[IARA - State Agency Records Managers] Monthly Bulletin and Chat Invitation, April 2022

🐇 Happy April, Agency Records Managers! 🐇

Welcome to the month where Spring actually feels like Spring! (The second half of March exists only to taunt us with the fact that it's technically Spring while being 40 degrees with wind chill factor.)

Last Month's Chat

On MS Teams, we had our first Records Managers Chat from the new invite, which probably explains why we met with 25 Records Managers from 21 state agencies, the largest group we've ever had: nobody had to add themselves to the meeting invitation this time! 

Attending from IARA were Samantha Putnam (Records Center Director), Kim Hagerty (State Imaging and Microfilm Lab Director), Jeannine Roe (Electronic Records Archivist), Amy Christiansen (Records Management Liaison for County and Local Agencies), and your Spring-loving State Records Analyst, the other Amy.

We discussed March's bulletin topics, which were a recap on our Records Managers Survey, updates on a minor change to the Agency Retention Schedule review cycle, coming attractions for future updates to Forms Management, and the contents of this month's News You Can Use section -- no spoilers!

If you missed the March meeting but would like to know more, we now have you covered!

I've posted a transcript of the March 2022 RM Chat to our Monthly RM Bulletins Archive, where you can also find all of the previous bulletins I've sent out, back to August 2021 when we started. 

 

News You Can Use

Our Records Managers Survey is still open, and your thoughts and suggestions are still very welcome!
Here's the big one! IARA has an official location for our future State Archives building, announced by Governor Holcomb on March 15th.  The site chosen is along the downtown canal walk, against the west wall of the Senate Avenue Parking Facility. Located across the street from the Indiana State Library and across the canal from the Indiana Historical Society, the spot is ideal for the public to access Indiana's major history resources, and for IARA staff to work with our history partners and state government agencies, without anyone having to drive over to 30th Street!

News You Can't Use

My cat is dubious about my qualifications to give you Records Management advice. What does she know? She's only one and a half and still struggling to properly fill out a State Form 16. Mostly she just destroys things without one. She's not supposed to be up there anyway.

 

RM Topic of the Month: Record Series GRADM-10

This month's RM Topic was provided by the kind folks at the State Archives and Electronic Records Management. (But it applies to all formats of records, not just electronic.)

As pandemic-related services, events, and projects begin to close out, our staff have developed guidelines to assist agencies in making decisions about what records to gather and deliver to the Indiana Archives for permanent retention.

We have a Record Series for that: GRADM-10: Documentation of Indiana's Responses to States of Emergency and Other Events of an Historic Nature.

Some history on the series: In March 2020, staff from the State Archives and the Records Management team set out to determine the best way to capture the State's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new record series on the General Retention Schedule for All State Agencies was developed and approved in July 2020. Basic guidelines and a recommendation for state agencies to proactively retain records related to COVID-19 were put up on IARA’s website and shared with agency heads and records coordinators in August 2020.

Now in 2022, with GRADM-10 beginning to trickle in, we have developed guidance to provide agencies with more comprehensive direction.

The Guidance on Gathering and Transferring GRADM-10 Records document describes the purpose of the record series, helps agencies determine which COVID-19 related records might fall under it, gives direction on where agencies can look for these records and who might be their keepers, and suggests a timeframe for when to begin. We are happy to consult on record types, file formats, and other specific details as needed.

It is important to note that GRADM-10 is not COVID-specific; the series is meant to capture records of response to official states of emergency in Indiana – current or past – for their historical and evidentiary value. If your agency has materials from past events, please consider collecting them to send to the Archives.

We know from personal experience that identifying and gathering these records can be complex and may feel like a “treasure hunt” at times. We will be offering a time to ask questions and share tips during the April State Records Managers Chat. For questions about whether certain records qualify as GRADM-10, please email arc@iara.in.gov.

 

April Records Managers Chat

Our next Records Managers Chat will be happening on the 28th. 

