October 18, 1990
Dear Everyone:
Rough weather ahead.
This is not to say that we’re likely to get rain anytime soon.
We’re still stuck in summer down here.
I’m still using the sun screen for the windshield of my car.
I got one of the first that come out and it’s beginning to
approach disintegration level.
I kept meaning to buy a new one, but now that I’m actually
looking for one, none of the stores are carrying them anymore.
“Jeannie” says this is because it’s a “summer item” (and Kmart
has it’s Christmas trees on display already).
I say, Get real!
Summer is the only season California has, just as the only season
Oregon has is rainy. So the
other night, I took the sun screen inside with me and taped it all back
together, with extra tape at the major stress points.
Now it’s good as new, more or less.
I wish someone could tape up
my stress points.
Which brings us back to rough weather.
Projects to be completed by the end of the year:
The Billing System
This is really “Ashley Holtz’s” project.
It has been stressed that
he is responsible for having the system in place by January 1, 1991.
However, “Ashley” is too busy doing other things (like being
president of the local chapter of ARMA), so he asked “Alma” if I could
be assigned to “help” him.
What this means is that I do all the work, like meeting with people and
learning more about the “Administrative Nonsense” billing system (which
we are going to “clone” and rework for our use) and Corp “Bean Counters”
and Payroll “Bean Counters” and UCA codes (which reminds me, I still
don’t know what UCA stands for) and
statistics-do-we-want-to-keep-them-or-not than I ever wanted to know.
Also, CITC says that in order to have the system in place by
January 1, they have to have answers to all kinds of questions that I
don’t know how (or what) to ask by the middle of October, which, you
might have noticed, is a little behind us.
The ARMA Convention
The Association of Records Managers and Administrators,
International Convention is here, in San Francisco, the first week of
November. I’m expected to
attend (my first convention) as much as possible and to volunteer as
much as possible. There goes
a week’s worth of office hours.
IDI
These are the people who developed “BUSiness”, the software
foundation for “DHS”, our online indexing system.
They’re interested in developing a Records Retention and
Destruction system. Company
has agreed to work with them, with the idea that, if we like what they
come up with, we’ll get a price break for letting them pick our brains.
3 days, second week in November.
“IDHS” Global Organization Validity Table
After months of haggling, my Organization Review Team (ORT) is
ready to start building the Table.
At an average of 5 minutes per entry, 25,000 entries to evaluate,
edit and upgrade will take us about 2100 hours to complete.
Somehow, I don’t think we’ll have it done before the end of the
year. Actually, it was
supposed to be done by last June, but who’s counting.
Retention Schedule Tracking System
This is my own fault, since I originally made the suggestion.
We haven’t really started on it, but it has to be done before the
CITC people who are/will be working on it get reassigned early next
year.
El Segundo Refinery
Those dear, sweet people are just
waiting for me to send them
my recommendations for improving their system.
As soon as they get it, they’ll take off like a rocket.
Sure wish I could find the time to write it.
Destruction
“Chris’s” idea of sending the Destruction Reviews to the managers
with “Robin Parson’s”name on the cover letter really did pay off.
People who would normally toss the review in the waste basket as
soon as they received it have actually done the work and sent it back to
me. Which means towers of
paper for me to process (I do love to keep busy).
Miscellaneous
“Alma”, in her infinite wisdom, made me the backup to “Rowena
Chandler” (Schedules and Owner History as well as the ARMA monthly
dinner reservations), “Kevin Polse” (ADHS) and good old “Ashley Holtz”
who gets me to do as much as he can.
The result: I’m so
busy backing all of them up that I don’t have any time to spend on my
own work.
However, I have hit upon something that seems to be
effective: I simply stay
here at work until 6:00 or 7:00 each night.
By working 2-3 hours longer each day, I’m actually starting to
get up to the top of my pile.
It’s wearing me out and my diet and exercise plan has gone out
the double-pane window, but it may just be worth it.
“Alma” seems to have gotten the hint.
Yesterday, she took some insignificant paper work that she would
normally have had me do and give it to “Jane” “because you’re so busy
right now”.
I told “Jeannie” all about this the other night and
she said: “It’s all so
familiar. I hear the same
thing from my other relatives.
Just fill in the name.”
So I know I’m not alone.
Love, as always,
Pete
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