ARMA Nebraska

Governor's Proclamation

2011-04-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announce that Nebraska Governor, Dave Heineman, will be recognizing our members and the chapter’s 50th anniversary at a proclamation signing ceremony on May 11th. The ceremony will be held at 10:30 am in the Warner (East) Chamber at the State Capitol Building. All members are invited and encouraged (if you can get away from the office) to attend.

Important Upcoming Events

2011-03-10T13:01:00.001-06:00

I hope you've been enjoying the 2010-11 program year as much as I have. We've heard great presentations on a large number of topics this year. I am especially excited about our next two events:

On March 16th, the President of ARMA International, Inc., Nick De Laurentis, will be joining us to talk about application of the GARP maturity model. For those of you that may be new to ARMA, GARP stands for Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles. Whether you're new to the field or have been around for decades, you won't want to miss this program!

On April 13th, we will be holding our annual Spring Seminar. The Seminar will begin with keynote speaker, Tom Becka. Tom will be bringing together his experiences in radio, stand-up comedy, sales and marketing for his live presentation of, "There's No Business without the Show." It will be a high-energy, entertaining and informative way to kick off the seminar.

For our main speaker this year, we got a little ambitious. We decided to go after one of the most popular speakers on the ARMA circuit, John Isaza, Esq. John will begin with, "7 Steps for Legal Holds of ESI and Other Documents," based on his best-selling book. He will also be discussing new developments in e-discovery rules with emphasis on web 2.0 implications. To cap off the seminar, he will be presenting, "Metadata in Court: What RIM, Legal and IT Need to Know." Thank You to Continuum Worldwide for Sponsoring John Isaza's seminar presentation; we couldn't bring in such a high-quality speaker without your support!!!

The Spring Seminar early-bird registration deadline is next Friday 3/18, so be sure to register by then to take advantage of the discounted rate.

Thank you for being a part of our chapter! I hope to see you next week and/or next month at the Seminar. As always, if you have any questions about your membership or about the chapter, please contact me or any of the board members.

Sincerely,

Mark Graves
President, Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc.

50th Anniversary Activities

2010-09-09T17:48:00.002-05:00

The Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc. is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this program year (1961-2011). Last spring, I assembled a committee to begin planning special events and projects to commemorate this occasion. Over the summer, the list was finalized and I am pleased to announce the following projects/events:

ARMA Cow Photo Project:

We have 20 stuffed cows like the one shown to the right. At each chapter meeting, you will have the opportunity to take a cow home. Your assignment is to take photos of the cow in various places. We’d love to have photos of the cow in your office, your records center, with your staff, etc. If you’re planning a vacation, please take a cow with you. So far, the cow has been spotted at Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court, College World Series, ARMA Regional Leadership Conference, Special Olympics, Underground Vault and Storage Salt Mine, Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At the end of the year, we will assemble a gigantic collection of ARMA cow photos.

50th Anniversary Historical Book:

Throughout the years, we have accumulated countless historical data and artifacts. We have established a committee to dig through the history of the chapter and publish a book that captures the chapter’s first 50 years.

NE State Archives Community Service Project:

We have partnered with the NE State Historical Society Foundation to assist the State Archives with a new collection of historical veterans’ records. Volunteers from the chapter will help with this project on various dates through the fall.

State/City Proclamations:

The chapter will be requesting special congratulatory proclamation from the State of Nebraska and potentially some cities in our area. This may include a photo opportunity for chapter members.

Chapter Shirts:

At the September chapter meeting, we will be taking orders for polo shirts with an embroidered ARMA Nebraska logo. Shirts will be delivered at the October 20th meeting.

50th Anniversary Party (Save the Date):

We will be holding a 50th Anniversary party on Saturday, June 4, 2011. More details will be coming soon.

LOST?

2010-05-24T14:11:00.003-05:00

As we wrap up another year of ARMA programs, I think of all the questions that went unanswered this year.

How can I utilize the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles in my organization?
What strategies can I use to restructure and review my company's retention schedule?
My company wants to start a new Records Management Program from scratch. How do I get started?
Did everyone on Oceanic Flight 815 die in the crash and the whole series is just some sort of afterlife?
Since the finale stated that some people died before Jack and some died after, is it reasonable to assume the Island is real after all?
What was the deal with the sideways reality? It seems like it was just smokescreen (no pun intended).
Why was Sayid reunited with Shannon and not Nadia?
Why couldn't children be born on the island?
Why did the "Others" kidnap children?

