April 8, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Welcome to National Records and Information
Management Week (NRIMW)!
You probably didn’t know that this was NRIMW, did
you? Not to worry, neither
do most people. Where did
National Records and Information Management Week come from?
Well, naturally, it grew out of National Records and Information
Management Day.
You see, some years ago, someone introduced a bill
in Congress to create a National Records Management Day.
This type of bill is one of Congress’s favorites.
They almost always pass with little or no discussion, much less
opposition because, frankly, no one really cares about it.
Someone introduces a bill to make the second Tuesday of March
“National Fill-in-the-Blank Day”.
The bill passes and everyone is happy.
However, in the case of National Records Management
Day, they caught some unexpected flak.
No sooner was “National Records Management Day” announced here in
the United States than the Canadians and the Australians went ballistic.
How dare the Americans
try to appropriate Records Management as some sort of "US-only”
property! (The Canadians and
Australians seem to take their records very seriously.
Or, at least, their records managers do.)
Did the Yanks think their
records were more important than anyone else’s?
“No, no.
Of course not!” was the immediate response.
Anyone was welcome to
participate in National Records Management Day.
Come one, come all.
The Canadians were more than welcome to join.
Ditto the Australians.
Shucks, even the
Serbs could be
a part of National Records Management Day if they weren’t too busy
driving their neighbors out of the country.
Only somewhat mollified, the “non-US” folk then
wanted to know what made the Americans think they could solve all their
Records Management problems in just one day.
Go ahead and try to explain how “National Fill-in-the-Blank Day”
is just a way to try and draw attention to one thing or another.
In next to no time, the “Day” had expanded to a “Week”.
(This is similar to the nonsense that started “Take
Our Daughters to Work Day”, only it didn’t need an act of Congress
to get it started.)
And, while we’re at it, it’s not just
Records Management, it’s Records and
Information Management, thank you very much.
So now we’re trying to draw people’s attention to Records and
Information Management for an entire week.
This in a country where the national attention-span is measured
in “bites”.
As for why you’ve probably never even heard of
“National Records Management Day” despite all the Congressperson’s
efforts, let’s face it: Not
even Hallmark
can come up with a line of greeting cards to celebrate Records
Management.
In other news…
After a pep talk at work about
ergonomics, I realized that one reason my leg has been hurting is
probably because I’ve been using the terribly expensive ergonomically
correct chair at work incorrectly.
(Operator error.
Replace operator and press any key to continue…)
This brought my attention to the work “situation” at home.
After spending all that money on a new computer and cart, why was
I still sitting in a dining room chair to work on the computer?
And, while we’re at it, why was I still using a
dining chair at my dressing table?
Off I went to an office supply store and bought two new “task”
chairs, complete with hydraulic lifts and casters.
Amazing difference.
Why didn’t I do this four or five years ago?
(Answer: Because
“that’s the way we’ve always done it.”)
Apart from buying and assembling new chairs last
weekend, my greatest achievement was resetting all of “Jeannie’s” clocks
for
Daylight Saving Time and helping her put the horizontal blinds back
up after the painting project.
By the way, “Jeannie’s” cat, Monroe, is looking much healthier
and has put on some much-needed weight.
Still working on getting the files transferred from
Oberon to Phineas and getting Oberon up to “Jeannie’s” place.
And the new
treadmill is working out great.
I’m up to 2.2 mph for 45 minutes three times per week.
Now if I can just find the time to take in a movie before the new
Star Wars comes out.
Love, as always,
Pete
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