RIM Thought

 Are you challenged in finding a way to move from a “job” in the Records and Information Management field to a “career” in the field?  In earlier years, I certainly was challenged to do just that.  My efforts at that time focused on attaining a CRM certification – something that has proven to be very valuable, and later to incorporate a CDIA+ certification.  However, in seeking additional training and education, I had no tools available that would allow me to assess where I stood, nor any specific pointers to resources that would allow me to supplement that training and education.  Today, as I continue that “life long learning” effort in which many of us engage, I’m happy to have new tools that I’m able to use.  Those tools are available to ARMA members, through the self assessment that measures my progress against a developed set of competencies.Just a few days ago, ARMA International announced the launch of a RIM Self-Assessment tool.  That new tool is designed to provide RIM professionals with the ability to assess their strengths and to identify gaps in their skills and knowledge.  Not only does that tool provide an assessment, but it also points to resources that will allow RIM professionals with the ability to locate resources that will allow professionals to fill those gaps and to move forward in their careers. 

There are a few items to note in using the assessment, including:

• You must be a member of ARMA International.
• The assessment will open in a new browser window, so be sure your pop-up blocker is set to allow the connection.
• Log in using your email address and ARMA International member password. You will be taken to the RIM Self-Assessment to begin. Save your results any time by moving to the next page in the assessment. Your assessment will be saved and you can refer to it and your results at any time.

For more complete information on the Self Assessment Tool, see this link on the ARMA web site.  Then, get started in taking greater control over the progress of your career!

How much education is enough for those of us in the field of Records and Information Management?  How much training is sufficient?  How many certifications and how many certificates are really required of us?  These are all valid questions and questions that are not answered easily.

My memory on the above topic goes back to the days of my college graduation.  One of the themes that I recall from my college graduation, in the last millennium, was that education was life long process and not one where a degree signified the end of learning.  Since I was not an outstanding student in those days, I recall that my reaction to hearing that was to hope that the graduation speaker in question was mistaken.  He wasn’t mistaken at all, and if anything, he underestimated what would be required of the graduating class of 1973.

Education and training have proven very important in my career and have made a significant difference to those who seek success in their careers in Records and Information Management.  Alan A. Andolsen, CMC, CRM, President of the Institute of Certified Records Managers made that point quite successfully to those who gathered for the ICRM Reception at the ARMA Conference in Baltimore.  He provided clear and convincing information about how those who had advanced degrees and those who had attained the status of CRM had prospered in recent years.  I recall being very impressed with the percentage of members of the ICRM who had earned advanced degrees.  Alan quite persuasively pointed to the link between education, training, certification and income during his presentation. 

Given Alan’s analysis, what should we as Records and Information Management Professionals do?  I would recommend that we do the following:

• Document your career goals

• Assess how well your education, training, certifications and experience match the competencies you need to demonstrate to move forward toward those career goals
• Develop your own education plan to fill the gaps
• Involve your employer to the extent that you can, and incorporate your plans into your development goals and performance objectives
• Periodically reassess where you are, reassess your competencies, and continue to fill the gaps created when new areas of knowledge become important to the profession

My own goals are often income based.  Your goals may have much more to do with the level of responsibility that you have within your organization, the growth and influence of your R.I.M. program, or the next job title that you hope to target.  Those goals are fundamental to the second step. 

The second step of assessment requires some measuring stick against which you can judge your progress to date.  Fortunately, ARMA International (http://www.arma.org/) has established a set of competencies now, and will soon have an assessment tool available for its members.  We will have something to measure ourselves against for the first time in the history of our profession.  Hopefully, many of us will be able to use that tool to enable us to better plan for our own professional development.

Once that assessment is complete, making progress will depend on where the gaps exist for each one of us.  ARMA will certainly focus attention on providing what education it can for its members, but members will need to determine their own educational priorities.  Since education is never “free”, each of us will likely need to involve our employers and to leverage their interest in our development.  Whether that education plan includes the pursuit of the CRM as the high level certification that it is, whether it includes the pursuit of a number of certificates offered by other associations, and whether it includes additional higher education, we will undoubtedly want to avail ourselves of any resources that may be available through our employers.