I'm sure you can think of other questions that went unanswered this year. The Board of Directors will soon be selecting programs for the 2010-11 program year. Our goal is to help you reach your goals in the field of records and information management, so we would like to get your input for topics and/or speakers that you would like to see.

Please email mark.graves@nngco.com to provide your input.

Namaste

Mark Graves
President, Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc.

E-Discovery Has Me Seeing Red (and Blonde and Blue)

2010-03-23T23:52:00.001-05:00

Her long blonde hair was like warm rays of sunshine on a late spring afternoon. Her soft, yet majestic blue eyes were highlighted by lashes that fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. She wore a simple, youthful dress that embodied her playful, carefree personality. She was perfect...and completely out of his league.

He had always been a nerdy person. As a child, while his friends were playing sports and hanging out at the mall, he was reading comics and playing computer games. In high school, some of his friends gave him the nickname, "Brainy." He never really liked the nickname, but it stuck with him and now everyone had long since forgotten his real name.

Brainy's technical prowess came in handy in adult life. He quickly established himself as THE computer guru and he quickly landed a job as a senior information technology analyst at one of the town's largest companies. But now he found himself in a difficult situation. While he was really great with computers, he was terribly awkward with women.

The company's general counsel had paired up Brainy and Smurfette (that's right, they're Smurfs) to work on a big e-discovery project. The Smurfs' sworn enemy, Gargamel, was suing the Smurfs and now they found themselves digging through endless information repositories looking for relevant company records. As Brainy Smurf scoured network shares and email servers and Smurfette dug through endless stacks of paper, it became apparent that they would not be able to complete the task by the court-mandated deadline. Brainy relented, "When Papa Smurf finds out the mess we're in, the Smurf is going to hit the fan!"

--

The harsh reality of 21st Century America is that nearly all organizations are susceptible to lawsuits. There is extensive case law describing situations of "discovery gone wrong," subjecting organizations to summary judgments, sanctions, adverse inference instructions or fines. Organizations need to proactively prepare for preservation and discovery ahead of time to prevent these costly situations.

The Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc. will be holding their annual Spring Seminar on April 14th, 2010 from 7:30AM to 4:00PM at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Omaha.

Phil Droege, Director of the White House Office of Records Management will be the keynote speaker. He will talk about the unique challenges of managing White House records during a Presidential transition.

Brian Foster, PMP will spend the remaining time discussing E-Discovery planning, policy and process. His seminar will provide IT, records management, and litigation professionals with practical tools they need to improve their response to a discovery event in a compliant and cost-effective manner. For more information and registration, please visit http://www.armanebraska.com/SpringConference.php.

I hope to see you there. Have a Smurfy day!

Good Grief

2009-12-01T11:42:00.004-06:00

In 1984, America was buzzing with music hits like Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You." Ironically, many couples were calling to say I don't love you. Divorce was rampant in the early 80's and my family wasn't exempt.

Mom was worried about my little brother and me, so she enrolled us in a group counseling program. Most kids in the group were just like me - dealing with a divorce or separation. To use a car accident analogy, my parents' divorce was like a fender bender. Some kids in the group experienced more disruptive events that would equate to a more serious, but survivable car accident.

As we discussed our stories, one girl was reluctant to share with the group. She eventually became comfortable enough to discuss her situation. She was not a victim of divorce like the rest of us. Her mom had suffered from depression and alcoholism. One night, she used a shotgun to end her life.

To use the car accident analogy, she had been hit head-on by an 18-wheeler. Divorce was a serious issue, but it was nothing compared to the death of a parent.

Each year, the Nebraska Chapter of ARMA supports a local charity. This year, we selected Charlie Brown's Kids, an organization in Lincoln, NE that is all about "good grief." It is a group for kids ages 3-18 that have lost a parent. Group leaders and volunteers help children through the grieving process and provide opportunities to capture and preserve memories of their parents through discussion, art, writing and storytelling.

We are providing several opportunities for our members to support Charlie Brown's Kids:

* Donate Wish List Items (copy paper, colored paper, card stock, banner paper, markers, small plastic containers, large plastic totes, file folders, notebooks, staples, scissors, paper clips, etc.). Last donation date via ARMA is December 9th.

