I think it is great to see ARMA supporting the membership with ideas  
put into tangible form. But, this is (very) similar to one that we  
use in IRM Strategies' education sessions and I know exactly what it  
costs to tailor such a design for an individual instance. In fact, we  
often tailor materials gratis as part of contracted services.

ARMA's non-profit association role should, IMO, support professionals  
(regardless of whether they are salaried employees, contractors or  
hobbyists--the association belongs to us all) in building a greater  
awareness of the value of RIM through sharing knowledge content  
freely. In an increasingly open source and knowledge focused world,  
we need to "go lateral" in our thinking about revenue models.

Charging members 250 USD to personalize through addition of a logo,  
and the same for non-members, seems unreasonable.  And if one can add  
the logo, why not change the text?

For non-members, one might suspect that they do not have a records  
management program at all or at least one with enough presence to  
warrant an ARMA membership.  In that light, I wonder if "let's talk  
to records management"  will achieve the objective.  A company might  
want to explore wording that fits their context/internal structure  
and ask for a change to the poster text.  That extra service might  
warrant the 250 USD fee as a value added service.  On the other hand,  
wouldn't it is interesting to actually get such posters into non- 
member organisations?  Why add a price-barrier to the records-savvy  
individual spreading the word?

Does ARMA have a wiki or something similar to invite member  
engagement and input into ideas?  And while I'm at it, for members  
who are remote from services that ARMA provides through chapters.  
etc. I wonder how we can build a critical mass of interest and  
support for RM when there is a charge for everything, and why we put  
members in the position of spending their own dollars in the hope  
that one day their organisations may catch on.  From my experience, I  
know that their are many records managers who do exactly that.  It's  
worth thinking about--are we balancing top down and bottom up  
strategies for RIM promotion?  Thoughts?

Off to grab a first cup of java ;-)



John James O'Brien, BA, CRM, MALT
[log in to unmask]

Partner & Managing Director
IRM Strategies
Hong Kong: +852 3101 7359
Bangkok: +66 2 207 2530
www.irmstrategies.com

Associate Partner, S4K Research
Stockholm www.s4k.com

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