February 6, 2015
Dear Everyone:
“When you’re up to your armpits in alligators it’s sometimes difficult
to remember that your main objective is to drain the swamp.”
Last year, when “Callie” was still the President of the
Mt Diablo
Chapter of ARMA International, she decided to host a Workshop for people
who were Candidates to become Certified Records Managers.
A Candidate is someone who has qualified to take the CRM Exam.
This means they have the necessary combination of education and
experience to even start taking the Exam.
The Exam itself consists of five 100-question tests, one-hour
each, followed by a four-hour two-part essay exam.
The Candidate must pass all five multi-question tests in order to
take the final essay part.
Once the Candidate passes all six parts of the Exam, they become a
Certified Records Manager.
Needless to say, it’s not exactly a walk in the park.
It requires a substantial commitment from the Candidate.
Just qualifying costs money, as does each part of the Exam.
Over time, various individuals have offered “training” in how to
pass the tests. Not the
answers, of course; qualifying to take the Exam presupposes the
knowledge needed. But a lot
of people have trouble taking tests.
One of these Instructors, we’ll call him “Stanley”, is actually a member
of our Chapter. He was quite
willing to devote a day to the Workshop, at $400.
When you think about it that comes out to about $50 per hour.
“Callie” figured that was a bargain.
But then “Callie” rather suddenly left the Chapter and went scampering
off to northern Idaho, with her husband and multiple
sled-pulling
huskies. And left the rest
of us at the Mt Diablo Chapter sort of holding the bag.
At first we decided to “poll” our “Members and Friends” to see if there
was enough interest to go forward with the idea.
About a half-dozen people indicated that they would like to
attend such a Workshop.
Next, we needed a venue.
Originally, “Callie” had planned to use her employer’s big conference
room, but that went away with “Callie”.
On the other hand, my community boasts an “Executive Clubhouse”,
which I could get for a song, or $50 at least.
So we went ahead and set up the Registration for last Thursday.
One problem was how much to charge?
“Stanley” would cost $400.
If we got five or more attendees, we could get away with $85
each. Much more than that
might scare some people away.
On the other hand, if we charged too little, or didn’t get enough
people, we would lose money.
Rather to my surprise we actually did get five people to sign up.
That settled that.
However, because it would be an all-day class, we had to provide food
and drink for the students.
I knew from experience that once you get people into a class, you don’t
want to give them an excuse to “drift off” during breaks.
So, breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, plus beverages,
would be required.
Breakfast, of course, means coffee.
The nearest Starbucks is at least a mile away.
But I know someone (“Jeannie”) who has one of those
single-serving coffee makers.
Some juice, fruits and pastry should do.
At first I planned to go to the bakery and pick up an assortment
of pastries. Then I
remembered Grandmother’s Almond Pastry, which is phenomenally easier to
make than it looks.
Sandwiches and chips for lunch.
There’s a small deli near where I used to live, just down the
hill. I could get a copy of
their menu, let people choose what sandwiches they wanted, then fax the
order in and go pick it all up at lunchtime.
Or I could just pick up some freshly sliced meats and cheeses and
a couple loaves of bread.
Instead of chips, I realized that this was a golden opportunity to make
my renowned potato salad (world-famous, locally.)
In fact, when I informed “Jeannie” that I was going to be
“borrowing” her coffee maker, she stipulated that the “cost” would be at
least one or two servings of potato salad for her.
That just left an afternoon snack.
I have dozens of cookie recipes.
When I proposed to the Chapter Board, during our last meeting a week
before the Workshop, they readily agreed to pay for meals.
After all, our mission is to promote excellence in
Records and
Information Management, not to make a profit off the Workshop.
In fact, our Treasurer gave me a “budget” of $200.
If I couldn’t feed seven people (five students, “Stanley” and
myself) for a lot less than that, I’m not my mother’s daughter.
It turned out to be a fairly big job, but everything came off without a
hitch. Everyone proclaimed
the Workshop to be a great success.
Which is good because I don’t plan on doing it again any time
soon.
Love, as always,
Pete
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