I wasn't trying to cut anyone 
Sorry... had the day job to do today...

I wasn't trying to cut anyone out of any conversation here or any ability to ask 
questions or share information.

My point was (I thought) pretty simple. We have had (and I am speaking since 
1993 when I signed on the Listserve) people who identified themselves as 
consultants ask very direct questions to which they expected an answer from the 
Listserve, which would then likely be communicated (and billed) back to the 
client. As I said before, if you show your work, you are showing that you're not 
simply asking for a handout without offering to show what work you have already 
done. In those 17 years, we have had a fair number of college students, new 
records manager, and, yes, consultants, waltz on to the Listserve and ask, "How 
long do I keep XXX?" No context, no evidence of research, no polite apology. In 
general, that honks off a few of us and in the distant past, that person would 
be pretty much publicly flogged by the more feisty members of the List. Then 
Susan would have to come in a calm everyone down. (Many of you have completely 
missed the Wild West days of yore. Larry is tame compared to what we used to see 
in the 90's.

I am reasonably sure that several of us could name a number of suspects whose 
sole contribution to the Listserve has been asking for handouts. That said, no 
one is really keeping score, but you should be here with an expectation that in 
order to get something, you should give something back once in a while. I think 
the proper term these days is "Pay it forward."
So the point is, this is about sharing. It is a community. We are here for the 
networking and to give back to the profession. BUT, we're not here to give away 
company property or to provide free reference service to people who are looking 
for shortcuts to actually doing the work. And frankly, I think most of us would 
also like to protect the work of consultants. I doubt that most consultants 
would appreciate it if the retention schedule paid for by a client was posted on 
the Internet for anyone to copy.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions. There is nothing wrong with 
sharing. But there is something inherently wrong with walking into the community 
and asking for a handout when you don't indicate the work that has already been 
done. The dialogue that I suggested is what I would expect of a professional in 
this community -- "Hey, I've done some work on this topic, here it is, I'm 
having trouble trying to figure out what the correct answer might be from these 
three choices." Or, "I'm doing research on this topic. I've looked here and 
here. Where else might I look?"

Keep in mind, there are also a lot of public domain documents out there. 
Government agencies post their policies, retention schedules and RFPs. I can't 
count the number of times that someone jumped onto the Listserve out of the blue 
asking for something, only to have Peter pretty bluntly point out that a Google 
search on the topic would have yielded several hundred results.

Show your work. It makes you look like a professional and reduces the blood 
pressure for us old fogies.

Now, as for the "Go away kid..." aspect of the administrative messages... I'll 
plead guilty there. However, it is remarkably irritating when each and every 
Listserve message contains a footer that directs every member to the List 
Archives as well as provides an email address for administrative requests. It 
strikes me (right or wrong) that ignoring those messages indicates either an 
attitude of 1) my time is more valuable than that of the other 2000 people here, 
so I'm going to waste your time, or 2) I'm too lazy to read instructions or 
follow directions. In either case, you don't present yourself well. Everyone 
makes a mistake. Lord knows, I have replied to the entire List or sent an admin 
command to the list instead of the server. But I will also tell you that I have 
a copy of the List instructions from 1993.
 Patrick Cunningham, CRM, FAI
[log in to unmask] 
 
I'm always speaking for myself, but for the record, I am Senior Director, 
Information Governance, Motorola, Inc, Schaumburg, IL, USA. My statements are 
always my own and never, ever reflect the opinions or positions of Motorola, 
Inc.


"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." 
-- Colin Powell 

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]