Controlled Decentralised Filing: the Alternative to the Registry

Is there an alternative to the registry? Yes, of course — just look inside virtually every office. In the majority of organisations, outside those areas where the specialist nature and high volume of the records necessitates special filing units and dedicated staff, it is very much a matter of D.I.Y. and each man/woman for themselves. How many of you reading this use a registry to look after your own files? Alright then, how do you manage them? Do you have a logically developed, function‐based, hierarchically organised subject classification scheme linked, of course, to a regularly implemented retention schedule? If not, why not — after all, if charity begins at home, so should records management.