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Re: Who is ACA's President?



1/4/01

Charles (and listservers),

      As Charles reminded me again--Lee Stout was never pres. of ACA.  My apologies to everyone for inadvertantly transposing Lee Stout for Lee Miller related to earlier comments about the certification process.   Can't figure out how that happened?  

     So, Charles, to pick up on your mention of the CRM process for certifying records managers, when I took my current job almost 12 years ago, I wrote my own job description and divided my responsibilities (on paper) evenly between archivist and records manager.   As many of you know from doing both archives and records management, the records management component of my job has taken over the majority of my time ever since.

      From my experiences conducting NYC labor records surveys for the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU, I realized the critical importance of appraising labor records by developing and applying retention schedules for labor records before transferring them to an archives repository.  Today I feel even more strongly about the importance of utilizing records management guidelines within our archives  programs.  How can any good archivist think otherwise?  ( I only wish that records managers felt as strongly about utilizing archives knowledge within records management programs!)

      Anyway,  when I first became a member of NYC ARMA (Assoc. of Records Managers & Administrators) in 1990, and took records management-related workshops, I quizzed others about the importance or need for becoming a CRM.  Overwhelmingly I was told that the CRM was perceived as mostly for those few records managers who were climbing the career ladder or running for national office.  Even today, a very small percentage (approx. 1,000 or so) of ARMA members (who total about 10,000 members) are CRM.        
    
      So, evidently most people working in records management jobs do not feel that there is a compelling need to undertake the CRM process.  Personally, I feel that my archives training and experience gave me a superior background for being able to carry out the goals of a good records management program.  From ARMA meetings and on-going discussions with other records management professionals, there is a very large *archival gap* in their understanding of historical records within their organizations.  

      Your comment that "ultimately archival certificatin will reach a status similar to records management certification where a very large percentage of employers either require or prefer certification" is just not borne out by all the job listings.  I remember from reviewing ARMA job listing over the past few years that most do not list the CRM as either required or preferred.  It seemed to me, at that time, that only very high corporate level records positions, tended to even mention the CRM.  Perhaps it is a similar situation with the archival CA designation?

      A directly related concern ( which many of us have pondered)--
although SAA and ARMA have a joint roundtable to discuss common concerns,  most of it's impetus comes from archivists, not records managers.  Perhaps this is simply because archivists take the *long view.*   Archivists need records managers to incorporate archival considerations, or the historical memory is destroyed. How can we get records people to reach out more to archivists for information or incorporate archival concerns within their programs? This has always been an extremely important consideration as we try to maintain a more complete historical record of our times--and as our records professions become more allied with each other.  

      Anyway, the point that you made Charles about looking at the CRM process in a related discipline has been made continuously over the past dozen years and can be instructive to archivists.  If most records professionals are not certified, then how does that bode for the archival community?  My earlier comments about studying the *need* for archival certification, i.e. direct benefits of the CA designation,  as well as analysing ACA's membership are relevant here.     

      Thanks again for your comments and hope that the coming year is a good one for us all.  Someone told me of a recent toast:  "May the best of 2001 be the worst of 2002."              Hope so--                 Sincerely,  Lucinda

(Always wondered if you're a baseball fan, since you're at Texas A & M---my oldest nephew, Jace Brewer, my sister's kid, played shortstop on Baylor Univ.'s Big 12 winning team a couple of years ago.  He got a big million $ contract with Tampa Bay Devil Rays as a Baylor Soph. and has played for the Charleston River Dogs the past two seasons.)