Email Management Guidelines
Electronic messages, such as email, texts and instant messages, are a convenient way that we convey
information, similar to sending paper mail through the postal service. If an electronic message documents
university business, it must be managed as a university record. Not all records are equal in value or retention
period. The retention period for each message is based upon the content and informational value of themessage, not the technology through which it is transmitted or stored.
Keep in mind that email and other electronic messages are comprised not just of the textual message andattachments, but also metadata (to, from, subject, time, date, system, etc.) about the message and itstransmission.
The key to effectively managing the plethora of email and electronic messages that pass through our accounts
is to be proactive. Delete the non-records and transient/transitory records that have outlived theiradministrative value so that what remains is the small percentage of records, sent or received, that retention
schedules require to be managed on an ongoing basis.
The management of email and electronic messages should be approached in a manner similar to how paper
mail is processed at work and at home. It starts by reviewing the message’s content! There are some steps
that you can take to identify, organize, and clean-up your email folders to keep everything manageable.

Determining if an electronic message (email, text, etc.) is a record and therefore should be
retained per University records retention schedules.
••“Record” defined by Ohio Revised Code 149.011(G)o “…any document, device, or item, regardless of physical form or characteristic,o created or received by, or coming under the jurisdiction of, any public office of the stateor its political subdivisions,o which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures,operations, or other activities of the office.”
Questions that can help with this determination:o Does it document a business activity, transaction or decision?
o Is it proof of a business-related event or activity or evidence of work completed?
o Do you need it to identify who participated in a business activity or had knowledge of an event?
o Does it have legal or compliance value?
o Does it support facts you claim to be true, since the person with the direct knowledge of thefacts is not available?
o Could it help resolve a dispute in the future?
o Does the law expect that the University will retain it?
o Do you have the only copy within the University? (ex. It was received from an external source)o Are you the author responsible for managing it and its responses?
o If it were in paper form, would it be retained?

Email Clean-up Strategies

Be a proactive manager of your inbox and sent mail and reap the benefits of efficiency in numerous otherareas of your daily work.
••••

Don’t attempt to do it all at once
– Start with today’s emails and move forward– Then gradually work on the email backlog
Set aside a regular time to file. Smaller chunks are more manageable and less tedious.
– Every Friday 4:00-5:00– Every day 1:00-1:15
Delete what you know can be deleted. This will make what remains to be filed less daunting.
– Quick ways to slim down your email• See Transient and Non-Record Tip Sheet• Sort by Type, shift+click the first and last meeting appointment, delete (the official
appointment is on your calendar)• Search by name and/or keyword such as “name.# and starbucks” or “name.# and walk”
to weed out potential non-record emails between colleagues going to lunch or taking awalk, for example. What words do you use frequently in non-record emails?
• Emails that are copies of what is in another university system (eLeave, eRequest, IT
help tickets, etc.). The auto-generated emails notify you of an action or update in thosesystems, but you can always log into the system to see any needed information.
File what you know must be retained– According to record retention schedules (see OSU General Retention Schedule or request yourunit’s unique schedule)

Identifying the Official Copy of an Email or Electronic Message••

Sender typically has the official copy of an email, since they are the author/creator.
– Filing your “sent” messages is important!
Recipient can have official copy if:– Email received from external source– Required for documentation– If action will be taken based on a collection of responses, such as to a question or poll.

Simple Decision Tree

Managing Email Threads
Often, a single email conversation, or thread, contains multiple emails. Whether all of the emails in a thread areretained, or just the last one, depends on a number of factors.
••

Retain only the last email in the thread if:
o The email thread is transient (ex. Colleagues determining availability to have a meeting)o The thread is not needed as evidence or proof
Retain all of the emails in a thread if:
o One of the participants does not use the reply all feature, thus not all of the threads contain theirresponseo Multiple participants are responding to the same email at the same time, thus each response
will be separate instead of in a single threado The thread contains attachments. When responding to an email, the physical attachments to notstay with the thread.
o The emails are needed as evidence or proof. Anyone responding to a thread has the ability toedit any part of the email thread, including what others have said. In some instances, emails
may need to be compared to ensure that nothing was changed.

If all of the emails in a thread need to be retained, instead of only the last email, you can PDF all of the emails
and attachments together into a single file once the thread is complete.
1. Select all of the emails to be converted to PDF (Ctrl+click to select individual emails or Shift+click firstand last email to select a consecutive group of emails)
2. Right click on the highlighted emails and select Convert to Adobe PDF from the drop-down menu
3. Choose a folder from the File Explorer window that pops up (you may need to drill down your filestructure hierarchy to the best topical folder)a. The file name will automatically be the email subject line. You can change the file name before
you click Save.
4. Once the email thread is in PDF and filed with related files on a server, the emails within Outlook can
be deleted since they are now copies.

Send and File Email Step-by-Step Procedure
Email filing is most accurate and efficient if it is done as soon as the message is composed and sent. In
Outlook for Windows, there is a way to assign an email to be saved to Outlook subfolders before you send it.
This will save a few steps, and therefore time, when it comes to filing email for retention purposes.
1. Compose emaila. In the example below, the subject of the email has to do with retention schedules for the Collegeof Law. Therefore, it will need to be retained according to how long draft retention schedules
correspondence should be retained.

2. Select the Options tab
3. Click the Save Sent Item To drop-down menu

4. Choose your folder from the drop-down list of your Outlook foldersa. The last several folders that you filed in (through this process) will be listed, orb. Select the Other Folder to go to a list of all of your Outlook Folders
c. Select the folder in which to file the email and click OK.
i. In this example the subfolder College of Law under main folder Schedules to Update
was selected because it best fits the content of the email message.

5. Hit Send

6. Simultaneously, the email is sent to the recipient and filed in the folder that was selected. It does notappear in the Sent Items folder.

If you reply to an email that has already been filed, the send email will automatically be filed in the same folder,
not the sent items folder.

Filing Methods for Inbox••Drag and Dropo Select the email, or emails (Ctrl+click), to be filed into a single folder
o Drag the emails to the Outlook folder
o Drop them in the folder
Move Featureo Select the email, or emails, to be filed into a single folder
o In the top toolbar, select the Move drop-down menuo Choose your folder from the drop-down list of your Outlook folders
 The last several folders that you filed in (through this process) will be listed, or Select the Other Folder to go to a list of all of your Outlook Folders
 Select the folder in which to file the email and click OK.

File Structures for Outlook
Creating file structures for email in Outlook is not unlike creating file structures for shared drives or
BuckeyeBox, as presented in the records management tip sheet File Organization Best Practices. It can bedone in these simple steps:•Create folders based on record series (records created for the same purpose that capture the sametypes of information) that you frequently create or receiveo See the OSU General Retention Schedule and your unit’s unique schedule for record series
Ex. Invoices, Workshop files, Grant Files, Sick/Vacation Leave Requests, Contracts, AdvisingFiles•o Avoid using employee names as high-level folderso Avoid naming folders “miscellaneous”, “general”, “stuff”, etc.
Create sub-folders by retention trigger date•

Create additional sub-folders as needed, for organizational purposes or for actions pending completion•oEx. Calendar year, Fiscal year, Year Closed, Year Separated, etc.

oEx. Active/Inactive, Open/Closed, etc.

By filing this way, when the current folder closes, the oldest folder has met retention and can bedeleted.
o A new folder for the new current year can be createdApplying Retention Rules using Office365
Automated retention rules can be applied at the folder and individual email level in Outlook for Windows, MAC
and in Outlook Web App.
Because the retention clock runs based on the email date stamp, this is best used for record series that have aflat retention period (1 year, 3 years, 5 years, etc.) or a CR+ (creation date +) retention period. It is not yet
recommended for record series with an ACT+ (Active +) retention period.
1. Highlight Outlook folder on which to apply a retention policy
2. In the Tags group, select Assign Policy

3. Select Set Folder Policy (if a drop-down menu appears, bypass it and select Set Folder Policy fromunderneath the menu)
4. In the Retention Policy box (NOT the archive policy box), click the Folder Policy drop-down menu
and select the retention period that aligns with the record series on a university retention schedule

5. Click Apply, then OK
6. Subfolders can be set to follow the parent folder by repeating steps 1-3, then in the Folder Policy
drop-down menu select Use Parent Folder Policy

7. When retention policies are assigned to folders, emails automatically are deleted upon expiration of
the retention time (it may take 24 hours)

To Text or Email?
It is okay to send a quick, transient text message
such as:“Stuck in traffic. Running late.”

Official business should be conducted via
university email, where it is captured onuniversity servers. Examples include:
Documents a business transaction, activity, ordecision“Sick child, won’t be in today.”

Legal or compliance implications“Ready for lunch?”

Could be needed or used as evidence or proof“What time is our meeting?”

Would someone expect you to have it?

Could the transient message be conveyed via post-it
note?

If it were in paper, would you retain it as a record?

Questions: Pari Swift, University Records Manager, swift.102@osu.edu, 614-292-4092

Related Records Management Resources:••••

OSU General Records Retention Schedule
OSU Certificate of Records Destruction
OSU Records Management Tip Sheets and Guidance Documents
Ohio Electronic Records Committee (OhioERC)

Created: March 2020, Updated April 2020, November 2023