I have read several books that were thrillers that had little  
incidents where the twist had a records management component.

For example in Ginny's post about documenting destruction, suppose  
you set up a company by sending boxes for destruction but what was in  
those boxes was something else, and the RM helped the real records  
survive.  Now you and your duplicitous partner sue your corporation,  
they claim the records were destroyed. You alter the Chain of Custody.

I know a records managers testimony on the accuracy of Batch Records  
saved a big Pharm $80 million.  That is powerful.  She got a raise.

But low and behold, in our case above the records turn up at the last  
minute and the plaintiff moves for summary judgement on the basis you  
suppressed or hid the information.

Data Mapping requires you to know what you have and where you have  
it.  A while back a company I know told a judge they did not have  
something but it turned out that they were given a destruction  
certificate but the documents lived on.  (Who knows what was  
shredded??)  This almost caused a mistrial when things were almost  
buttoned up.  Imagine the legal expenses of a second trial?

But to see your value, what damage could you inflict if that was your  
goal.  No fair submitting burning down the entire records center.   
Someone is already the King of that "Been there and done that."

IT can put a virus in or leave a back door in the software.  But what  
can a records manager do that would make it into a spy novel.

Or is IT such a redundant coverage of the records that the RM would  
have a hard time making records disappear.  But certainly you could  
be complicit in competitive data gathering or sabotage. But almost  
anybody could do that.  Just ask Dupont.

If you want a raise, then you need to analyze what it is you  
safeguard against or what you could do.? For example, law firms are  
really slacker on litigation materials, if you went in with the  
cleaning crew the week before a trial you could walk out with  
everything.  They just keep it in closets?  Does that make sense?   
The whole case gone.  What would the judge do?  In Prudential they  
gave them 30 days and the stuff came back one way or the other after  
a couple of records center fires as I recall.

But can a RM really be bad?  This could be three beers talk in  
Baltimore if we ever get a Listserve Party resolved.

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM


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On Sep 20, 2007, at 12:01 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system wrote:

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