I'm getting quite a few different takes on this subject - to dispose or retain hand written notes taken by the secretary at council meetings.
They are the basis for writing the final approved and signed minutes that we retain permanently. So, if we have the official record which are the approved minutes then are the notes also required?
Interested in your thoughts please.
Replies
Thank you all for your replies.
Having originally looked at our R&D which did not provide a resolution for us we needed to look elsewhere to get an idea as to what was happening out in the field.
We have decided to create a business rule to hold the handwritten for the triennium and then dispose. The thought process being that are official minutes are just that but the handwritten can be referred back to while the council is still sitting in case of questions.
If you have only one lot of notes to keep, sure keep them, but I have over 700 different committee minutes to keep, so keeping hand written notes is problematic. My suggestion is to look at state records or your local university 'retention and disposal schedule', that should provide a good legal guide for you.
The hand-written notes are the raw data. Occasionally, things get lost or altered in the transcription. While I accept the signed minutes are the officially accepted ones, those written by hand have their place in archives.
Can you imagine how much paper we would have if we keep all notes! If it isn't necessary I wouldn't keep them.
If you have the official signed minutes, then the meeting notes are obsolete they can be destroyed, is that not true?