UT staff and faculty and features not only valuable information, but also swag, prizes, and raffles! For more information, see the UT First Showcase Flyer (PDF). Hope to see you there!

Calculating Disposition Eligibility

For those who are new to records management, often their biggest worry is that they will dispose of a record too soon. On top of that, retention schedules are full of specialized “retention codes” to help us define retention periods. Luckily, RIMS has a lot of great tools to help you along! The key to determining how long to keep a record is three steps:

1. Find your record series: Review the UTRRS to figure out which rule applies to your records. You can do this by keyword searching for words that describe your records (contract, invoice, ticket, personnel, etc.), or you can browse the sections of the retention schedule that apply to your area in particular by looking at the UT Item numbers to see if a series applies to the University as a whole or to a specific college, school, or unit.
2. Find your retention trigger: While some record series have a simple, time-based retention period (five years, six months, etc.), most retention periods are event-based and have a retention code that defines the “trigger” for when we start counting that time-based retention. Pay special attention to retention periods with “AC” retention codes, as these will be defined uniquely for each record series.
3. Do the math: Most retention codes are paired with a time-based retention. Let’s look at an example:
   1. Imagine that you have an invoice that was paid by your unit on 10/1/2022.
   2. After looking at the UTRRS, you see that this record falls under AALL435 Accounts Payable Records and Information has a retention period of FE+3.
   3. For this series, FE is the retention trigger. FE stands for fiscal year end. For this record (paid on 10/1/2022), the fiscal year end is 8/31/2023.
   4. For this series, the retention trigger (FE) is paired with a time-based retention of 3 years (+3).
   5. To figure out when a record is eligible for disposition, you start with your retention trigger (FE = 8/31/2023) and add your time-based retention (plus 3 years) to get to a destruction eligibility date (8/31/2026). Retention Code/Trigger + Time-Based Retention = Disposition Eligibility Date.

Still not comfortable with the math? Check out Retention Period Calculations for Requests to Dispose for handy charts used to calculate eligibility.

Upcoming Training Sessions

The following sessions are coming up and still have seats available. Register through UTLearn.

• IG101 Records and Information Management for Department Records Managers
  • Required for all Departmental Records Management Contacts (DRMCs)
  • Wednesday, October 11, 2023, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
  • Presented virtually through UTLearn
• IG103 Records and Information Management: What Everyone Needs to Know about University Records
  • Recommended for all UT Faculty and Staff
  • Thursday, October 12, 2023, 2:00-3:00 p.m.
  • Presented virtually through UTLearn

Resources

• UTRRS 8.1 Resources
• DRMC Resources
• Records Management Plan
• Imaging Departmental Records
• Records Inventory
• Request to Dispose of Records
• SharePoint Site