What is the SAORM's specific responsibility for managing electronic messaging records?

The Senior Agency Official for Records Management (SAORM) is the high-level executive charged with ensuring an agency meets its statutory and regulatory records management obligations. For electronic messaging records, the SAORM’s responsibility is principally one of accountability and oversight: making sure messages that qualify as records are reliably captured, managed, and dispositioned in accordance with applicable law and federal guidance, regardless of the channel on which they are created.

What “Electronic Messaging Records” Covers

Electronic messaging is broader than traditional email. It can include text and SMS messages, instant messaging and chat platforms, collaboration tools, and other forms of near-real-time digital communication. When the content of these messages documents agency business, decisions, or activities, it meets the definition of a federal record and is subject to the same management requirements as any other record.

The SAORM’s Core Responsibilities

The SAORM does not personally capture each message, but is responsible for establishing the conditions that make proper management possible. In practice this means:

• Policy and governance: Ensuring the agency has clear, current policies defining which messaging tools are authorized and how records created in them must be captured and retained.
• Capture and retention: Confirming that messaging records are preserved in a usable, searchable form and kept for their full retention period under an approved records schedule.
• Compliance oversight: Verifying that the agency’s practices align with federal records statutes and NARA guidance, and that gaps are identified and corrected.
• Coordination and reporting: Working with the Agency Records Officer, IT, and legal/FOIA staff, and representing the agency’s records program in required reporting to NARA.

Why It Matters

Because messaging often happens quickly and outside formal recordkeeping systems, it is one of the highest-risk areas for unintended loss of records. The SAORM’s oversight helps ensure these communications remain available for accountability, litigation, FOIA, and historical purposes. Strong SAORM involvement signals that messaging records are treated as agency assets, not as informal or disposable chatter.

For related guidance on managing these communications, see the email and messaging topic hub.