What is going on??? I can't believe the amount of listserve correspondence on the subject of Professional RM Journals.
For fifty years ARMA has kept abreast of the field of RM through the its magazine publication. This has not been an easy task considering the rapid changing technologies and changing management impressions of its information and records needs. I guess part of the problem  has been the effort to stay abreast of all the new jargon and address them  while sacrificing attention to the field's fundamentals. While I agree that the current contents of the ARMA magazine have gone overboard in "jargon headlines" its current reading  and using population have certainly expressed thoughts on peer-oriented(??) contents--Let's not beat it to death. From the Board member responses, the "review" message is there. Let's relax a bit and let them give it their attention and reaction. That's why we elected them. The listserv itself and all the back and forth will not correct whatever problem seems to exist.
Bill Benedon
ARMA Member 1956-
RMQ Editor 1967-1985
-----Original Message-----
From: "Sherry Xie" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent 12/5/2009 1:56:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Professional RM JournalsHi Everybody,
As a PhD candidate focusing on RM (specifically ERM in the context of
eGov development in the Government of Canada) and a RM practitioner
responsibly for establishing a full RM program for my employing
organization, I'd like to say that peer-reviewed RM journal(s) are a
must-have if we want to see the field to advance intelligently and the
profession to perform effectively.
As a student interested in RM, I have long been frustrated by the fact
that there are no peer-reviewed journals corresponding to it. My PhD
research was formulated within the intersection of ERM (particular
EDRMS) and eGov; my experience is that it's very difficult to find
peer-reviewed journal articles on RM, ERM, and/or EDRMS, but it's very
easy to find peer-reviewed journal articles on eGov, which is, at the
current stage, only considered an "emerging" discipline. I've never
doubted my decision of devoting both my academic and professional lives
to RM but I do frequently feel that we, as RM people, have not done
enough to fundamentally change the low profile of our profession, which
appears to be the no. 1 source of frustration for practitioners.
While I have limited professional experience (1.5 years as a records
manager), I understand entirely the difference b/w academic and
professional thinking and the difficulties of competing with other
business units for financial and human resources to complete basic RM
tasks in organizations. However, theories (e.g., the nature of records,
its impact on the construction of function-based classification and on
the establishment of retention schedules) helped me tremendously in
educating the various stakeholders of the RM program for which I, as a
single person, am responsible to establish. For the function-based
classification, I have talked to each and every individual (or group of
individuals if they perform the same business duties) in the
organization including VPs, SVPs, and the CEO, asking theory-inspired
questions for me to understand their business activities and answering
intelligent/legitimate questions for them to understand the RM program,
which deals with 95% e-records in both forms of unstructured and
structured records. Without the theories I acquired from my master
program and the InterPARES project, there is simply just no way for me
to carry out the job duties. I also believe that the education given
based on theories will set the foundation for me to introduce other
elements of the RM program into the organization more smoothly. As a RM
person, I'd like very much to report to the RM community not only my
experience of applying theories in a real world setting but also the
thoughts formulated during the process of application, using the channel
of a peer-reviewed RM journal. To me, articles in this journal need not
be long but the content should be assessed based on academically
acceptable criteria, and writers can learn from the assessment.
I understand that ARMA is for practitioners but I'd like to stress that
one difficulty confronting many RM programs is the lack of competene
professionals. This is not a new but repeatedly-mentioned problem. As
noted by Maedke et al. in 1981, "at present, a critical records
management problem is the shortage of competent personnel." Today, at
the end of 2009, will anybody here agree that a peer-reviewed journal
will contribute to solving this problem?
Thanks for reading.
Sherry Xie
Records Management Coordinator/ Coordonnatrice de la gestion des
documents
Canadian Tourism Commission / Commission canadienne du tourisme
Tel/ Tél 604 638 8388
Fax/ Téléc
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www.canada.travel
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________________________________
From: Records Management Program on behalf of Douglas Allen
Sent: Sat 12/5/2009 7:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Professional RM Journals
I appreciate the input received by those here on the listserv, and
again....for those who view this one, single issue as among the most
important, I recommend that you provide that input on future surveys or
requests for comment that are provided as a part of ARMA International's
Strategic Planning process.  We do have a process, it works, and it
drives
us to move forward with plans and projects that meet the needs as
expressed
by our members.  It takes a bit of time for us to gather, process and
incorporate member desires into our plans...but certainly not an
inordinate
amount of time.
Let me be quite clear about one other item.... because we have a
planning
process that works well, what ARMA does NOT DO is to change our
priorities
mid-stream.  We may make changes based on the economic environment, but
we
do not simply replace any of the high priorities with something that we
see
is passionately desired by either a relatively small number of members
or by
an unknown number of members.  That approach would not work in any
business
enterprise or in any Association, so that's NOT the approach we take.
While listening to (through my readings) this discussion, I note that
the
problems and challenges pointed to by those who have made the effort, by
those who have spent the time in such an endeavor.... have not been
dealt
with effectively by anyone.  Those who have pursued this are among our
most
respected former Board members and volunteers - those who have donated
thousands of hours to taking on a leadership role within the
Association.
That doesn't make them automatically "correct", but it certainly does
get my
attention, and lends credibility to their observations.
Douglas P. Allen, CRM, CDIA+
President, ARMA International
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