Tuesday, February 24, 2004

CHAPTER TO SPONSOR "OPT-IN" MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

As you may know, ARMA policies prohibit sharing official membership rosters with businesses, marketers, or even members. However, having contact information for other chapter members and sharing one's own is a part of the networking that makes ARMA valuable to so many of us.

The Board of Directors has decided to launch an "Opt-In" Greater Seattle Chapter Membership Directory. We are in the process of identifying the data elements that a person could choose to include (or exclude) in agreeing to be listed in the Directory. We believe it is important for each of us to have control over what data others will have.

Unlike the official roster, maintained by Vice President for Membership, Shelley Boogaard, in coordination with ARMA International, an "Opt-In" Directory will be freely available to all members of the Greater Seattle Chapter. Those who "Opt-In" will, in effect, give their consent to be contacted via the data they provide. One could, for example, limit one's entry to NAME, COMPANY, MAILING ADDRESS, if only postal mail contact is desired, or one could list that, plus TITLE, EMAIL, PHONE(S), and more. Shelley has agreed to take on the overall responsibility for maintaining the "Opt-In" Directory. She may want help from one or more volunteers. Please contact her at sboogaard@riddellwilliams.com if you think you might like to help.

Posted by Roger Winters, President, for the Board: Roger; Dean Koga, Past President; Susan Priebe, Secretary; Cliff Moon, Treasurer (John Cluff, Acting Treasurer); Shelley Boogard, Vice President for Membership; Andrea Bettger, Vice President for Programs.

Friday, February 20, 2004

SUSAN PRIEBE SHARES INSPIRING ESSAY BY VANNEVAR BUSH

A friend who shares my passion for essays and who was amazed (as I fear he should have been) that I had never read the incredible "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush (since I like essays and am in the records profession), sent me the attached link, so that I might read it. (Vannevar Bush himself, I'm sure, would have been pleased, but not at all surprised that the article came to me in this fashion.) As folks in the records/information-management field, I think it is an interesting and important essay to read (it was written in 1945), if you've not had the opportunity before. It not only presents the strikingly impressive and accurate projections of one of the world's great thinkers, which is interesting in and of itself (much better reading than the Prophecies of Nostradamus in my estimation!), but it profoundly supports our critical role in the pursuit of making the world a better and potentially more peaceful place. The link to the article is www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm. I hope the portion quoted below will entice you to read the entire essay.

There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's record, but for his disciples, the entire scaffolding by which they were erected. --Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think," July 1945