passing new/old record in pl/pgsql trigger functions to other functions

Hi,  In Postgresql version 7.4.1 How does one pass new/old record in a 
pl/pgsql trigger function to other functions? I tried to pass it 
directly but the select/perform statement caused an error saying "NEW 
used in query that is not in a rule". I've tried 'rename' in the declare 
block but that didn't work at all (I get 'invalid column', which I 
assume it means rename did not work at all). Besides copying the record 
columns one by one, is there any other way to do this?

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basic