Criteria for Managing Email Records

We are pleased to announce the publication of the Criteria for Managing Email Records in Compliance with the Managing Government Records Directive (M-12-18).

The criteria was developed to provide clarification of the existing requirements directly related to email management. It is a synthesis of the statutory, regulatory, and NARA guidance requirements. Agencies should use this guidance internally to evaluate their progress towards meeting Directive Goal 1.2 to manage email in electronic format.

NARA has defined successful email management as having policies and systems in place to ensure that email records can be used, accessed, and have the appropriate disposition applied. These success criteria reflect the complex challenges that agencies face in managing email. NARA recognizes that agencies may be stronger in some aspects of email management than others. Organizational complexity, schedule development, budgetary or procurement constraints may affect each agency’s ability to meet specific criteria. NARA also recognizes that managing email records effectively, and in compliance with the Directive Goal 1.2, does not end on December 31, 2016. For many agencies, full implementation of the success criteria for email management is an ongoing process that continues beyond this calendar year.

A briefing on this guidance will be delivered at the June 14 BRIDG meeting. Further information about this meeting will be posted here soon. Please leave any questions and comments you may have.