Region Coordinator Dean Koga's Holiday Message

Season’s Greetings!
By Dean Koga

It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is already upon us. It’s an exciting time to be with our friends and family, and to be thankful for everything we have. It’s a time to share with others less fortunate than ourselves and to seek out those special gifts to give to the people we love. Wherever you spend the holidays, may they be happy and safe.

As we start out the New Year, I hope you will give some thought to supporting ARMA by some means, such as volunteering, attending meetings, supporting the Educational Foundation, speaking at a meeting, or referring a new member.

Our chapter meetings are well on their way for another year, as well as the plans for our Region Conference in 2006. The conference will be held in Seattle and co-chaired by Susan Priebe and Jenny Winkler. I’m sure they would like to hear from you if you have any suggestions, would like to be a speaker or be a vendor for the conference.

Remember, December 20 is the deadline for sending speaker’s proposals for the ARMA International Conference to be held in Chicago, September 18-20, 2005.

If you have not heard, Leslie Sturgeon has accepted a new position in her hometown of Long Beach and resigned her position as Region Coordinator on November 9. We wish Leslie the best of luck in her new position and thank her for the work she did for the Great Northwest Region. Sue Lord, our Region Manager and myself will take care of any region business and hope to visit all of the chapters in the Region, but we will miss working with Leslie.

A reminder, ARMA elections are coming up in January, so remember to vote. Bonnie Nadler from the Bellevue/Eastside Chapter as well as Doug Allen, Cindy LeMay and Deb Marshall are running for Association Director while Carol Choksy, Susan McKinney and Helen Streck are candidates for the association’s President-Elect position. It is important that you vote. You saw how important one vote could be by our recent gubernatorial race in the State of Washington.

The ARMA International Educational Foundation (AIEF) is still not fully funded, so your donations are very important and are tax deductible. The Foundation funded two research projects this past year. They are “Discovery, Spoliation, and Legal Holds: Issues Affecting Your RIM Policies” by John Isaza, Esq., and “Access Rights to Business Data on Personal Computers” by John Montana, J.D.

I wish you all a happy holiday and best wishes in the coming year.

Dean Koga
Great Northwest Region Coordinator