How long should we keep......?

New Ward Clerk here with a New Bishop with a question about Record Retention:

I checked the Book 1 on retention and it is not very clear (p 121). How long should we keep:
- Disciplinary council materials
- Counseling materials of a personal nature
- Welfare materials

If there is no definitive answer, then best practices in the matter would help:

joshbingham wrote:New Ward Clerk here with a New Bishop with a question about Record Retention:

I checked the Book 1 on retention and it is not very clear (p 121). How long should we keep:
- Disciplinary council materials

Only until the membership record is updated based on the results of the council. In the case of formal probation, until the matter is resolved. See Handbook 1 section 6.16.

joshbingham wrote: - Counseling materials of a personal nature

Only as long as needed. See the general statement at the beginning of Retention of Records document on the RKATS site.

joshbingham wrote: - Welfare materials

For financial records (such as bishops storehouse records) they should be retained for 3 years after the end of the current year. See again the Retention of Records document mentioned above. That's for the US and Canada. In other areas it could be longer. You'd have to contact your stake or the area office to find the retention time for your area.

For any non-financial records, only as long as needed. Again see the Retention of Records document.