This is my story.
I am telling it because I think many of you can relate. In 1995, I was hired as an accounting manager for a Fortune 500 company. My degree is in accounting. However, it did not take me long to realize the educational field I chose was not what I wanted to do for 30 years – plus I was not a good accountant.
In 1997, with the company also realizing I was not a good accountant, I was move to the role of General Manager. Later that year, my VP called me to her office – a brief meeting that changed my life and career. I found my calling, or as I call it my “niche”.
My VP assigned me responsibility for the company’s records management – just like that, dropped in my lap. Just like many of you, I had no records management experience but thought, how hard can it be…when an employee requests a file, we pull it, deliver it and then someday when the file is returned, we refile it.
As I gravitated toward the new responsibility, it did not take me long to realize that there was more to this records management gig than retrieving, delivering and refiling records. I will not bore you with the details of my 20-plus year RIM journey, except to say, that I have tried to absorb, learn, and apply RIM fundamentals to the four Fortune 500 companies where I have served as Corporate Records Manager.
I have authored two published books on RIM fundamentals, authored many articles and have served in capacities with the ICRM, ARMA and AIIM. The objective of this site is to provide my RIM colleagues, experienced as well as new to the discipline, a resource for both RIM fundamental and advanced topics. I hope you find the site beneficial. If so, please share the site with our colleagues.
Sincerely,
Blake E. Richardson, CRM