As the head of the task force that developed the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping PrinciplesSM, I wanted to provide some sort of official comment here. Doug is absolutely right on a few accounts – first, we’re happy to see this as a topic for discussion. These principles are continually evolving and conversation like this from the community can provide wonderful feedback. 



Doug is also right with regard to the regulatory environment in the world today. And that was a major catalyst to the creation and community acceptance of these principles. To answer David’s question about purpose: In short, GARPSM was created to speak to a business, legislative, and judicial audience – not as a guideline for RIM professionals. Larry is right when he says that the trouble with “generally accepted” in RIM is that it is typically so general that it lacks the necessary detail for successful application. The audience these statements are aimed toward aren’t the practitioners. The y are almost exclusively non-RIM, C-level business executives and boards of directors, legislatures, and the judicial system as a way to boil down the fundamentals of good information management. At the core, these are the general principles organizations should strive for with respect to records and information management.  



How can a practitioner apply these principles? It’s not so much in the ability to apply these statements to your program; it’s using this language as a framework for your20discussion to the non-RIM audience within your organization. I’ll be leading an ARMA International web seminar on that very topic this month.  



More information, background material, take-aways, and presentations are absolutely forthcoming – the task force and HQ staff are eager to present those resources. You’ll soon see an announcement about a panel discussion from the task force as part of the Orlando conference. It’s that body of knowledge that can help practitioners cite and interpret these statements and begin to transform them into something prescriptive. Sure, all of the major ANSI / ISO / ARMA standards played a foundational role in the development of this language (as did case law, the combined experience and expertise of the task force, and each professional who made comment) – but matching any of that wisdom line-for-line into a document that was intended to communicate broad theory to a non-RIM audience is not easily a 1-to-1 proposition.



This is an amazing opportunity not just for ARMA International, but for the profession as a whole. When the task force opened the draft to a public comment phase, the most frequently heard sentiment (by far) was “It’s about time.” Most of us real-world practitioners have been searching for common language to use when having these kinds of conversations. The feedback has been unbelievably positive and we’re very excited to keep marching down this path.
 

Thanks for all the discussion and forward 
thinking. Together we’re moving the profession forward!

Regards,

Fred

Fred A. Pulzello, MBA, CRM
ARMA Treasurer
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