Documenting that education and training can be important – if not for your current position, for the next position you seek.  Documentation can be in the form of a degree, an advanced degree (e.g. MBA), or a certification, like the CRM, or CA, or CMC or PMP.  It can also incorporate specific certificates that individuals have attained in areas like Enterprise Content Management, Business Process Management, or other areas that provide value to an individual and to an employer.

 For those who embark on a path of improving their career path by continuing their education, by achieving certification in the field, my congratulations.  The only caveat that I have for any and for all of us is that continuing education is a necessity if we hope to advance in our careers; it is not a luxury.  Our field of endeavor is sufficiently broad that the advancement of technology, changes in our professional environment and changes in business practices and regulation will continue to challenge us all. 

I’m excited about what ARMA International has been doing to work with existing partners and to recruit additional partners to work with the association!  There are many groups with which ARMA has either marketing or true partnering arrangements, and they are already bearing fruit as the Association promotes both our profession and our Association.  Hopefully, those efforts will continue to bear fruit, as we seek to:

Is Records and Information Management a profession, or is it an industry?  I suspect that the answer depends largely on your perspective.  Some of us who happen to be vendors, those who supply practitioners with the software, hardware, services and materials needed to function might view it as both profession and industry.  According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a profession is “an occupation or career” and according to Wikipedia, a profession is “an occupation, vocation or career where specialized knowledge of a subject, field or science is applied.  On the other hand, an industry is “a basic category of business activity,” according to Investorwords.com.   

My personal view is that it is a profession, not an industry.  Those who are practitioners and those who consider themselves to be career vendor professionals both engage in the occupation as a career where specialized knowledge is required, where specific competencies are needed to ensure the success of our endeavors.  I believe that it would be quite challenging to persuade those who manufacture steel shelving for records storage centers to agree that they are in the “same industry” as those who provide Enterprise Content Management software.  ECM tools, shelving, outsourced services are all tools used by the profession, and do not comprise an “industry”.

How one views “this thing of ours” called Records and Information Management has a great deal to do with the expectations that we might have when we form, join or participate in an Association.  For most of us, I believe that we join or participate in order to advance our careers within our chosen or adopted “profession”, not to further a specific “industry”.  Our expectations are that our Associations actively promote the cause of a viable and vibrant profession, and that they serve to further our educational needs – as we continue to seek that specialized knowledge and the specialized skills that we need to ensure our individual and collective success.

Profession or industry?  While some may consider our endeavor an industry, I remain committed to viewing it as a profession.

As a member of the ARMA Board, I’m often asked about what “ARMA is doing”.  Hopefully, for those who land on this site, some of what I’m summarizing here will help answer that question, in so far as education is concerned.  I’ll deal with additional areas of ARMA International activity in subsequent postings.  Hopefully, those who read this will also come to believe that ARMA International may not be in the business of deluging its members with press releases, but that it is fully engaged in pursuing its objectives.

• Most important to serving Records and Information Management as a profession, ARMA released its competencies document at the October ARMA Conference.  The Association’s Education Development Committee is engaged in developing a self-assessment, so that all of us can determine where we are with respect to those competencies.  Importantly, next year’s ARMA Conference sessions will focus on the various areas of competence required of R.I.M. professionals and will provide information on which level of competence is addressed by each session.  ARMA International Education Sessions will be traceable to specific competencies, and we hope that regions and chapters will begin to use the competencies to allow members to address their specific educational needs.  You can learn more about the competencies at:  http://www.arma.org/news/enewsletters/index.cfm?ID=2157

• With regard to next year’s Conference in Las Vegas, the Program Committee is working hard to solidify sessions for the October 20 – 23 Conference.  For those of us who have attended in recent years, we have noted a constant level of improvement in the value of the educational sessions, the quality of the speakers (including keynote speakers), and the increased participation of vendors.  It’s not yet time to publicize the conference, but you can learn more at:   http://www.arma.org/conference/2008/index.cfm

• More immediately, ARMA has an E-Discovery Conference, entitled “E-Discovery & Beyond” scheduled for March 31 and April 1, 2008.  This conference has been designed to provide real value to participants and to focus on what executives, managers and professionals need to know.  Notably, this is NOT designed to be a thinly veiled pitch for software purchases.

