March 10, 2017
Dear Everyone:
Long time, no mention of ARMA.
Not that I haven’t been working for the organization.
But things have not been going too well.
We did manage to get a group of people to come to the meeting in October
of last year. Of the
thirteen who showed up, eight were from
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
In fact, one of them strongly implied that he was only there
because our new Membership Director, “Abigail”, dragged him in by the
scruff of his neck. Needless
to say, “Abigail” works for PG&E.
PG&E has been actively recruiting
Records Managers
of any persuasion to join its ranks for a couple of years now.
This is generally assumed to be because of a major set of
lawsuits resulting from an
explosion in San Bruno some years ago.
PG&E management publicly threw
Records
Management under the bus, blaming everything on “poor records
management practices” and incidentally forgetting to mention that they
had fired anyone who tried to warn them.
Now they’re busily trying to convince the courts that they have
“learned their lesson” and are embracing Records Management in all its
glory.
So we had some hope that “Abigail” and others from PG&E might help to
revitalize the Mount Diablo
Chapter. But almost
immediately after the October meeting, things slumped back to “normal”.
Very few people expressed an interest in coming to the November
meeting. We generally don’t
have a Chapter meeting in December because, frankly, people have too
much else to deal with at that time of year.
Then, in January, something happened that so often does:
“Abigail” got a promotion.
This happens when a Records Manager shines in her job.
The Powers That Be decide to move her up to a new position; and
she leaves the records management part of her job behind.
And the Powers That Be just let it fall by the wayside.
The same thing happened with our Programs Director the year
before, only in a completely different company.
Coincidentally, PG&E announced, also in January, that it was cutting
hundreds of “support service jobs”.
Guess how many of those will have anything to do with Records
Management.
In February, we tried to rekindle interest with a meeting based on a
suggestion from my old nemesis, “Clancy”.
He sent an email extolling the
San Diego Chapter for holding a meeting with representatives of
organizations that provide certification in Records and Information
Management (RIM). According
to “Clancy”, it was a monumental success.
So, just to keep “Clancy” happy, I scrabbled together a group of people,
including someone from the Project
Management Institute (PMI) to be Speakers at the February meeting.
Exactly two people signed up.
Which did not surprise me.
But I’m sure “Clancy” will find a way to blame me for it.
In the meantime, I’m hip-deep in setting up a RIM Symposium for City
Clerks, aided and abetted by “Rebecca”, the City Clerk here in
San Ramon.
This will be a half-day gathering, on March 30th, with
no less than three Speakers who can talk informatively about RIM
specifically as it pertains to municipalities.
The Mount Diablo Chapter represents the
San Francisco East Bay, and the East Bay abounds with small cities
filled with people who live and/or work on this side of the Bay.
Thanks to “Rebecca”, we already have 18 people signed up.
Three of them are Chapter Members.
Maybe that’s the ticket:
Just find a topic that’s interesting to non-members.
And forget about “Clancy”.
Stay tuned for further developments…
Love, as always,
Pete
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