Welcome to the online home of Virginia Military Institute’s (VMI) Records Management program.

All VMI employees have legal and practical responsibilities to create, manage, and ultimately dispose of records according to established retention and disposition policies

The VMI Archives staff provides authorization and assistance for records management, which is the administrative term for:

• the maintenance of currently-active, administratively-useful, public records;
• the disposition of public records that no longer serve administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical purposes; and, 
• the preservation of those records that have historical value or that must be preserved by law or for other reasons.

What is a record?

According to the Virginia Public Records Act § 42.1-77:

"Public record" or "record" means recorded information that documents a transaction or activity by or with any public officer, agency or employee of an agency. Regardless of physical form or characteristic, the recorded information is a public record if it is produced, collected, received or retained in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business. The medium upon which such information is recorded has no bearing on the determination of whether the recording is a public record. 

For practical purposes, a record is any recorded information used to transact Institute business. Whether it's handwritten, typed on a piece of paper, saved as an electronic document, recorded as audio or video, held in a database, or something else, if it concerns Institute business, it's likely a record. 

Resources

As a public institution, VMI is governed both by the state’s records management program (Chapter 7, Public Records Act in the Code of Virginia) and by VMI policies and procedures, specifically General Orders 21 – Records Management Policy. Additional resources include:

• Virginia Public Records Act 
• Virginia Public Records Act guide
• Electronic records guide
• Record decision tree
• Email and records management handout
• Social media and records management handout

Training

Library of Virginia Training Videos

If you have been assigned records management responsibilities or are unfamiliar with records management processes, you may find it helpful to review the records management training videos created by the Library of Virginia. The training videos cover the following topics: 

• What is a public record?  
• The Virginia Public Records Act (VPRA)  
• Using the General Schedules searchable database  
• Overview of Records destruction  
• Filling out the online Certificate of Records Destruction (RM-3 Form): 
  • Written Instructions 
  • Video Instructions  

A complete list of training videos can be accessed through the Library of Virginia’s records management playlist YouTube. 

On-Post Training

Contact the VMI Archives to schedule on-post training.