• For those unable to travel, there’s a key Web Seminar that will be held on February 12^th  on the topic of automated classification systems.  The focus of this session is again on the “meat” of what Records and Information Managers need to know about such systems. Information about the Web Seminar can be found on the ARMA International web site at:  http://www.arma.org/learningcenter/webseminars/index.cfm?EventID=WSAUTO-CLASSIFICATION

Happy 2008! I’m going to try something new for me that others have attempted as well – a blog. Hopefully, as I continue to be involved with ARMA International and with Records and Information Management (R.I.M.), this blog will prove useful for my continuing education and will be useful to those who regard our endeavor as a profession and as a calling. This first “real posting” is quite specific – I promise, though to mix some more general discussions in with some of the specific topics over the next 12 months or so.

This first serious posting focuses on the specifics of ARMA International’s Strategic Plan. As an ARMA Board member, this is one of the topics on which I focus. It’s important…or should be…to ARMA members because it drives how we spend member dues money and other Association revenue. It drives the budgeting process, the activities of our talented staff and the focus of our volunteer leaders.

ARMA International has engaged in a Strategic Planning process for a number of years. That process has grown more rigorous over time and has been designed to guide the Association’s efforts to serve its members and to serve the broader community of Records and Information Management professionals. Any ARMA member wishing to read through the specifics relating to the plan can find it on the ARMA web site at:
http://www.arma.org/myarma/governance/strategicplan.cfm?key=strategy . On that site, ARMA International members can read through the Association’s Vision, it’s Mission and its Goals, as well as gaining an understanding of the issues which we face as R.I.M. professionals, and how ARMA International addresses those issues through its Strategic Initiatives, and its Operational Plans. You’ll note that the Association focuses on our community as a profession, not as an “industry”.

The Association’s planning process requires substantial member input. That input is geither through formalized surveys of its members and through less formal requests for member input. This year the focus will be on that less formal input from our membership. That effort is now underway, and the Board of Directors will revisit its current Strategic Plan during the summer of 2008.

I am taking advantage of this as an opportunity to ask the five key questions on this blog as a means of continuing to gather information from ARMA members. I would like to encourage anyone reading this posting to respond to it, and to leave me with their thoughts on any or all of the questions noted below.

Ok, here are the questions:

(1) As an ARMA member, how do you determine ARMA International’s success with regard to standards development, R.I.M. awareness and education?
(2) Do you agree that standards, R.I.M. awareness and education should be ARMA International’s top priorities? If not, what should be?
(3) What other issues affecting the R.I.M. profession should be considered (for the radar screen)?
(4) What do you think are the appropriate levels of communication re: strategies, products and services? If not, how could we better communicate?
(5) What effect does the global business environment have on you and your organization?

Ok, those are the questions. For anyone who would like to respond, feel free to do so here. Also feel free, if you would prefer to send an email note to me at doug.allen@global360.com.

This will serve as my first posting….. As a Director on the ARMA International Board of Directors, I have a great interest in learning more about what others think about a wide variety of Records and Information Management topics. I’ll do some posting regarding some of the issues of the day, as they relate to the profession and as they relate to ARMA International – but be advised that I don’t speak FOR ARMA International, I’m one of 16 Board members, and only the ARMA International President can speak for the Association!

As I launch this effort, I have absolutely no idea where it may lead, if anywhere, but I am interested in fairly open discussion, and hope that something that appears here will be of value to others!