For those who have followed this discussion thread, I wanted to provide an
update to the listserv.

ARMA HQ staff has pursued the questions surrounding the update during the
past several days, and I want to acknowledge their involvement and to
express my appreciation for their work.  Those of us who are ARMA members
are blessed with a talented and very dedicated ARMA staff group.

Here's the status at this moment:·

(1)  The NFPA has a Standards Council that reviews applications for
technical committee membership and decides whether to approve the
applications or not. They meet 3 times a year to review applicants. The
Council met on Tuesday (March 2nd), so that application period is now
closed.
(2)  The next application review is in August. In order to be considered,
our application has to be in by May 3rd. Our ARMA HQ staff has completed an
application and will be submitting it today. Thus, ARMA's application will
definitely be reviewed during the August meeting.  Membership on this
technical committee would give us the right to vote.
(3)  NFPA also has a public review and comment period built into the
standard development cycle. At the end of June, they will release a report
that details the proposals they’ve received, and the committee’s decisions
about what to do with the proposal. That report will be available for public
comment from June 25th through September 3rd. ARMA can certainly submit
comments during this time.
(4) NFPA will hold a committee meeting sometime in the Sept/Oct time frame
to discuss the comments received. I expect we will be able to participate in
this meeting as I anticipate our application being accepted.

We have been alerted to the situation and are pursuing that now.  As for our
involvement between 2005 and 2009, I would note that the Standards efforts
of ARMA were overseen by  2 staff individuals, and both were both
well-established records managers. One was and is a CRM, the other had many
years of experience in RM.  And, with regard to the standards process within
NFPA itself.... The Records Center Operations technical report is *not* past
its renewal date. As an ANSI-registered technical report, it is on a 10-year
revision cycle and the document is still within the appropriate time frame.
Both it and the Guideline for Evaluating Offsite Records Storage Facilities
are still available for purchase through the ARMA bookstore.

Based on my experience, ARMA HQ staff and ARMA Board members all care deeply
about issues that affect Records and Information Managers.  I'm certain that
it frustrates some to see claims to the contrary, but for those of us who
volunteer and for those on staff it is sometimes part of the "cost of doing
business."  We certainly are not omniscient and are happy to receive alerts
from members and from non-members about those things that affect the
profession and our members.  Thus, I encourage any of you who spots
something arising to let us know, either through the ARMA web site or
through a direct email to any Board member with whom you may choose to
communicate.  The only caveat I have is that we do and will continue to
operate within an environment with some real resource constraints and may
not always be in a position to tackle every issue that arises.

Given that, let me encourage everyone who is touched by this particular
issue to learn more about the NFPA, its work, and what it may or may not
eventually require of all of us.


Douglas P. Allen, CRM, CDIA+
President, ARMA International
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