* Donate a gift (must be gift-wrapped) for our live auction on December 9th. It can be something lying around the house or something store-bought, your choice. Half the fun of the auction is seeing the crazy variety of gift items.

* Bid on a gift. Again, it might be a really nice gift or it may be something that was lying around someone's house. Last year, I bid $35 on a gift and it turned out to be a $50 gift card. The Nebraska Chapter will match all auction proceeds up to $500, so please bid generously.

Dealing with the death of a parent is a long, difficult process. With the help of Charlie Brown's Kids, children can cope with such a life changing event and move on with their lives. After all, girls just wanna have fun!

Anticipation

2009-11-02T15:46:00.001-06:00

Around mid December when I was 11 years old, a rather large present showed up under the Christmas tree. The card said, "To: Mark, Love: Mom and Dad." The anticipation was killing me. Was it that Lego set I had my eye on? Or perhaps the new Nintendo game system that ALL my friends had? One afternoon, my parents and older siblings were all working and my younger brother was at a friend's house. I gave in to temptation and decided to do a little snooping.

I secured my lookout, our eight-year-old Bichon Frise. She was dozing at the top of the stairs, likely dreaming of the milk bones and dog toys that would emerge from the Christmas stocking bearing the name, "Angel." She would certainly wake up if any cars approached the house, so I had a 40 second window to work in.

First, I tried shaking the present. It was more of a dull thud than anything else (so much for the Lego set). Since that didn't yield any answers, I went to plan B. I very, very carefully removed a piece of tape from the side of the package and revealed the entire side panel. Unfortunately, that sneaky devil (Mom) had placed the present in a brown cardboard box, obscuring the contents from prying eyes. However, just one more piece of tape separated me from my future loot. I peeled back the tape, opened the flaps of the box and revealed...pajamas, socks and underwear. Needless to say, I saved that present for last on Christmas day :-(

Last week, Microsoft released details about Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Don't wait until 2010 to find out what's under the shiny wrapping paper. Join us at Mahoney State Park (Main Lodge, Nebraska Room) on November 18th, where SharePoint expert Russ Edelman will show us what's new in 2010 (Nintendo or unmentionables?), key planning considerations and likely complications in the implementation of SharePoint. Visit http://www.armanebraska.com for details and registration.

D"e"light"e"d to B"e"gin Th"e" N"e"w Program Y"e"ar

2009-09-09T14:32:00.001-05:00

By some estimates, over 90% of organizations' records are created electronically. With technological advances such as instant messaging, text messages, blogs, social networking and cloud computing, managing those e-records is becoming significantly more challenging.

Patrick Cunningham, CRM from Motorola, Inc. will be delivering a half day workshop, You Can't Spell "Records" or "Management" Without the Letter "E" on Wednesday, September 16th from 11:30- 4:00 at Ironwood Country Club in Omaha, NE. He will be discussing three topics around Electronic Records Management: 1) Building the Business Case for e-Records Management, 2) The Perfect Storm: Messaging and the Records Manager, 3) "The Cloud" and Web 2.0: Issues and Risks for Consideration. Please visit http://armanebraska.com for more details and to register for the workshop.

The Nebraska Chapter of ARMA International, Inc. is dedicated to provide education around records and information management. Our nine monthly meetings and annual spring seminar provide opportunities for attendees to advance their knowledge and network with others in their profession.

I look forward to another great year and I hope to see you at the meeting next week!

SharePoint Expert to Speak

2009-07-28T12:55:00.001-05:00

As the ARMA Nebraska Board continues planning for the 2009-10 program year, I am pleased to announce another upcoming speaker. Russ Edelman from Corridor Consulting will be presenting, "SharePaint & Records Management including Planning Roadmaps and Avoiding Potholes" at the November 18th program.

SharePoint has unquestionably become one of the biggest phenomena in the worlds of Records Management and IT. It is also considered a bridge between those worlds and it needs to be properly navigated to avoid potholes. Topics will include comparative points of view from both a Records and IT perspective. Russ Edelman is President/CEO of Corridor Consulting. In his book, "Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office," he shares 8 strategies to help overly nice guys become "Effectively Nice." On June 30, 2009, Edelman's article, "How to Determine the True Cost of Microsoft SharePoint" was published in CIO.

