May 29, 2015
Dear Everyone:
Last night was the real
ARMA
night, as opposed to the one I erroneously tried to “move” to last week.
At first, it looked like there would be about three of us, mostly
Board members, plus the Speakers, attending.
But then the word spread, or people suddenly realized that it
really, really was this week;
and they started signing up.
The way they sign up is with something called
Eventbrite.
This is an online system that lets someone, like ARMA, set up an
Event, like the monthly ARMA meeting, complete with various prices
(non-members pay more than members, ostensibly to encourage people to
join the organization.) The
system collects information, and money, if the attendee chooses to pay
by credit card, and passes that information and money along to the
organization, with just a little “off the top” for the system.
Most of us on the Board get an automatic email from Eventbrite with the
information and a copy of the attendee’s ticket.
This all works great, unless something goes wrong, of course.
A couple of months ago, I tried to take a “shortcut” by copying a
previous Event and making adjustments to date and time, and such.
Big mistake. After a
couple of hours of wrestling with Eventbrite I decided two things:
First, delete the whole Event and start over from scratch;
Second, to write up some “notes” about exactly how to set up an Event,
thus documenting the process instead of relying on faulty memory,
possible intuition and blatant telepathy.
So I warned the Board members that they might get some emails alerting
them that a new Event, called “Practice-Practice-Practice”, was going
on. Then I proceeded to set
up a completely fictitious Event, all the while typing step-by-step
instructions with lots of illustrations (“this is what the screen
should look like”).
It’s still preliminary, all 16 pages of it.
But it’s a darn sight better than flying blind.
This is nothing new for me.
I’ve been writing instructions for decades, a fact that I realized when
I was documenting my Records Management experience in order to qualify
to take the Certified Records Manager Exam.
Typically, I would write up the steps, double-check the accuracy, then
ask someone else to “test drive” them.
Quite often something that is plainly obvious to me is completely
obscure to another person.
We generally don’t realize how many mental shortcuts we take until we
inadvertently leave someone else behind.
I remember one case in particular, where I gave the instructions to a
co-worker. She came to me a
little bit later and informed me that I had left out “the first fifteen
steps.”
“Really? What’s step Number
One?”
“Turn on the computer.”
As for the actual meeting, and the program entitled, “Re-Imagining
Employee Training and Communications”, it was presented by no less than
four Speakers, all working for the same company.
Near the end, when they asked for “honest feedback”, we realized
that this was a “test drive” for a Presentation they plan to give at the
annual International Conference in Washington, DC, next October.
And what is this company that has so many
Records Managers now working
here in San Ramon?
Pacific
Gas and Electric (PG&E). You
may have heard of it. Back
in September, 2010, they sort of accidentally
blew up a part of the city
of San Bruno with one of their natural gas pipelines.
So far the company has paid a penalty of $1,600,000,000 for that
little mistake. Not
including all the ongoing lawsuits from numerous interested parties.
And they’ve “suddenly embraced”
Records Management, which explains why
they’re willing to spend money on “training and communications”.
The Speakers really do seem to know what they’re talking about,
so more power to them.
Love, as always,
Pete
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