After looking at their photos, I think Steve Whitaker’s philosophy has spread nationwide. (Boxes stacked haphazardly, some sitting in puddles of water.)

It would be difficult to store records in any worse fashion than this Town’s lackadaisical manner; other than at the bottom of a Louisiana Bayou.

I believe the politicians have established attitudes that are spreading; that how you store it or even if you deliberately destroy it, it is fine.

Government was always the one place you could find respect for the written record.  From Town Halls, to City Archives, to County Archives to State Archives, records were respected and protected.

Too many kids grow up thinking Wikipedia is the last word on any topic so who needs real reference sources, or fact checking.  If one is diligent, they can keep changing the Internet Resource pages on topics. There is no require for authority or gravitas on many of these resource pages.  So why should they care if the real records that verify the actual fact fade away in pool of roof leakage and mold.

ARMA missed a chance some years ago to develop a “Bully Pulpit” based on their own Gravitas on records management and now there is a void.  ISO Standards and NFPA Standards tell you how to protect things, not if you should. The Federal Judges were prescient when they changed their focus to protecting Electronic Records and supporting Electronic Discovery: E-Discovery.

Even NARA seems to be less of an influence in the Industry. Everyone has loss their focus.  Maybe the move by NFPA and ISO to provide serious guidance of Standards for protecting Electronic Records is the wave of the future and Steve has won.  I feel like I did when we bought our first TV and all of a sudden we stopped listening to “The Shadow” on the radio and Jack Benny. 

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow does!!!!”  Radio once put the Fear of Alien Invasion into our minds so effectively that people ran into the streets in panic! Now we drift off to sleep, on the couch, listening to the “Voice”; hardly even moved that the twins were voted off.”


Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults 
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