1. We could maintain the status quo. Advantages include: Momentum - The most compelling advantage to maintaining the status quo is that nobody has to do anything differently, or spend any money. During more than a quarter-century of Travis County history, we have seen this resistance to change as a significant element in many decisions, and preliminary inquiries regarding email retention have found some resistance to considering alternative approaches.

Continuing the status quo maintains the flexibility to operate more nimbly in the legal/regulatory framework while maintaining the customary ways of working. Consensus on proposed improvements is elusive.

Disadvantage: Direction number one, "maintain the status quo," does not document compliance with retention, one of the traditional records managers' most intense areas of interest. And some stakeholders (security specialists, lawyers, vendors, NARA, TSLAC etc.) prefer action soon. Maintaining the status quo for now represents an approach that could be revisited as developments warrant.

2. Make every email user a Records Analyst. Every Travis County employee using email could analyze their own email records and apply the published retention control schedules and other requirements to categorize, classify, retain and destroy their records correctly.
(A.) Technology tools might be helpful in the future, if they can be developed
(B.) An internal training program might be designed to provide guidance to email users regarding retention and destruction of electronic records

3. Retain "all" email. Once the term "all email" is defined, this third direction may have the most promise, if it's cheaper to retain all email indefinitely than it is to analyze each electronic record to decide which ones to keep (and for how long).

One purpose of this report is to start pointed conversations about email retention issues that will lead to the right recommendation to decision makers at Travis County.