I'd see what FIOA has to say about it, although States have different (stricter) laws than the feds in many cases. But the real question is what constitutes an "official record". When I was a fed (2 years ago), most email was not considered an official record - and the messages that were were supposed to be printed and saved...
Don't know if that helps a whit, but there it is. Missy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Norris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 10:48 PM Subject: OT: public schools, gov & e-mail I'm wondering if anyone here who has experience with public school systems or other government bodies would grant an off-the-record opinion. Are e-mail messages either received from the public, sent to the public or sent internally a matter of public record? ... and yes, I realize each state/locality might have somewhat different laws. Here's the deal: The Madison (WI) School Board a few weeks ago voted to restrict saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the words to the National Anthem in order to comply with a state law... they did wise up and reverse the decision a week later. http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/oct01/pledge14101301a.asp?format=print http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/oct01/pledgea101501.asp?format=print The district received approximately 22,000 e-mails regarding the issue. A citizen made a public records request for those e-mails and was told a week later a majority of the messages had been deleted. http://wisconsinstatejournal.com/local/7043.html I know the district uses a POP3 system (probably Sendmail), so there is no message store or transaction log to recover them from. I imagine 22,000 text messages in a .pst would fit on a Zip disk, it could become unwieldy to manage the inbox if they were not moved into another folder. So, does anyone have an opinion about this incident in regards to the open records laws? Does Sendmail have logging that could maintain a copy of every message that routes through the system? What options are there for Exchange systems to continually maintain all messages? Can Exmerge be scripted to run a scheduled task to remove or copy old messages? How many days max can Exchange maintain deleted items (assuming unlimited drive space)? Norris Carden www.rasquel.com This account is a spam hole used for lists. Mail to it may not be read for days or weeks at a time. _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]