Maybe
(see Peter I can leave off the previous statement. Now can you take the
lien off my car that you placed there :) )

Glenn, I was not saying that the relative importance of RM was going to
be large or small. I was trying to say that, rather than let time
determine our fate in the future, we need to take a greater role in
determining our fate. If our role is to be small, then so be it.

I used to tell administrators that during implementation, RM was going
to be costly, time consuming and at times difficult. I followed by
saying that if it was done correctly nobody would even know who the
Records Manager was when the program was completely operational. This
falls well into your bleak outlook.

Were we to define a more strategic role and integrate it into the
standard business process, that reality might change.

Prognostication is, as any Astros fan can tell you, a difficult
endeavor.

I do know that our role will be diminished if we continue to let others
define what we do. Here in the States we allow legislative staff,
legislators, lawyers, the courts, business executives and a myriad of
others define the world of records management. They think they know RM
because there is no authoritative body to tell them otherwise. If a
pilot says X is true, a manager in the Accounts Payable Dept. is not
going to contest it. The same is true of a CPA, an electrician, or a
plumber.

I believe that when a legislator is trying to write a law regarding
Records, they must consult a qualified records "professional". They
should not go to a lawyer or an IT person to ask about record integrity
until the RM professional has had input.

Will KM be the Big Dog in the future? You should ask my son, he picked
the White Sox.

Chris Flynn

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