[IARA - State Agency Records Managers] April 2023 Monthly Bulletin and Chat Invitation

🌧️ It's Raining RM! 🌧️

 

Greetings, Records Managers! You probably know that April is traditionally the month of showers (the wet kind, not the ones for babies or weddings) and arguing about the thermostat, but you probably don't know that April is also International Records and Information Management Month!  (Also known as RIMM.) So if rainy days (and Mondays) always get you down, why not stay inside and tackle that overflowing Sent Mail folder? Or if that's too much like work, IARA also has some fun (and educational - who knew that was possible?) stuff planned for you this month.  One may be sillier than the other, but we hope they'll both make managing records a little bit easier for you.

 

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But First, Chat Stats!

On MS Teams, we had our March State Records Managers Chat on the 23rd.

We met with 21 Records Managers from 20 agencies!  Attending from IARA were Amy Robinson (State Records Analyst, who was there even though her camera wasn't), Amy Christiansen (County/Local Records Liaison),  and Anna Lucas (Electronic Records Archivist).

We discussed March's bulletin topics, which were:

• Flash drives: sometimes funny, sometimes adorable, never a good place for your agency's electronic records. (Then we talked about better places to use!)
  
  
• This bulletin is not a record for anybody but Amy.
  
  
• Updates to the State Agencies General Retention Schedule: minor changes to GRADM-4 and GRVID-1, and new series GRADM-11 for system documentation and GRTRN-1 for records of trainings provided to people outside your agency.

I've posted a link to the YouTube video of the March chat in our RM Bulletins and Chat Archive, where you can also find all of the previous bulletins we've sent out.

 

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News You Can Use

This one isn't IARA's doing, or intentionally a RIMM activity, but wow, did the stars align. Obvious Question: Do "records" and "data" mean the same thing? Sadly Unhelpful Answer:  Yes and no, and  sometimes but not always. Some records are data -- or contain it -- and some data is a record, or contains them.  Some data isn't a record, because it's a copy of information that's being properly retained elsewhere, or because the bits and bytes are completely useless without the program designed to present them to you sensibly. Facebook relationship status: It's Complicated. Management Performance Hub Data Day When: April 26, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: Indiana Government Center South Conference Center and Auditorium
Why: Because whether you work with data, or your agency works with data, or you just check weather.com every so often and wonder how they get all that information about average rainfall in the month of April,  I think you'll find something interesting in the sessions MPH has lined up. Some of them are about the technology used to search, rearrange, and  display all the dashboards and databases and everything else we might fuel with the information we collect. An equal number, though, are presented by state employees just like you and me, talking about real projects that their agencies spearheaded, and real ways that the data they worked with ended up improving -- sometimes saving -- Hoosier lives. Also? You should go because the IARA Records Management crew will have an information booth there, and people who walk/roll over to talk to us about records (electronic or otherwise; there's no such thing as off-topic at our information booth) might walk/roll away with a poster in their hands. I'mjustsayin'. How? Head over here to register to attend. If you're still a little uncertain about Why?,  I offer two of the most beautiful words in the English language when you put them together: "It's free."  (It's also a state agency activity, so as long as your manager is cool with you being out of the office, you're still on work time.)

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News You Can't Use Except Really You Can

This is the silly one, and we hope you have as much fun playing with it as we had creating it: IARA Online Scavenger Hunt When: April 3 through April 28 - at your own pace.Take your time. Join the team for an online scavenger hunt on the IARA website throughout April. Through April 28, state employees can hunt for records management treasure on IARA's Records Management pages. The first five people to answer all questions correctly will win a prize! (We're not saying nobody else will win a prize, mind you. Just that those people definitely will. Complete the questions in this form by Friday, April 28, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.

 

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RM Topic of the Month: Email! How to Tame That Overflowing Inbox
(and all those other folders too)

This is a bit of a bait and switch, because I'm not going to tell you that here. I couldn't begin to tell you that here. It would take three of us presenting a live overview, hands-on workshop, and Q & A session to even begin to tell you that.

Luckily...

The Records Management Team is hosting an Email Spring Clean Party!

April 19, 2023, 11 a.m. to noon EDT.

Email can be a challenge - it can feel never-ending and ever-increasing! But the good news is that most of the email messages we send and receive either don't need to be maintained at all (duplicates and nonrecords) or have a very short retention period (Record Series GRADM-4, short-term general correspondence that can be destroyed after 3 years). Unsure how to find these? The RM Team can help!

This is your chance to finally clear out unneeded email from your inbox and folders in a live, hands-on event. We will describe the specific types of email that you can delete, give you step-by-step instructions and do a demonstration of the best way to locate each of those types of email. Attendees will have time to delete email during the session and ask questions of Records Management staff.

Want to keep going with spring cleaning after the party ends? We'll provide detailed instructions, so that you can delete at your own pace later.

 

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April Records Managers Chat

Meeting Information

Date: 2023-04-27
Time: 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST
Place: Microsoft Teams

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 (the me one, not the other Amy) remembers to click Mute!

Adding Yourself to the Meeting Invite List

✉ Desktop Outlook

• Save the attached Monthly State Records Managers Chat.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.
• Because this meeting is recurring, you should never have to add yourself again.

✉ Outlook on the Web

• Save the attached Monthly State Records Managers Chat.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.
• Because this meeting is recurring, you should never have to add yourself again.

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:
   707 553 068#
   
   
2. We'll let you into the meeting.

 

To Join the Meeting by Computer

1. Click here at the designated meeting time.
   
   
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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• StateRMChat-agenda-2023-04.pdf
• Monthly State Records Managers Chat.ics