Afraid I must agree more with Gus and Lynette here.


I enjoy doing consulting work that leads to the employment of professionals
> in the RIM field. Also, I believe, there is a huge need for records
> managers. Using information from U.S. government documents, it is very
> clear that this need exists in many companies where RIMs are not
> represented. How do I know that?



While consulting work DOES oft time lead to the employment of individuals in
the RIM field, I think saying that it leads to the employment of
PROFESSIONALS may be a bit of a stretch. I was a Professional Services
Consultant in the RIM filed for more than a decade, and clients came to me
for answers to problems, not to ask me to train and supply them with staff.
Many may enter the profession after a consultant helps design a plan, but it
takes time for them to develop to the status of a RIM Professional.

And you're right that some Government reports make it clear that there is a
need, but not as clear as the trade journal article and many other stories
in the news do. There is a woeful lack of knowledge regarding the existence
of the RIM Profession in business in general and much needs to be done to
address this issue.


ARMA membership in the U.S. is about 8,000. Of that number, there are many
> organizations with more than one member (e.g., NARA).



And more staggering is the fact that while there may be 8,000 ARMA members
in the US, there are MANY RIMs, or people working the field of RIM that have
NO KNOWLEDGE of ARMA's existence. I'll give you a prime example... in the
White House alone, there are **20** individuals with titles that indicate
they are involved in RIM, 14 of which have the words "Records Management" in
their titles and NOT ONE OF THEM ARE ARMA MEMBERS!!!

And if you scan the list of ARMA members, you won't find many folks in other
Government agencies active either. This is not intended to state that there
should be more Government members in ARMA, but only to illustrate that in an
environment where we KNOW there are many people who have direct
responsibilities for managing records and information, few feel there is a
need to belong to ARMA.

If you look at the number of companies with employees greater than 300, the
> need for RIM is striking. What are we doing about this need and availability
> of positions for RIMs? Search me!



While I appreciate the sentiment that we should consider looking to the
larger companies (those employing 300+) the need for the skills that are
obtained through involvement in the practice of records and information
management are pertinent to many in smaller organizations as well. While
they may not have the need for full-time RIMs, there are FEW companies that
don't have a need for someone with the skills "peculiar" to RIMs.

I've seen a number of posts here in the past year from people who have said
"I've just recently been given the responsibilities for RIM in my
organization, and..." which indicates more and more organizations are
beginning to recognize that there IS a profession called RIM and that there
ARE needs to have formal RM programs. These people (many times) aren't what
I would call RIM Professionals, but they ARE entering the profession, and
they need to be made aware of resources available to assist them in becoming
better informed and better skilled about RIM best practices... because they
WILL be the RIM Professionals of tomorrow. And yes, I DO believe that part
of that includes an exposure to ARMA.

And again, this is an opportunity for those of us in the Profession to take
the lead and run with it. We need to get articles in newspapers, magazines,
on websites in blogs, wherever there is an opportunity. Seek out venues to
speak at, write letters to editors when you read articles that misstate the
RIM perspective when it comes to issues like managing e-mail, storage,
information lifecycle management, security, privacy, identity theft, and all
of the other topics we're seeing routinely that only represent ONE
PERSPECTIVE, and that one not including the RIM aspects

Frankly, I believe that RIM needs to be marketed more strenuously. Yet,
> there will be companies who may need records management but are not able--or
> willing--to hire a RIM. So, the presentation on contracting out RIM services
> is better than no RIM at all.



I'm not sure that "marketed" in the strictest sense of the word is the right
answer... but PROMOTED at minimum. And while we can look to ARMA for some of
this, who better to promote the Profession than the Professionals in it.
Keep in mind, when we speak of ARMA, we need to ask the question "Who is
ARMA?" and for those of us who have been in it for decades, we better know
that answer... WE ARE ARMA.

ARMA is an association that can proudly raise it's head as having 50 years
under it's belt... but ARMA is an association of VOLUNTEERS and
PROFESSIONALS. We are supported by a paid staff of individuals at HQ who are
good at what they do, but for the most part, they aren't RIMs. They have 2
staffers with salient RIM background, and a number of people that have had
exposure to the profession through their employment on staff... but their
job is to run the association, and again, I will say they're good at what
they do.

But if we want to get the word out, it's up to us as RIM Professionals to
let them know what we need done, and in a larger part to get busy about
doing something ourselves.

Stepping down from the soapbox, I remain respectfully yours,

Larry
--
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972

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