Message from GNW Region Coordinator

A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
By Dean Koga

Greetings! Many chapters have already held their first ARMA meeting for the new ARMA year. After a year of outstanding chapter meetings, the Great Northwest Region Conference in Anchorage, and our Region Leadership Conference in Boise, last year will be a tough act to follow. However, I have no doubt that this year will also be another banner year for all of our chapters.

Our Region Manager, Sue Lord, has brought new leadership and organization to our region. Sue, along with Region Coordinators Leslie Sturgeon and myself, hope to support you, your chapter, and our region in anyway possible to promote your career as a RIM professional and to promote the ARMA spirit through educational and networking opportunities.

Several examples of upcoming educational opportunities include the Puget Sound Chapter and the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association (CLE) Continuing Legal Education committee’s seminar on September 17, 2004, to address “Recent Developments in Electronic Records Management” and ARMA International’s Conference in Long Beach, California, October 3-6, 2004. There is also a joint ARMA chapter seminar to be held on April 22, 2005, in the Puget Sound area. The seminar is sponsored by the Bellevue/Eastside, Puget Sound and Greater Seattle Chapters and will include topics such as electronic records, e-mail, and other RIM issues. Finally, the Seattle area legal ISG brown bag lunch group meets a different law firms to discuss issues such as imaging and electronic court filings. If you have any questions about these events, please feel free to contact Sue Lord or me.

In case you haven’t heard by now, the Greater Seattle Chapter will be the host chapter for the Great Northwest Region Conference to be held in March 2006. If you would like to volunteer to work on the region conference committee, please contact Roger Winters, Roger.Winters@METROKC.GOV or at (206) 296-7838. You do not have to be a member of the Greater Seattle Chapter in order to work on the conference and it can be fun and rewarding, not to mention a great learning experience.

I hope you will all take advantage of your membership by attending some of the many ARMA chapter meetings and networking with other members, as well as reading about current RIM issues in your Information Management Journal.

If you have any questions about ARMA or the above-mentioned events, please feel free to contact Sue, slord@vjglaw.com; Leslie, lsturgeon@simplot.com; or myself, dkoga@stoel.com.

May you and your chapters have a wonderful year.

Dean Koga
Great Northwest Region Coordinator