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 Retention of Volunteer Records

Wendy Beins's profile image
Wendy Beins posted 05-05-2024 11:53 PM

One of the many hats I wear in my current position is that of Volunteer Coordinator.  However, my background is collections management (the museum I work for is not a collecting institution, so I manage all other data, volunteers, memberships, field trips, programing, etc.).  We are running out of room for new volunteer records in Volgistics (there are options to upgrade), and my boss (our Executive Director) and I disagree on what to do to solve this problem.  I would like to increase our records limit in Volgistics and think the cost is very reasonable; she does not want to spend any more money and would like to make space by deleting volunteers who haven't volunteered in 5 or more years (the museum is 10 years old).  We would of course, download the volunteer records before deleting them, so we wouldn't completely lose the data, but the collections manager in me is still having anxiety about deleting information from a database. 
So my questions is, is it usual to delete old volunteer records from the volunteer management database?  And if so, how long do museums wait for a volunteer to be inactive before deleting them?

Meghan Gardner's profile image
Meghan Gardner posted 05-06-2024 08:07 AM

It might depend on what is contained in the volunteer records.  If the data is similar to employment, you might want to see if they fall into the same retention duration covered under employment retention.  If this doesn't apply, you will still want your organization to have a written retention policy that is uniformly enforced. There can be a liability in retaining records for longer than necessary because if you are hacked and there is identifying information retrieved, that can be grounds for a lawsuit.

Can I ask why you wish to retain the records for more than 5 years?

Jenny Woods's profile image
Jenny Woods posted 05-06-2024 02:08 PM

My practice has always been to keep volunteer records in some format - but if archiving them in Volgistics doesn't work with the budget, I would be okay with downloading the info into an offline archive. I think the 5 year mark for inactivity makes sense for archiving. I know some organizations don't keep track of former volunteers, but I have used volunteer record archives so many times, so it is worth the extra step of archiving for me.

Adam Michalski's profile image
Adam Michalski posted 05-07-2024 09:30 PM

The museum where I work is a state agency, so we follow the state's retention schedule regarding records of former employees and volunteers.  We dispose of volunteer records three years after the volunteer separates from service at the museum.  One reason I follow this schedule is that in some cases the volunteer is deceased and I don't think it makes sense to keep the records beyond three years. 

Another reason I get rid of these records after three years is because there might be some volunteers who separated from the museum on bad terms or perhaps might be a volunteer I really don't want back.  So, if for some reason they decide they want to come back after three years I would make them fill out the application again.  Some might get turned off by that.  Plus, if a volunteer left on bad terms and perhaps years down the road they decide to file a lawsuit for whatever reason, if I have kept those records beyond the legally required three years, I believe they could be admitted as evidence.  Admittedly, these are EXTREME conditions that I have (fortunately) no personal experience dealing with in the 10 years I have worked at this museum, but I do take this into consideration.

If you do have a retention schedule I was consider using that as a guide for how long to keep your volunteer records.  I hope this helps.

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