April 19, 2013
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie’s” broken elbow appears to be healing nicely.
She only uses the sling when she goes out, as a visual signal to
people to not bump into her.
And when she does wear it, it is typically decorated with a piece of
vintage costume jewelry, as a touch of class.
She’s even talking about going back to work, if the doctor
approves it next week.
“Working” is one thing.
Hauling around fifty pounds worth of equipment is another.
We’ll see what the doctor says.
Speaking of “working”, I went to an ARMA Seminar yesterday.
(For those of you with short memories, ARMA is the Association of
Records Managers and Administrators.)
It took place in a large conference room in a high-rise building
in downtown Oakland, compliments of a prestigious law firm.
While some companies are trying to pretend that they don’t “need”
Records Management, lawyers are vividly aware of just how important
records are, especially if you can’t find one when you need it; so they
tend to be more supportive of all things ARMA.
As Seminars go, it wasn’t huge, a few dozen attendees and around 6-8
vendors, each with “freebies”, also known as “handouts”, “giveaways” or,
as “Jeannie” calls them, “beads and trinkets”.
I don’t bother with the free pens anymore.
I don’t use pens all that often, just pencils; and the computer,
of course.
But I did pick up a
hand sanitizer spray in the general shape of a pen.
Can’t have too many of those.
And I did notice someone using a pen that lights up.
One company was giving away little wire-bound notebooks with
attached plastic zippered pocket, with the vendor’s business card
already in the pocket. I saw
several people busily taking notes with theirs.
Also, cloth bags. A cloth
bag is useful in so many ways.
Especially now that grocery stores are
selling cloth bags (with
their logo on them) in anticipation of upcoming state laws requiring
them to charge customers for “free” plastic bags.
In fact, I have one canvas bag that I picked up at the ARMA
International Conference over twenty years ago that’s still in great
shape. I use it to haul ARMA
things around in the trunk of my car.
The bags vary from one company to another, just like pens, post-it pads
and little packages of breath mints.
One cloth bag is little more than a sack with handles and a logo
(Power Over Information!)
But it will hold things just fine.
Another is made of much sterner stuff, with a zippered pocket on
the outside and a large flap with a Velcro fastener.
Under the flap is an assortment of pockets and slots that can hold
business cards and pens, even that little notebook.
Or they can hold
crochet hooks and a small pair of scissors.
With plenty of room in the central space for yarn and an ongoing
project. And an outside
pocket specially made to hold a water bottle.
All topped off with an adjustable shoulder strap.
Advertising what? Another
Information (Records) Management consulting firm who would be happy to
come in to your company and charge you thousands of dollars to tell you
how to manage your records/information; advice that your company will
then proceed to ignore.
All of the vendors had some kind of
raffle to give away more prizes.
All they wanted was your business card.
You might think since I don’t have a job, I don’t have “business
cards”. Silly.
Of course I have cards.
All it takes is a computer, color printer and printing stock from
the big Office Supply Warehouse Store.
I even won a prize: A
Starbucks gift card that I will turn over to “Jeannie”, since I don’t
drink coffee. I might even
give her one of the cloth bags.
As for the Seminar, the overall “theme” was
Data Privacy, a term that is
in vogue these days. And all
four of the Speakers were able to spend over an hour talking about it
without stepping on each other’s toes.
So now I know more than I did about protecting personal data.
Plus I have another spray hand sanitizer.
And a nifty bag.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |