Document Retention and Archives Policy
Organizational Records Retention, Destruction and Archives Policy
Adopted 11/21/20
The League of Women Voters of New Mexico (LWVNM) takes seriously its obligations to preserve information relating to organizational matters. LWVNM follows federal and state requirements and best practices for non-profit organizations.
The Records Retention, Destruction and Archives Schedule (Schedule) appended to this policy specifies each record to be retained, with its retention period and disposition.
1. Electronic Documents and Records.
Electronic documents will be retained…. [TBD at a later Board meeting – see Report]
2. Emergency Planning.
LWVNM’s current records will be stored in a safe, secure, and accessible manner. Each board member or committee chair who is responsible for documents will periodically provide the latest electronic version of their working documents to the designated E-Archivist (who may be the Webmaster, Archivist, Secretary or some other member), who will ensure that a backup copy is stored in the electronic archives.
Copies of non-financial critical information such as usernames, passwords and other identifiers necessary to maintenance of the League's finances, online presence and e-archive will be stored by the E-Archivist, the Archivist, and the President. Financial information such as bank account numbers and passwords will be stored by the Treasurer and the President.
3. Document Retention and Destruction.
The Archivist is responsible for the ongoing process of identifying administrative records that have met the required retention period and overseeing their destruction or preparation for archiving. Elected officers, elected and appointed directors, off-board portfolio holders, and chairs of state committees and state studies are responsible for printing and delivering their records to the Archivist in accordance with the Schedule. The electronic records for ongoing projects will be maintained in the files of the current office holder, with copies provided to the e-Archivist when documents change. Destruction of documents will be accomplished by shredding. Documents that will not be retained do not need to be printed.
Any expense reimbursements related to shredding or archiving LWVNM documents must be approved by the Board of Directors before the expense is incurred.
Document destruction will be suspended immediately upon any indication of an official investigation or when a lawsuit is filed or appears imminent. The Board may issue a notice, known as a “legal hold,” suspending the destruction of records due to pending, threatened, or otherwise reasonably foreseeable litigation, audits, government investigations, or similar proceedings. No records specified in any legal hold may be destroyed, even if the scheduled destruction date has passed, until the legal hold is withdrawn in writing. Destruction will be reinstated upon conclusion of the investigation.
4. Compliance.
Failure to follow this policy can result in possible civil and criminal sanctions against LWVNM. The Board will periodically review these procedures to ensure compliance with new or revised regulations.
5. Archives.
The responsible parties indicated in #3 above will transfer documents to the Archivist in accordance with the Schedule. The Archivist will deposit them in the archive. Documents transferred to the archive become the property of the Center for Southwest Research at the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico.
The LWVNM archived files are located at the Center for Southwest Research, west end of the Zimmermann Library, at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. This Center is part of the Rocky Mountain Online Archive, which contains inventories to hundreds of archival collections. The link to the LWVNM collection is https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss471bc.xml
The procedure for additions to the collection is flexible. Any type of material is accepted. Anyone can go into the Center and ask to see the collection, but none of it can leave the building. Photocopies of any documents may be made.
6. Archives Procedure
At Convention, the Nominating Committee may submit the name of an Archivist and an E-Archivist for election to a two-year term, the traditional term of office for state League Board members. The Archivist and E-Archivist may or may not be the same person. In the absence of an identified candidate, the Board of Directors may appoint someone to fill the position. Either may serve as an on- or off-Board director and may give an in-person report to the Board on a periodic basis, if the Board so desires, and/or may produce a written report for Council or Convention meetings. The Archivist’s and E-Archivist’s names shall appear on the Board of Directors Roster with contact information.
Newly elected or appointed members of the Board of Directors and Committee chairs will meet with their counterparts who are leaving office and retain, destroy or archive the portfolio files in accordance with the Schedule and this policy.
If the files are relatively limited and can be easily sent by mail, they may be mailed to the Archivist for final review and inventorying.
If the files are contained in boxes and it would be costly to ship them to the Archivist, the Board members and committee chairs should carefully review them, prepare an inventory, and deliver the boxes to the Archivist for review and delivery to Zimmerman.
The Archivist will inform the Board when the documents are ready to be added to the archives. When additions have been made to the collection, an inventory of the items added to the collection will be part of the Archivist’s report to the Board.
