Committees, working groups and governing bodies: retaining records
The governing bodies, committees, and working or decision-making groups at the university produce records as part of their activities. The recordkeeping obligations for the Board of Governors and committees, Academic Council and committees, and other committees required for legal or ethical compliance have been documented in the Records Classification and Retention Schedule (RCRS).
What follows is some general advice for committees and working groups where there is no formal guidance in the RCRS.
Committees and Working Groups
If there is no formal guidance in the Records Classification and Retention Schedule, committee heads are responsible for establishing:
- What records must be kept?
- What will be the responsible unit?
- How long must those records be retained?
The records may include minutes, agendas, packages of documents to be considered, case files, materials to be evaluated, completed evaluations, tabulations of evaluations.
Where a body is responsible for evaluating submissions, and each committee member submits an evaluation sheet, the committee head must decide whether the individual sheets need to be retained after the results have been tabulated. If they do, they should be retained centrally by the responsible unit, not by committee members.
Committee members are responsible for forwarding any required records to the responsible unit for retention. Any copies in other units, or in the possession of committee or working group members are considered transitory copies. Likewise, any personal notes on committee proceedings.
Transitory copies may be destroyed once reference has ceased. It is recommended that they not be kept after the completion of a meeting or a specific task and should not be kept for longer than a year. If they are needed, copies of minutes, agendas or packages may be obtained through the responsible unit.
The basic retention period of committee records at the university is seven years. If there are compliance obligations or operational needs that affect the retention of committee minutes, these records should be included as a records series in the RCRS. Please contact RecordsManagement@ontariotechu.ca.
University Governing Bodies
The Office of the University Secretary is the responsible unit for retaining the official records of the Board of Governors and Academic Council. Any copies in other units, or in possession of Governors or members of the Academic Council are considered transitory copies. Likewise any personal notes on the proceedings.
Transitory copies may be destroyed once active reference has ceased. It is recommended that they not be kept after the completion of a meeting or a specific task and should not be kept for longer than a year. Copies of minutes, agendas or packages may be obtained through the Governance section of the Office of the University Secretary and General Counsel website.
For more detail on the retention of the records of university governing bodies, please view the Governance function of the RCRS.
