November 2022

MANAGEMENT TRENDS

ECONOMY OF TIME AND EFFORT FOR RETRIEVING AND RETAINING DOCUMENTS, DATA AND INFORMATION…. Data/Record Retention Policies By Elaine Warga-Murray, CMCA, AMS, PCAM Consultant, E.W.Murray Consulting, LLC. President Emeritus, RMG, Regency Management Group, Inc., AAMC E veryone needs to save time and effort, so practicing the best, fastest, and easiest ways to recover data or documents depends on a good system for retaining

and labeling data and documents. Data/record retention systems sound unexciting, but not having them can cause more excitement than any communi ty association can handle. If there is no system for retaining and labeling data and documents, chaos may reign. For example, a single personal injury claim for a snow storm that occurred 2 or 3 years ago, can result in months of searching for snow logs, contracts, minutes, invoices, and incident reports. OR, with detailed retention policies and a well-thought-out data filing system, it can simply be a matter of accessing the related files under the date of the snowstorm. Saving “old” information and being able to find it when you need it is also important for warranty issues, insurance claims, and liability claims that may not surface until years after doc uments have been stored. Also, often managers may need to access older records for new projects and/or repeat issues. Changing Hands Makes Data Retention Especially Difficult & Important In the business of community association management, there are special circumstances that set the stage for forget ting and/or losing information. First, board members change, which means that current board members may not know where communications, con tracts, or other documentation may be located. They may not even know what information is or should be preserved. Similarly, associations change management firms or man agers, and the transfer of records is not always consistent. Even with Retention Policies listing what should be kept for how long; accessing records can be a challenge when filing systems used by different managers vary.

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“... just having data stored does not guarantee that it can be retrieved in a manner that meets the needs of an association.”

The Benefits of Data Retention Filing Systems While electronic data storage and PDF scanning of docu ments have become a standard, just having data stored does not guarantee that it can be retrieved in a manner that meets the needs of an association. The issue is no longer solely whether an action or event is documented, but how that infor mation is inputted and saved for easy information retrieval. To prevent misplacing records, a system needs to be put in place for tracking all data, documents and information in the same form and manner for everyone over time. There are a couple of reasons why systems are the foun dation of good business practices: First: It is easier to manage systems than it is to manage people. This is true in any business. Everyone should know what happens next and what steps should be followed. Any individual may vary the steps taken if no prescribed “system” is in place.

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