Local Leagues
Local Leagues are responsible for making archival arrangements for their collections. The local collections need not retain material from LWVNM or LWVUS unless the information from these two organizations is relevant to the local Board portfolios or studies.
7. Procedure to Update This Policy and Procedure
Any LWVNM member may propose corrections or other changes to the Archivist, who will consider them and recommend their approval, modification, or disapproval to the Board.
All Items include supporting documents as appropriate.
|
Category/Source |
Item |
Retention Period |
Location/Disposition |
|
Administrative |
|||
|
Corporate |
Bylaws |
Permanent |
Current version with Secretary; archive after Convention when updated |
|
Articles of Incorporation |
Permanent |
Current version with Secretary; archive after Convention when updated |
|
|
MOAs |
Permanent |
Current version with creator; archive when updated or expired |
|
|
Policies and Procedures |
Permanent |
Current version with Secretary; archive after Convention |
|
|
Charitable Organizations Registration Statements (filed with NM Attorney General) |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
NM Corporations Registration |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Financial |
Budgets |
Annual |
Working files with Treasurer; then shred[1] |
|
Ledgers and journals |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Financial reports |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Check register and checks |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Bank statements |
7 years |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Contracts and agreements, leases |
7 years after obligations end |
With Treasurer during retention, then shred |
|
|
Insurance |
Policies – occurrence type |
Permanent |
Current version with Treasurer, then archive |
|
Policies – claims made type |
Permanent |
Current version with Treasurer, then archive |
|
|
Accident reports |
7 years |
Working files with Treasurer; then retain/shred |
|
|
Claims |
7 years after settlement |
Working files with Treasurer, then retain/shred |
|
|
Settlements |
7 years |
Working files with Treasurer; then retain/shred |
|
|
Tax |
IRS tax status determination and related correspondence |
Permanent |
Current version with Treasurer; archive as replaced |
|
IRS Forms 990 |
7 years |
Current and retained versions with Treasurer; then shred |
|
|
General Administration |
Board meeting packets except for local League reports |
Permanent |
Current version with Secretary; archive after Convention or Council, or as deemed appropriate by Secretary |
|
Convention and Council packets |
Permanent |
Secretary; archive after Convention or Council |
|
|
Board of Directors rosters without contact information |
Permanent |
Current version with Secretary; archive after Convention |
|
|
Formal correspondence |
Permanent |
Current version with author; archive after Convention or Council |
|
|
Members-at-large information |
Permanent |
Current version with President; archive after Convention or Council |
|
|
Portfolios (job descriptions) |
Discretionary |
Current versions with President, then shred or archive |
|
|
Program |
|||
|
Action Committee |
Reports and final legislative tracking sheets |
Permanent |
Current versions and working files with Action Chair; archive after legislative session |
|
Issue Fact Sheets |
Permanent |
Current versions with Action Chair; archive after legislative session |
|
|
Issue public testimony statements |
Permanent |
Current versions with Action Chair; archive after legislative session |
|
|
Any committee or authorized spokesperson |
Letters to the Editor, Op-Eds, and comments sent to Government Bodies |
Permanent |
Current documents with committee chair or author; archive after Convention or Council |
|
Positions and Studies |
Positions with history |
Permanent |
Current version with Historian; archive after replacement with updated version |
|
State studies files[2] |
Permanent |
Working files with Study Chair; archive after position adopted by LWVNM Board |
|
|
General program |
Committee files, correspondence |
Permanent |
Working files with Committee Chair; archive after Convention or Council |
|
Program Planning |
LWVUS Program Planning forms |
Permanent |
Current version with Program Chair; archive when submitted to LWVUS or after Convention or Council |
|
Publications |
|||
|
Voter Services |
Voter Guides |
Permanent |
Voter Services Chair while current; archive after Convention or Council |
|
Newsletters |
La Palabra |
Permanent |
La Palabra Editor while current; archive after Convention |
|
Scrapbooks |
|||
|
Scrapbooks |
Newspaper articles about LWVNM (not originated by LWVNM) |
Permanent |
To be retained by the Historian or Archivist during the year (negotiable!); archive after Council or Convention |