A Client on July 12, 2007 at 9:10 AM -0500 wrote:
What are the regulations regarding the storage and recovery of emails for Educational organizations? Do you have a source that I can refer to (online)? We would like to know for sure if it is necessary to upgrade to an Archive Server.
First thing i should say is that im not a lawyer and I dont pretend to be. I do have my nose in all this as I do consulting for over 80 schools and a hand full of corporations. In the past I have been called in to many schools hardships where an archive server would have saved them from a lot of pain, time, and sometimes money. I have links below to other resources and the federal ruling in question. But again im not a lawyer and you should check with your legal counsel on all matters like this. Im more than happy to talk face to face or via phone on this issue with any of my clients. I bet in the last few monts i spend over an hour a day typing emails on this important subject.
I talk to a lot of schools about archiving every day. Every meeting for the past year has touched on this topic. Most administration relay to me that archiving all messages for administration, the board, and staff is required. Open Records laws for schools is a huge push to have all messages archived. There also has been a high court ruling in April 2006, that states schools and businesses need to keep archives of their emails. For schools this need is for 7 years. From what i understand it is not a law to have your digital communications archived. However if your organization (be it a corporation or non-profit) finds itself in any litigation where you are required to produce/retrieve emails - then your in trouble if you can not. In the past it was legal hot water only if it looked like someone went out of
their way to get rid of the emails in these situations. Now (as Dec 1, 2006) organizations will be in hot water if you did not try to keep them. Also troubling is that the persons who neglect, or fail in this duty may also find themselves in this hot water along with the individuals in the litigation. This means legal trouble including the manager/administration, to the IT director, to the Tech who was to push the button to archive the messages in question. This all comes from major legal battles where emails were 'shredded' (high profile cases like when CFOs and CEOs 'couldnt find' their emails).
Again - the email police will not show up at your doorstep for your lack of archiving all your messages. But if your organization ends up in any litigation where emails need to be produced, then your district and members of your staff (Administration and Tech) may find themselves in trouble.
My professionals opinion of all this - Every professional organization with a FirstClass Server should also run an Archive Server archiving all their staff messages. Not just to follow this new high court ruling, but to also cover for a multitude of other legal reasons. Every year a hand full of schools go though hardships when they can not retrieve lost/deleted messages. (not only the oops - but the malicious act of) For any schools that have gone through any of these hardships, its worth the cost. Think of it like insurance - you dont need it until you need it. Then its worth every penny and your very happy you got it.
The Archive Server for FirstClass is a great product. It is 100% compliant for this new regulation and does archive every message. Other products do not. They only archive message that pass through the Internet Gateway. This means that internal messages from staff member to staff member will not be archived. For more information please contact me.
Rob Rickard
Common World inc. (OpenText Channel Partner)
608-875-5040
----- Links on eMail Archiving -----
High Court: Don't delete that eMail
New rules make eMail subject to legal review
Ruling: Schools must archive eMail
New rules make eMail, instant messages subject to legal review
Limit Your Exposure with Email Archiving
Amendments Approved by the Supreme Court - Submitted to Congress (April 2006) - (Effective December 1, 2006)
see --> Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
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