I think I've only been a listserv member this time for 4 years, but I read the archives for years and lurked in a covert fashion. I don't post too much and when I do I try to insert a little humor. I love what I do and I've been in the records management world for almost 30 years. (Oh my gosh...is it really that long????)
 
As an accidental tourist, I didn't know what records management was until I took a swing shift job for a forest products company in their micrographics department as a camera operator. Trust me there is nothing like Miracode. Gotta love that binary code! I moved to day shift after a few months. Soon I was filming engineering drawings and learning to become a lab technician. We had to understand retention schedules and interface with the records management team. I started working with the rm folks at our technology center and that is when I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up: a records manager! (Yes...even though I met Bob Dalton I still wanted to be an RM.)
 
I have been amazingly fortunate to have entered the workforce pre-PC. I have had exposure to main frame computing and been an operator of a mini-computer. I was a part of my then company's office of the future project receiving one of the very first IBM PCs they bought. We were testing PROFS, had no applications except IBM Basic. Soon we had Lotus 123 and we thought we were uptown!
 
One of my first client groups was our telecommunications department. This was pre-ATT divestiture and we were not only deploying our own voice network, but also the very first ever data network in the world. It was very cool and I was right there supporting the project team. To this day I have a fascination with how machines (computers) talk to each other. That is most likely why I enjoy e-discovery so much.
 
The first retention schedule I ever wrote was for that forest product company's IT division. It was a master piece if I do say so myself. It was complicated - rolling 5 or 6 schedules into one. I think it took me 18 months to complete it. I remember walking it through for signatures and how nervous I was. But it was approved. I learned so much from that process.
 
So after 22+ years, I decided I wanted to work for more than one company in my career. I went out and landed a cool job at Microsoft. Two years later, I left for my current job at Vulcan Inc. Like others I don't post from my work email. What I write here is my opinion and not that of my employer. 
 
I enjoy corresponding with many of you outside the listserv especially those of you new to our field. The majority of you are here to learn and want to learn your how to's on your own. Sometimes you need feedback or someone to point you in the right direction. What we do isn't easy. I like to coach...there's a future for us and I think it is very bright!
 
So outside of my work I enjoy my dogs and collecting the cool stuff I couldn't afford when it was new and I was in college like that 73.5' 911T and all that wonderful stereo stuff. 
 
Rock on!
SharonSharon Burnett 
[log in to unmask] Washington USA "If it ain't broke, take it apart and see why. If it is broke, take it apartand see why."
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