Meeting Information 

Date: April 28, 2022
Time: 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  EST
Place: Microsoft Teams

About the Meeting

This 30-minute meetup is an informal setting in which to ask questions or talk about records management concerns; normally I'll begin by introducing any IARA colleagues attending, talk a bit about the topic of the monthly bulletin and make any announcements, then open things up for questions and discussion.

I've included an agenda to help keep me us all on topic, so there'll be plenty of time for your questions and records management discussion once Amy remembers to click Mute!

New Stuff! Read Me! We've made a few changes to the meeting invites. It will still be a Microsoft Teams meeting, and the instructions for how to join it haven't changed, but I've made it into a recurring meeting, always on the final Thursday of the month. This means that once you've been invited to it, or you invite yourself by following the instructions below, it will reappear on your calendar every month, without you having to manually add it. If we end up needing to reschedule the Chat for a specific month, I'll make the change for just that instance, and everyone on the invite list will receive a separate invite for that new date. (I've done this for November; otherwise the meeting would have fallen on Thanksgiving, which I assume you're not planning on spending with me, as fun as watching me wear the turkey hat might be.) What all of this means for you: If you have this month's meeting on your calendar already, then you're good to go. (I added as many of you as I could to the original meeting invite, to spare you having to ever do that again!) Just make sure that you use the Teams link in that invite, or the link below, to join that meeting when it rolls around. Meeting links in bulletins from before March 2022 will go to the already-over individual meeting for that month, and you'll feel lonely in there! If you don't already have this month's meeting on your calendar, you can add it using the instructions below (or just shoot me a direct email at arobinson@iara.in.gov, and I'll add you). Then, MS Outlook willing, you will never have to do that again! 🥳

✉ Desktop Outlook

• Save the attached MonthlyStateRecordsManagersRecurringChat.ics file to your desktop.
• Make sure Outlook is open.
  
• Double-click the .ics file.
  
• Outlook will open it up as a traditional meeting invitation.
• Click "Accept" to add it to your calendar.

✉ Outlook on the Web

• Save the attached MonthlyStateRecordsManagersRecurringChat.ics file to your desktop.
  
• In your web version of Outlook, go to the Calendar page.
  
• Choose "Add Calendar," then in the left pane, "Upload from file."
  
• Click "Browse" and find the .ics file, then click "Open."
  
• Choose a preferred calendar from the dropdown list. (Even if you only have one.)
• Click "Import."
• Outlook will add the meeting to your calendar.

Meeting-Up in MS Teams

Are you new to using Microsoft Teams? No worries, IARA can help you navigate.

MS Teams is a collaboration app that many state agencies are now using to stay organized and have conversations with colleagues inside and outside of the agency.

But if your agency doesn't use Teams? No worries. You don't need to have the software installed on your computer to participate in a Teams call. 
 

To Join the Meeting By Phone

1. Dial 1-317-552-1674 at the designated meeting time, then enter this PIN when prompted: 
   780 827 355# ⬅️ This is the NEW call-in pin for our recurring meeting.
   
   
2. We'll let you into the meeting.
    

To Join the Meeting by Computer

1. Click here at the designated meeting time. ⬅️ This is the NEW meeting link for our recurring meeting.
   
   
2. A new tab or window will open in your default web browser. From there:
   
   
   • Choose the option to join on the web if you don't normally use Teams, then click "Join now."
     
     
   • Join through your desktop or mobile application if you're familiar with using Teams and would prefer that to the web version. 
      

If you have other questions about how to use Teams, or about the meetup, just contact me and we'll figure things out together!

. . .

Looking forward to seeing you,

Amy A. Robinson  (CIP) | (she/her)
State Government Records Analyst
Indiana Archives and Records Administration

o: 317-232-3285  |  f: 317-233-1713
e: arobinson@iara.in.gov |  w: www.in.gov/iara
a: 402 W. Washington St., Room W472, Indianapolis, IN 46204

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• MonthlyStateRecordsManagersRecurringChat.ics
• StateRMChat-agenda-2022-04.pdf