An archival assessment may reveal that in order to establish its archives, your company must first formalize its record creation and retention processes. These are often related to organizational structure. For some theatre companies, departments and responsibilities are fluid (i.e., staff job descriptions often include work in a range of “departments”); larger theatre companies often hire more specialized staff and have more defined departmental boundaries. The number of departments generating records within any given company varies, but typically include the following:
- Artistic (artistic direction, dramaturgy/literary management, casting)
- Business (managing director, finance, box office, front-of-house, facilities, IT)
- Development (institutional and individual giving, fundraising)
- Education (outreach, audience enrichment, talkbacks, study guides, interns)
- Marketing (advertising, public relations, graphic design, publicity)
- Production (technical direction, stage management, shops)
Determining document generation and flow will ensure that materials scheduled for retention in your archives are pulled using a pre-determined schedule. Designating members of your archives committee to liaise with each department will ensure retention of significant documentation and the timely inclusion of those documents in the archives.
The creation of a document retention schedule should be one of the first tasks you undertake after the assessment (see Appendix D — Sample Retention Policy & Schedule). The retention schedule organizes a list of documents by department, thus creating a visual flowchart depicting documents, their creators, how long they are kept, and ultimate disposition (where they go when no longer in use). This schedule should be drafted with the input of the financial department, legal counsel, and heads of each department. Although a functional retention schedule can be drafted with a simple spreadsheet, your company may wish to consult with a professional records manager to assist in this process (see Appendix F: Archival Resources). Once formalized, the retention schedule will assist in the straightforward assessment of documents to determine short- and long-term retention. Most documents subject to the retention schedule will easily fall within two areas: lifespan and non-lifespan (perpetuity) documents.
Lifespan documents are retained for determined lengths of time for legal purposes. These documents can include credit card receipts, accounting documents, payroll records, etc. Determining the appropriate lifespan ensures that these records are kept only so long as legally required and sets calendared destruction dates to dispose of the documents once they are no longer needed (or once the lifespan expires). Lifespan documents may include, but are not limited to:
- Human Resources files
- licenses/permits
- credit card receipts
- banking records
- employee directories
- invoices
- petty cash vouchers
- safety records
- purchase orders
- equipment maintenance records and manuals
Non-lifespan documents are retained in perpetuity. These documents comprise the bulk of the archival collection and include a wide range of materials that chronicle the operation of the company. Non-lifespan documents may include but are not limited to:
- grant awards
- staff meetings and reports
- press clipping files
- scripts
- production “bibles”
- contracts
- artistic correspondence
- photo documentation
- video documentation
- building leases and/or purchases
- capital campaigns
- galas (or fundraising events)
- trademarks
- endowment records
- corporate by-laws and incorporation
- blueprints/elevations for building plans and constructions
- publications (newsletters, study guides, journals, annual reports)
Identifying these two categories of records (appraisal) will assist in managing the flow of documents. Handling the lifespan documents first leaves more time for the detailed work of managing the perpetuity documents. Designating a central repository (or shelf, closet, etc.) to temporarily retain lifespan documents helps isolate these documents away from the archival collection and makes monitoring for ultimate destruction easier. A simple spreadsheet or database can be created to track the lifespan documents: use the contents of the boxes (date range, department, box/location number, etc.) as data fields. Dispose of the documents once they have reached retention cut-off. Shredding of confidential documents that are no longer needed protects your organization and ensures compliance with both state and federal laws. Many shredding companies offer secure mobile shredding or off-site document destruction (see Appendix F).
What constitutes perpetuity documents will be slightly different for each company and will reflect your theatre’s mission and spatial parameters. Generally speaking, items that chronicle your company and its place in a historic context should be permanently retained. The creative and administrative documents from your productions are essential to your archives and should be as complete as possible. Contracts, set and costume designs and notes, lighting and sound cues, daily reports (performance and house), artistic collaborator correspondence, and digital-born documents (e-blasts, newsletters, ticketing, email, etc.) all fall within this area. Documents from non-staged “productions” should be retained as well, including play readings (either public or in-house), donor dinners and events, educational outreach, co-productions, etc.
Your archives committee should set a retention policy for key non-lifespan materials and documents and include this policy in recordkeeping manuals with your retention schedule (see Appendix D). The policy should include a checklist of desired archival documents to help with retention and establish an order for the documents that can be maintained once the materials are moved to the archives. It is prudent to reach out to artistic collaborators while the productions are in planning/rehearsal phases (or immediately after the production is in previews) in order to get copies of costume sketches, fittings photographs, source materials, set models, etc. Identify a room, closet, or shelf separate from your lifespan repository as the home for your company archives.
Items collected from outside the company during the creation and production process are seldom needed for the archives. For instance, development staff might collect research on potential funders or examples of other companies’ gala materials. Retaining this kind of documentation past the point of usefulness is unnecessary. Your company is not creating a collection of publications by all theatre companies (a library) but rather a collection created by your company (an archives), one that is meaningful and manageable. Organize purges of unnecessary documents on a yearly basis to keep files and offices up-to-date and on-mission. As noted above, it is critical that the archives committee work closely with all records creators to insure that the records are transferred to the archives for proper disposition.
Once you’ve got a handle on your company’s current documents by creating a retention policy and schedule, your archives committee may turn its focus on what is missing. Your collection (or acquisition) policy will identify the kinds of materials that your archives is seeking to acquire. For most companies, the collection policy should include only materials that directly support or enhance the organization. Donations of materials should fall in line with this policy. (If an audience member wants to donate her 10-box collection of 1940s playbills, do you accept the donation? Does it follow your collection policy? Would the donation be better received elsewhere?) Establishing clearly defined collecting areas might expand to include areas that fall outside your immediate organization (for example, collecting historic materials about your theatre building or scholarly journals about a particular playwright whose work is often staged by your company). Collecting can (and arguably should) include sidebar interests, but take steps to ensure that the sidebars are defined and manageable.
The collection policy should also note material to supplement gaps in archival holdings, such as material from early years of the company. An oral history program can also be a wonderful way to capture the history of an organization. Forging meaningful relationships with artistic collaborators might be the single most important step taken toward guaranteeing retention of documents. Reach out to designers and directors (and often, more importantly, the assistants to these people) with the goal of educating them on the significance of retaining documents for the company archives. Stress the potential for scholarship, legacy, and shared resources.
APPRAISAL & DISPOSITION
- Create a document retention schedule to list all current document types and distinguish lifespan documents from non-lifespan (perpetuity) documents.
- Identify separate spaces for temporary storage of your lifespan documents until they can be destroyed and permanent storage of your perpetuity documents as your archives.
- Establish and communicate a clear retention policy for archival documents to all staff, particularly to creative record generators who may be contract employees.
- Create a collection policy to acquire documents that are missing from your current holdings but are essential evidence of your theatre’s history.