Archiving
Why keeping an archive is important?
Keeping an up-to-date archive is incredibly important for Knowledge Management and often a legal requirement for any organisation or company. Please check your national laws to find out what you need to archive for how long.
What needs to be archived and for how long?
Often, important documents include minutes of board meetings, minutes of general assemblies/council meetings, financial documents such as bank statements and receipts, transfer confirmations and so on. Such documents may have to be kept for up to 10 years or more depending on national legislation.
Again, depending on national regulations, you may archive documents physically, digitally or both. Some countries might also have regulations where you must store your archives, and if not organised by your state, you may have to follow certain security protocols and ensure the safety of your archives.
If you are storing archives in an office or house, please make sure that these documents can be stored safely for the necessary duration. You might want to consider storing papers in folders and store these folders in airtight boxes to ensure the longevity of the paper without it moulding or the ink fading. This will also help you sort the documents based on areas or any other system you follow.
Also, note that the financial year is often the relevant period rather than the ELSA term. These two terms might not correspond and you might have to take this into consideration when creating your archiving system.
It might also be a good idea to create a Archiving Guideline document for your board indicating who is responsible for keeping and preparing certain types of documents for archiving. This might look as follows:
Duration – 7 years (starting from Jan 1) in digital or physical form
Responsible Area
Internal Management – Secretary General
o Signed board meeting minutes
o Signed Voluntary Agreements of National Board members
o Signed Hosting Agreements with NCM hosts
o Calendars used to schedule meetings (G-suite)
o Software and data files used to keep up administration of association (G-suite)
o NCM Working Materials
o Signed NCM Minutes
o Ballot sheets
o Letters of Authorisation and Proxies
Financial Management - Treasurer
o Any kind of receipts related to ELSA
o Invoices and proof of payments
o Bank statements
o Bookkeeping of cash
o Bookkeeping of accounts
o Audit reports
o Payment Agreements with National Groups and Externals
o Any other correspondence related to finances
External Relations - President
o signed and dated Partnership Agreements
How do we dispose of documents after the archiving period ends?
Once the minimum period has lapsed, you might be responsible for the safe disposal of documents. You might want to document the date and the type of information that was disposed of for data protection reasons. Paper documents should be destroyed in a way that does not allow others to get access to the information - this might mean you want to shred papers. The same goes for digital documents as you must make sure that they are permanently deleted and cannot be restored.