Disposal - Chapter 1

Hi Team,

Welcome to chapter one of Disposal.  For this subject there are two work books which we will cover.  Each workbook relates to a competency.  Please refer to the lesson outline (in my introduction email) to ensure that you are keeping up with the required lessons & reading.

Chapter 1 

This chapter is relatively short in length but it did get us thinking about disposal & what does (or doesn’t) happen in our agencies in relation to the disposal of our records.  Some of the pictures in your workbooks looked familiar to some students.  Hopefully none of your office space looks like this!

Fig 1 Disposal of records . . . Where do I start?!?!

For this chapter it is important to remember that “disposal” is more than just the destruction of records!  Disposal can refer to three things:

        1. Physical destruction of the record
        2. Retention of the record
              ~ Permanent – Transfer to SRSA
              ~ Temporary
                     > Long Term – As in Development Applications (councils) or Personnel files (state  
                       & council)
                     > Short Term – As little as 3 months

          3. Transfer of custody or ownership – consider if your agency uses the services of NGOs 
               (non government organisations) to conduct business.  What happens to these 
               records?  For example services that Uniting Communities or Anglicare might provide 
               your customers on behalf of your agency.

Fig 2 NOT an Approved Storage Provider!

Fig 3 Why hello there!

If you are undertaking a disposal project be careful of little creatures that might be lurking in  or around the records.  As depicted in Fig 2, shipping containers are NOT an ideal storage space for records.  While it might seem like a good idea at the time to house your records, be careful that you don't come in contact with something from Fig 3 (or spiders, snakes etc).  If you run out of room for safely storing your temporary records, you can always send them to an ASP (Approved Storage Provider).  

You will not be required to submit the review for this chapter.

Gepps Cross Repository Tour - UPDATE

Unfortunately the tour that I was hoping to organise for June will have to be postponed until later on in the year.  It is more than likely to occur sometime in October.  I will confirm dates etc in the coming months.  Apologies for the date change.  This means that the 25th June will be a "free" day for you to catch up on your assignments etc. . . .So it's not all bad :)


Happy reading!

Ciao,
Melisa Z-G