Identity Theft

2009-07-10T09:48:00.001-05:00

The ARMA Nebraska Board of Directors continues planning the 2009-10 programs. I am pleased to announce we have secured former FBI Agent, Jeff Lanza to speak at our October boss’s day meeting.

Monday, October 26 (Boss’s Day – Members, your non-member boss can attend for free)
Stopping Identity Theft Before it Stops Your Organization
Jeff Lanza, Former FBI Agent

Identity theft can have dire effects on the victim and the organization whose security was breached. This seminar assists personnel at all levels to effectively protect the future of the organization by providing proven and reliable techniques for information security. Former FBI Agent, Jeff Lanza, is a professional speaker who has delivered keynote presentations and training seminars across the country. His presentations, based on his FBI career as an investigator and spokesman, are designed to be informative and entertaining.

Summer Planning

2009-06-22T09:36:00.004-05:00

I am excited to get started planning for the 2009-10 program year. The board of directors will be meeting later this week to begin the planning process. By the time we have our second meeting at the end of July, we should have our program schedule set. Please check our website (http://www.armanebraska.com) in early August for more information.

Website Outage (Update)

2009-06-15T23:25:00.000-05:00

The site appears to be back up again. Thank you for your patience.

Website Outage

2009-06-15T15:38:00.002-05:00

Our web hosting provider experienced a power failure at one of their data centers earlier this afternoon. As a result, http://www.armanebraska.com is temporarily down. As of an hour ago, they were starting the process to bring the servers back online.

Open Position

2009-05-27T11:15:00.000-05:00

At the May meeting, we held our biennial election for the chapter’s officers. Scott Swanson was elected Vice President and Mary Ott has agreed to assume the Membership Director position. This has left an open position for Program Director.

The Program Director is mainly responsible for the following duties:

Coordinate meeting facilities (menu, room setup, Audio/Visual setup, etc.)
Manage the event database on the chapter website
Receive attendee event reservations

Please consider taking this position. Our chapter has always been extremely successful and much of that success is due to our members getting actively involved in chapter leadership. Please contact Mary or me if you have any questions and/or would like to volunteer for the position. I hope to make a decision by June 10th, so please call today!

2008-09 Program Year

2008-08-20T12:34:00.002-05:00

The summer planning sessions are over and we have secured another great set of speakers for the 08-09 program year. We will be kicking off the year with an all-day Randy Kahn seminar on September 24th.

I am currently working to develop the 2009 Spring Seminar. I have secured our speakers and I am in the process of fleshing out the individual sessions.

Our A.M. sessions will be presented by Carol Brock from the Government Accountability Office and Cheryl Smith, GAO consultant with NetSmith Inc. They are both Certified Records Managers and will be showcasing their "Big Bucket" implementation at the GAO.

Our P.M. speaker will be Jesse Wilkins and we are in the process of developing the afternoon agenda.

Please watch our website at http://www.armanebraska.com for more information.

Mark Graves
Vice President, ARMA Nebraska

ARMA Conference/Spring Seminar

2007-10-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

While at the 2007 ARMA Conference in Baltimore, I got the opportunity to chat with Mark Langemo and Tim O'Keefe (our 2008 Spring Seminar speakers). This was my first opportunity to meet them in person and I am now even more excited about the April 23rd seminar.

Unfortunately, I missed Dr. Langemo's session (I misread my schedule). However, I did attend Dr. O'Keefe's presentation Wednesday morning at 8:00 am. Due to the early start time, attendance was probably around 100 people. By 8:15, the crowd grew to about 130. Normally, during any 1.5 hour conference presentation, about 10-20% of the attendees leave early (perhaps to hit the expo or just out of sheer boredom from a long presentation). I intentionally watched the exits during Dr. O'Keefe's presentation. I noticed 2 people leave and I think one was a restroom break because they came back. He is a captivating speaker and was able to hold everyone's attention for the full 90 minutes.

Be sure to mark your calendar for the April 23rd, 2008 Spring Seminar at Harrah's Casino Hotel in Council Bluffs where you will be able to hear from both of these top-notch speakers. It is sure to be an excellent day of "edutainment."