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FOREST SERVICE MANUAL
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION (REGION 2)
DENVER, CO
FSM 6200 – OFFICE MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 6230 – RECORDS CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DISPOSITION
Supplement No.: r2_6200_2003-1
Effective Date: January 20, 2003
Duration: Effective until superseded or removed
Approved: RICK D. CABLES
Regional Forester
Date Approved: 12/31/2002
Posting Instructions: Supplements are numbered consecutively by Title and calendar year.
Post by document name. Remove entire document and replace with this supplement. Retain this
transmittal as the first page of this document.
New Document(s):
6230
4 Pages
Superseded Document(s): by
Issuance Number and
Effective Date
6230 (Supplement 6200-98-2, 01/30/1998)
2 Pages
Digest:
6230 - Establishes Regional direction for maintaining e-mail as a record, provides complete
definition of a record, and delegates specific records management program responsibilities.
R2 SUPPLEMENT 6200-2003-1
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/20/2003
DURATION: Effective until superseded or removed
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FSM 6200 – OFFICE MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 6230 – RECORDS CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DISPOSITION
6230.1 – Authority
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 36, part 1234 establishes the basic requirements
related to the creation, maintenance, use, and disposition of electronic records including records
created by individuals using electronic mail applications.
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, part 1228, Subpart G, makes the heads of Federal
agencies responsible for preventing the alienation or unauthorized destruction of records,
including all forms of mutilation.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130 establishes policy for the
management of Federal information resources, including how the Records Management program
is implemented.
General Records Schedule (GRS) 20 provides disposal authorization for certain electronic
records, including electronic mail (e-mail) records.
6230.2 – Objective
To create and maintain proper and adequate documentation of the organization, functions,
policies, decisions, procedures and essential transactions of the Forest Service, and protect the
legal and financial interests of the Government, regardless of media and format. Region 2
records encompass files in all media, including electronic and audiovisual formats.
6230.3 – Policy
Print and maintain electronic versions of e-mail messages that meet the specific definition of a
record within the Forest Service official filing system prior to being deleted.
A printed e-mail record must contain (Title 36, CFR, part 1234.24):
1. The message text.
2. All transmission data including:
a. E-mail name and address of the sender.
b. E-mail name and address of all addressee(s), including current member names in a
public or personal distribution list at time of transmission.
c. Date the message was sent.
R2 SUPPLEMENT 6200-2003-1
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/20/2003
DURATION: Effective until superseded or removed
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FSM 6200 – OFFICE MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 6230 – RECORDS CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DISPOSITION
d. Acknowledgment of receipt to confirm that a message reached the inbox of each
addressee when using certified transmission.
3. All attachments included with the e-mail in order for the context of the message to be
understood, for example, Word processing documents, spreadsheets and graphics.
Employees and agency representatives with external electronic mail systems must ensure that
records sent or received in conducting official Forest Service business are transferred to the
corporate filing system. Reasonable steps must be taken to capture available transmission and
receipt data needed for recordkeeping purposes (36 CFR part 1234.24).
Once an employee, enrollee, contractor, or other Forest Service official has taken the necessary
steps to retain the record, the electronic version has no continuing record value. The National
Archives and Records Administration has authorized deletion of the electronic version of e-mail
after the record has been preserved in an agency authorized recordkeeping system along with all
appropriate transmission data (General Records Schedule 20, Item 14).
6230.4 – Responsibility
Records exist at every level of the organization and are generated and received by program
managers, employees and other agency representatives. With the increased practice of
conducting business using automation, some records responsibilities now reside with the
employee for the data they create and receive. A unit Records Manager’s role has broadened
with the implementation of technology.
6230.43 – Regional Foresters, Station Directors, and Area Director
Information Resource Management
The Chief Information Officer has overall responsibility for the management of records in
Region 2. The Records Officer in Information Resource Management is responsible for
directing, promoting and evaluating the Regional Records Management program.
Forests and Regional Office Staff Directors
Forest Supervisors and RO Staff Directors shall designate a Records Manager for their unit and
provide the individual’s name to the Regional Records Officer. Records Managers are
responsible for the systematic creation, maintenance, security, retrieval and disposition of
records in various formats, and for administering the unit’s Records Management program. The
unit must recognize the Records Management program as an important management function
and place the position where the incumbent can cross program boundaries and exercise authority.
Records Managers will:
R2 SUPPLEMENT 6200-2003-1
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/20/2003
DURATION: Effective until superseded or removed
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CHAPTER 6230 – RECORDS CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DISPOSITION
1. Provide local Records Management guidance and training, and advise unit officials,
program managers, employees, and contractors on their records responsibilities, policies and
techniques for developing and implementing recordkeeping requirements.
2. Establish controls and maintain an inventory of records and information systems
stored in all media within their unit and recommend ways to manage them.
3. Participate in the development of electronic information systems to ensure adequate
documentation, appropriate scheduling and proper disposition of automated records and system
components.
4. Apply the approved records schedule in the retirement of inactive temporary records
to off-site storage, transfer of permanent records to NARA and ensure the authorized and prompt
disposal of temporary records that have met retention requirements.
5. Act as the Forest liaison with the National Archives and Records Administration and
Regional Records Officer for program direction.
Program Managers and Employees
Program Managers have primary responsibility for ensuring complete and accurate program
records are created and maintained in official files. Program Managers shall ensure that
requirements for records creation and recordkeeping are included in the design and
implementation of electronic systems supporting their programs.
Employees will ensure that Federal records created on personal computers are properly identified
and preserved in an authorized Forest Service recordkeeping system. Corporate records in
electronic form should not be maintained on an employee’s hard disk, diskette or personal
directory.
Contractors
Contracts for goods and services must include specific requirements regarding Forest Service
program and administrative records created by the contractor, including background data and
technical documentation. Contracts shall specify which records need to be kept by the contractor
for audit or other administrative purposes, and the length of time they are to be maintained as
well as which records are delivered to the Forest Service with the final product. Normally,
exclusive rights to the data should be reserved for the agency.
6230.5 – Definitions
Office of Record. The creator’s office of origin always maintains the record copy. The
receiver’s office of origin retains a record copy only when official action is taken and the record
is needed for adequate and complete documentation of the action. Inter-agency projects must
identify the lead record agency as the Office of Record in a Memorandum of Understanding.
R2 SUPPLEMENT 6200-2003-1
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/20/2003
DURATION: Effective until superseded or removed
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CHAPTER 6230 – RECORDS CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DISPOSITION
Record. As defined in the Federal Records Act, "records" includes all books, papers,
maps, photographs, machine readable materials, or other documentary materials, regardless of
physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government
under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or
appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the
organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the
Government or because of the informational value of data in them. Library and museum material
made or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes, extra copies of
documents preserved only for convenience of reference and stocks of publications and of
processed documents are not included. (Title 44, United States Code, section 3301).
Record Media include paper, film, disk, and tape formats comprising of paper textual
files, electronic recordkeeping systems, audio-visual, cartographic or architectural records using
various methods of recording information such as manual, mechanical, photographic, electronic
and other technologies.