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Duties of a State Agency RMO

Welcome new state agency records management officer (RMO)! Here are your primary responsibilities:

Create or maintain a current records inventory

In order to manage your agency’s records, you need to know what you have, where it is, how it’s used, and why it’s important. Conducting an inventory allows your agency to locate, identify, and describe the records it maintains. Benefits to conducting and maintaining an inventory include:

  • identifying how long records need to be kept
  • ensuring the agency is keeping records long enough to meet legal requirements
  • helping to determine storage needs

For more on this, see our publication, Inventory and Planning: The First Steps in Records Management.

Draft Proposed Records Retention and Disposition Schedules for State Archives Approval 

Records cannot be legally disposed of unless they are covered by a State Archives-approved retention schedule. There are two types of retention schedules:

  • State General Schedule which covers administrative, fiscal, and personnel records common to most agencies
  • agency-specific schedules that describe and set retention requirements for records unique to your agency, as well as those not found in the General Schedule or for which the retention periods in the General Schedule do not meet agency needs

For more information about the scheduling process, see our Retention Scheduling and Disposition webpage.

Oversee Records Disposition

The bulk of your agency’s records lose their value and can be scheduled for eventual destruction. Only about 2% of agency records have enduring, historical value that warrant permanent preservation at the State Archives. You will ensure that staff regularly destroy or transfer records to the State Archives according to approved retention schedules.

Develop and Review Plans and Programs to Improve Records Management 

Are you having challenges with retrieving records efficiently, overflowing filing cabinets, and implementing records disposition? Consider various solutions including imaging or microfilming records, sending inactive records to the State Records Center, creating a records index, refiling and rearranging of your records, or implementing an automated retention solution in your electronic recordkeeping system. 

The responsibilities of the RMO are outlined in the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education (8NYCRR 188.5).