>I for one believe that it can be shaped into a company standard on records
>keeping.  
>
>Truthfully, not many corporate records management departments actually
>"manage record".  We use the bully pulpit, coersion, whine and whedle and
do >anything we can to get those that do records keep, to do it better.  
>

Tom-

I think I understand the intent you are expressing here, but what it sounds
as if you're actually talking about developing would more accurately be
referred to a "Policy and Procedures", not a 'standard'.  And as many others
in this thread have stated, much of what has been re-purposed and written
into these 'principles' is extracted from existing Standards, Best
Practices, and other published guidance that has existed for years.

As stated by the head of ARMA's TF on this endeavor, these are not intended
for practitioners as much as they are as marketing pieces to sell C-level
and other management on the concept and value of RIM.  They may be too wordy
to accomplish that, and by ARMA's own admission, they aren't detailed enough
to use as guidance for practitioners.  Hopefully, this won't turn into
another "RIM Imperative" effort, which missed the mark because the intended
audience wasn't interested in reading 16 pages of what they "needed to know".

In your case, you may be better served by working with management to develop
a framework for an RM Policy statement- why we manage records, what the
definition of a record is to the organization, who has what roles and
responsibilities within the organization, the goals and objectives of the
program, and the benefits of records management to the organization. 
Language for this, even if in bullet points only that need to be connected
with added text, are available by reviewing published standards. The Policy
should be issued under a relatively high-level signature to indicate
corporate/organizational support.  

Following that, look into process issues and develop procedures to assist
individuals in meeting their responsibilities and achieving compliance with
the policy.  There may be a need to develop these at varying levels of
detail depending on the roles individuals have and their direct involvement
with records. And they should be tested for accuracy once written.

All of this should be supported by meetings with key individuals and the
development of a web based training module and marketing effort to get the
word out that effective records management is EVERYONE'S responsibility.

While I appreciate your though that not many are doing this, there are a
good number of organizations that are. What it takes is getting senior
management behind the need to appropriately support the effort, and to
endorse policy that results in change to foster an effective RM Program.  By
providing them examples of what happens to organizations (possibly in your
same industry segment) who fail to do this, you may be able to gain the
desired support.

Part of the issue in the past has been RM is looked at as a cost center, and
the thinking that there is no identifiable bottom line benefit to spending
money and effort in having a program.  That thinking is changing, and one of
the ways many of us have used for a number of years to sell this is to shift
the focus from direct cost to cost avoidance by managing things proactively.

Larry
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