Dear Larry and All:
I'm going to respond officially for the ICRM and THEN respond as private citizen of the RIM community.
Officially, the ICRM does quite a bit of vetting and the rules for qualifying for the ICRM exams are quite specific about what type of documentation is needed, i.e. letters from employers, official transcripts and so forth. When questions and/or flags go up further verification is sought. However, there is a certain aspect of the honor system involved here. After all, I sure that there are people out there who could get their employers to write anything, just as there are people out there would can't get the time of day from their employers. And there are those who would simply forge documents.
In cases like yours I would endeavor to work with the applicant to find alternative sources when possible.
OK unofficially, I think the application process is just a little too arbitrary and ought to be streamlined as much as possible. After all, the ICRM sets a graduated scale for amount of professional experience needed with a high school degree, a bachelor's degree an so forth- but DOES NOT SPECIFY (bold is mine) what degrees are acceptable. You could have a master's in comparative french literature (lovely language, nothing against it) and only need 2 years of RIM experience to qualify. However, a person with a high school diploma and 10 years of practical RIM experience would still need a year of RIM experience to qualify. If your reaction, as mine is, HUH, THAT DON"T MAKE SENSE, well join the club. Personally, I think the exam ought to speak for itself- and it does with the historical pass/fail rates- and we ought to do a little less trying to qualify at the front end. And, btw, the CRM designation is still the thing I'm proudest of in my professional life.
Now remember, before you jump all over me, that the first comments were ICRM and the second were me speaking as a private citizen and raving in the noonday sun.
William
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Medina" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 3:22:51 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [RM] Help with Navy or Veterans Affairs (UNCLASSIFIED)
<snipped to save electrons>
> ...and although he had the responsibility for records management,
> he did not actually do any of the records management duties...
> ...words such as "I had responsibility for" and "I had oversight for".
Interesting comment, and IMNSHO, completely accurate. Makes you wo0onder,
and I'm sure William would be able to properly respond to this, how much
background validation and verification of actual "on the ground experience"
is done when applications are submitted.
I remember one point in time when I had interest in applying for the
designation, the individuals I had worked under had moved on from the
organization I had formerly been employed at, three levels of management
above me had moved on from one EPC to another, just packed their tools in
their briefcases and gone to Brazil, China, and Australia (and this was in
the late 1970s/ early 1980s, so no easy method of hunting them down and
cyber-chasing them)
So, there was no one to validate my experience or the fact that I had done
retention research, built schedules, developed policy and procedure manuals,
trained staff, etc. The club was much more exclusive then and there were
fewer people applying, so it seems a lot more time was spent vetting
candidates to ensure they were appropriately skilled to become certified.
Given some of the questions I've seen posted here over the past few years by
SOME (and it's a small percentage of mainly newly minted CRMs) individuals
with the designation, it makes me wonder at times how could anyone with the
necessary skills and knowledge to apply and pass the tests ask questions
like that?
But what can I say? We see that type of thing happening in the Government
(on both sides of the aisle, thank you very much) every day... so I guess I
shouldn't be surprised.
Larry
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--
William W. LeFevre, CA, CRM
Reference Archivist, Walter P. Reuther Library
Interdisciplinary Faculty, Library & Information Science Program
Wayne State University
5401 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48202
313.577.2789 (Voice)
313.577.4300 (FAX)
website: www.reuther.wayne.edu
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