Your Own Compelling Story: Records Coordinator Network at ARMA by Sue Trombley

In Chicago last year, I moderated a panel of RIM professionals using the Henny Penny or Chicken Licken story to allay our audience's fears that the sky is not falling around them: a RIM program doesn't have to be perfect to be defensible good enough may suffice provided it has the proper support and is practiced consistently.

This year I will be a panelist on the How to Establish and Sustain a Records Coordinator Community educational program along with representatives from Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, Marathon Petroleum, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and Gimmal. Our story is not a cautionary tale, as was Aesop's Henny Penny, but rather a celebration of a community of practice that works to connect your organization's information with your employees - and manages your records so that the sky doesn't fall.

The story behind the panel begins with a Chicago educational session during which Dr. Susan Cisco and I presented our findings about the current state of records coordinator networks as derived from a survey completed by CRMs. It was such a hot topic that we had more people than seats in our presentation space! At the conclusion of the allotted hour, we asked the attendees if they wanted to hear more about what their peers are doing to implement and maintain a network and we heard a resounding yes . In fact, here is a quote from a participant, I'd like to hear more of the nitty, gritty, dirty, down in the coal mine, realities of what has been experienced in real life!

In response to that request, this year our panelists will share our records coordinator network stories - what it took to get their programs started and how they continue to nourish and sustain them. We will share lessons learned along the way and provide advice as to how to push through potential roadblocks in organizations both for organizations that conduct business in a single country as well as those with multiple locations spread across the globe. Some examples of what we've learned:

Host quarterly records coordinator meetings or workshops and in between those times stay in touch through collaboration tools

Recognize individual records coordinator contributions through formal and informal means

Get middle management involved

Dig a deep trench for communication with IT

No two organizations are alike, but without a doubt there is one constant component for success - executive level support of the RIM program. If you do not yet have them on your side, this session will help you write your own compelling story for a records coordinator network based on the experiences of your peers.

See you in Vegas!

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2013/service-lines/records-management-an...
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