Lately I've tried the elevator pitch first if someone doesn't know what ARMA
is - then I explain exactly what the letters stand for (stood for) if
pressed. However, I ran across a brochure for a one-day seminar from Feb.
2005 - Bill Saffady was presenting on Fundamentals of RIM, and it was
sponsored by the Liberty Bell Chapter of Phila. You might get a laugh out of
the explanation for our association (caps are their's and not mine):

---- from the brochure ---

"What is ARMA?

ARMA International, the Association for Information Management
Professionals, is a non-for-profit association serving more than 10,000
information management professionals in the United States, Canada, and over
30 other nations."

--- end of quote from brochure ---

Notice that the word "records" is not included anywhere. Is that really what
we want?

I do understand branding, and my husband worked for IBM. I'm not sure they
tried really hard to get people to recognize the letters IBM first or if the
company was just so well known that everyone understood there was only one
IBM (like one Cher) - but if asked, they will still say it stands for
International Business Machines.

Pat





-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Jones, Virginia
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 8:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Message from ARMA.org: What is ARMA International

Using the "ARMA" acronym as part of the name of the organization is
catchy, easy, and certainly a form of branding. The problem with
acronyms, of course, is that folks want to know what the letters stand
for. I always say Association for Records Managers and Administrators.
As Tod points out, this is the "official" name on our incorporation
papers. Yes, Administrators is still a viable term.  Most states and
many large corporations have Records Administrators (a step or two up in
the records management hierarchy of positions).  Unfortunately (or
perhaps fortunately, since I don't have it memorized) I've never had the
opportunity to use the "elevator" pitch.

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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