Before archiving your records, evaluate them to determine what their value will have to your organization’s history. Consider the following questions:

• Does this record demonstrate what the organization/club is or reflect its activities and its role in the campus community?
• Does this record hold value for current and future members and/or internal and external researchers?
• Does this record relate to other documents the organization maintains?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the record should be retained. If the answer is no to all of these questions, it can likely be discarded. 

When in doubt ask the Assistant Archivist or email scua@colgate.edu.

The following are records that hold enduring or historic value and are likely to be retained.

• Constitutions
• Charters
• By-laws
• Mission Statements
• Founding Documents
• Histories
• Meeting Minutes
• Agendas
• Newsletters
• Publications
• Promotional materials: flyers, posters, brochures, etc. 
• Photographs of the group, members, and events
• Artifacts: t-shirts, buttons, pins, etc. 
• A/V recordings
• Membership lists/registers
• Oral histories

• Receipts, canceled checks, purchase orders
• Photocopies
• Duplicate items (we keep 3 copies at most)
• Blank forms, letterhead, or stationary
• University-wide memos or announcements
• Routine correspondence: requests and acknowledgments 
• Confidential or personally identifiable information: FERPA, HIPPA, and PII
• Salmagundis
• Medical or legal records
• Student papers, theses, or essays