{"id":10587,"date":"2018-11-01T09:27:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T14:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/?p=10587"},"modified":"2025-02-13T08:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:46:08","slug":"faq-redux-how-long-do-i-keep-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/2018\/11\/faq-redux-how-long-do-i-keep-email\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQ: How Long Do I Keep Email?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A long time ago (relative to our blog&#8217;s history), we published the first of many frequently-asked-question articles about retention of email. The answer we give today when people ask how long to keep email is still the same (&#8220;it depends!&#8221;), but we have since published many more articles dissecting the topic. Today, we&#8217;ve compiled a list of pertinent blog posts about email, as well as a downloadable flow chart that you can use and share in your office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Read more about managing email<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/2015\/11\/using-personal-email-for-government-business-is-a-bad-idea-heres-why\/\">Using Personal Email for Government Business is a Bad Idea \u2013 Here\u2019s Why<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/2015\/10\/faq-what-is-the-difference-between-administrative-and-general-correspondence\/\">FAQ: What is the difference between Administrative and General Correspondence<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/2016\/02\/faq-is-email-always-correspondence\/\">FAQ: Is Email Always Correspondence?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/2016\/03\/faq-how-can-i-set-up-an-email-filing-system\/\">FAQ: How Can I Set Up an Email Filing System?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Download<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Flowchart-How-long-do-I-keep-my-email-2018-11.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/email-flow-233x300.png\" alt=\"flowchart\" class=\"wp-image-10594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/email-flow-233x300.png 233w, https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/email-flow.png 577w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We polished up a simple flowchart that walks through the so-called &#8220;3-Step Drill&#8221; for managing email, which we teach in our classes. The basic premise is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Ask yourself if the email qualifies as a government record as defined in the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/recordspubs\/lgbulld.html#s201003\"> Local Government Records Act<\/a> or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/recordspubs\/stbull04.html#s441180\">State Records Management Laws<\/a>. <strong>Does the contents of the email conduct government business? Immediately delete <\/strong>spam, advertisements, or emails of a personal nature.<\/li><li>Then consider whether or not the content in the email is part of your responsibility as a government employee. <strong>Is the business being discussed requiring you to take action?<\/strong> If not, it might just be a convenience copy for you. Forward to the right person, if necessary, or delete.<\/li><li>And then ask yourself if you are the custodian obligated to retain the email for the full retention period. <strong>Are you the designated person at your organization responsible for maintaining records related to the subject?<\/strong> Many times, but not always, the sender is the custodian. You aren&#8217;t obligated to retain emails originating from top level executives announcing program changes. With that example, for you it&#8217;s just a convenience copy; they will keep the original.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feel free to download and share in your office! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Flowchart-How-long-do-I-keep-my-email-2018-11.pdf\">Flowchart &#8211; How long do I keep my email 2018-11<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A long time ago (relative to our blog&#8217;s history), we published the first of many frequently-asked-question articles about retention of email. The answer we give today when people ask how long to keep email is still the same (&#8220;it depends!&#8221;), but we have since published many more articles dissecting the topic. Today, we&#8217;ve compiled a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":10594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[422,43,38,6,57,7],"class_list":["post-10587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faqs","tag-bonnie-zuber","tag-email","tag-erecords","tag-local","tag-retention","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10587"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16574,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10587\/revisions\/16574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/slrm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}