FYI...please check out the article below. It was published in the latest Federal Computer Week (April 12). Keep your chins up, support for RM's is growing!

CHARLEY

Records officers form interagency group

BY ELANA VARON (varon@fcw.com)

Federal records officers from 45 agencies last week formed an interagency group through which they aim to have more of an influence on government information management policies, including electronic recordkeeping.

The Federal Information and Records Managers Council (FIRM) plans to advise Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies that set information policy about how their proposals will affect preservation of government documents and data.

"There was a feeling that there was not one voice speaking to people like that, and by doing this we would get a group of people together to say what the professional community needs and to get ideas from the professionals,'' said John Vasko, an information policy officer with the CIA who is a founding member of FIRM.

FIRM comes from a merger of three existing groups, the Small Agency Council Records Officers Committee, the Electronic Records Management Work Group and the Automated Records Management Interagency Working Group. By combining, "we're hoping to attract a wider range of individuals to the proceedings,'' Vasko said.

John Paul Deley, records officer with the Federal Trade Commission and another FIRM founder, said one focus of the group will be to share information about solutions to records management problems, such as how to comply with recently issued NARA rules for cataloging electronic records. He said the group also wants to offer training to records managers on how to do their jobs -- which traditionally have been oriented toward managing paper -- in an electronic workplace.

Another goal of the group is to give NARA advice on how to revamp its policies and procedures for reviewing agencies' preservation decisions and for storing records in its custody.

Jerry George, a NARA spokesman, said senior staff members at his agency have met with FIRM members, and "we very much welcome its formation. It appears to be a means of strengthening records management in the federal government, which is one of NARA's major goals.''

The group also may provide an avenue for industry vendors to learn more about agency requirements for electronic records management systems. In the last two years, as agencies have started to look for ways to manage their digital documents, they have found many of the solutions on the market to be lacking. One common complaint is that ERM systems do not work well with the applications people use to create documents.

"I think, historically, people who did records management were thought of as people who moved boxes [full of paper] and not people who dealt with information,'' said Lisa Polisar, director of practice information services with Covington & Burling, a Washington, D.C., law firm. Polisar is president of the National Capital Chapter of the Association for Information and Image Management, an industry group whose members sell imaging, document management and related technologies.

"Having a group that would be able to speak for these people will make it easier for there to be a better discussion of their requirements and sharing of information around the government,'' she said. "Because requirements will be more clearly defined, vendors can more appropriately do development and pitch their products.''

A task force of FIRM members is drafting a charter and operating procedures, which will be distributed at NARA's Records Administration Conference May 20 in Washington.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 1999