Good discussion - thanks to all.
If I can add my 2c: I would NOT clear out the archivelogs as dbasupuser and marist89 suggest. Don't delete archivelogs until you have more than one copy on tape. It's worth setting up a recovery scenario and then imagining what happens when you find that part of a tape is dud (been there!).
marist89 is right about documenting & testing. You also need to involve the end users (sorry!) to determine the acceptable level of data loss. This will determine the frequency of forcing a log switch and copying the archivelogs to a "safe" location (e.g. the standby machine).
"The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous" - Gibbon, quoted by R.P.Feynman