Snip from Larry:

> As for whether KM has a place under the IG umbrella, it well might, given
> the size of this new uber-umbrella.  But as Patrick Cunningham
> appropriately said yesterday, part of the problem with IG is as time goes
> along, it seems as if everyone thinks everything belongs under its
> ever-growing umbrella... and like many other projects, if you fail to
> control scope creep, it gets out of hand and loses sight of its original
> objectives. Attempting to be all things to all people frequently results in
> something being nothing to anyone.
> 
There, is the fundamental problem. If IG grows into this great new occupation with much more power than what a records manager currently possesses, would they even allow a records manager to interview for the position. As the industry evolved with Knowledge Management and Information Management, guess what happened, a whole new C-Level office was create........the CIO.

How many records managers currently control these CIO positions? As Risk Management and the control of the information in the IT environment and the risk to the organization in general became a concern a whole new level of management was created....  The Risk Manager.

If this new position of The Information Governor develops who will lay claim to it?   If you came into my office to interview for this position, what would your sales pitch contain?

[Yuck! Sales Pitch???  We are not salesmen! ]

And therein lies the problem, every interview is a sales pitch.  I tell anyone who asks for career advice about what courses to take in college and I always say “No matter what take courses in Salesmanship, Public Speaking and a course that will help you create marketing materials. Because the Eye of the Needle on any career is the job interview.

Who can convince management that you are no longer a records manager but in fact an organizational manager of the scale of the CIO? 

Carol Choksy said:
"
> The government's response was that since we could point to only 10,000 and not 100,000, they would not create a new occupational series. 

If you keep re-branding records management into all these sexier titles you dilute the real value of the occupation ( Knowledge Manager, Information Governator, Information Manager, Digital Assets Manager, IT Manager)   but you also lose visibility. You don’t need new titles, you need to market what you do in a more effective manner. 

If records managers had hired a marketing firm or public relations firm back in 1980 and devoted a significant portion of your budget to promoting the value of the Records Management function, used political clout to jump in front of Sarbanes Oxley and other legislation while hoisting the RM Baton, these other competing titles might never have emerged.

Quite frankly I am amazed that after all this time only 10,000 RM’s exist. Quite frankly I have always believed in records management. I just think you lack a good advertising agency.

> Like I said, I "get" the whole governance thing... I just don't buy into
> the re-branding or creation of a whole new set of principles instead of
> fine tuning what existed.
> 
> Larry
> [log in to unmask]

Alan Andolsen knew how to market records management and he was trusted by some of the largest corporations to come in and help them fix records management problems. He made it a Grand Occupation because he could illustrate the terrible things that happen when you don’t manage your information assets and records assets.

I have high hopes that Carol and the new ARMA Board might take records management into the Board Room in a new way. Her start in DC might prove very beneficial. 

Carol, spend some time talking to Bob Johnson of NAID as he is superb at marketing an association. In 1990 who knew of NAID? In 2013 NAID sits on every legislative committee and they control their own destiny and NAID is the first to develop a Certification program in information management and destruction.  Bob Johnson ( [log in to unmask] ) was the architect of that program and ARMA could learn from Bob how to promote your organization in a positive way.

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM


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]