Make sure that new volunteers are quickly briefed by veterans. Create a system and schedule for backups. Put one person in charge of backing up the entire system at least once a day. Ensure that there are always two generations of backups in case the most recent is lost. This is another important reason for not saving files to local or floppy drives-all files on the network will be backed up, others will not.
Similar principles apply to hard copy filing systems as apply to computer filing.
A few additional things that are especially critical for hard copy files include the following. Define responsibility for filing. It's important to make one or a limited number of people responsible for managing the hard copy filing systems. With hard copy files, the danger is that the paper will stack up and not be filed, then someone will need something quickly and it will not yet be filed. Clearly mark originals.