We often talk about the importance of various roles in the world of records management. Most are familiar with the position of records management officer (RMO), but there are other important figures who have a hand in managing records. We will be introducing each of the major roles in a new blog series.
Governing Body/State Agency
Everything falls under the umbrella of the governing body or state agency. In local governments, the governing body is city council, commissioners court, board of directors, president or an elected official. That’s not an exhaustive list, but mainly it’s whoever calls the shots. In a state agency, the agency head is in charge. All of these top-level positions should be aware of records management initiatives in their respective organizations.
Records Management Officer
The RMO is, of course, at the helm of the records management program within a government entity. They are the ones who sign all the compliance paperwork. Sometimes the RMO wears many hats, sometimes the RMO is also the agency head or elected official, sometimes the RMO doesn’t even know that they are the RMO. We’ll go over the basic functions and responsibilities of the RMO
Records liasons/coordinators
Lucky RMOs will be blessed with liaisons or coordinators within the office to help wrangle all of the records management tasks. In some organizations there might be a liaison in each department, or others might just have an assistant to the RMO who works with other departments to manage inventory or disposition tasks.
Records custodians
That’s you. And you. And you. And everyone else employed by a government entity. If you are creating records in your job – writing emails, creating reports, accepting payments or processing applications – then you are typically the custodian of those records.
Stay tuned for our spotlight articles on each of these roles, and let us know in the comments if there’s anything specific you’d like covered in our summaries.
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Bonnie,
A well-written post and an important point about the different roles that are needed to have a successful records management program. Good job!
A sterling example of “Who’s Who in Records Management” is Mr. George Whitfield, Jr., Municipal Records Manager Emeritus. Recognized by TSLAC, ARMA Intl and others… Mr. Whitfield is the only member of the records management discipline to have a building named in his honor. Visit the following YouTube link for a few examples:
https://youtu.be/d5424iBzh-Q
Mr. George Whitfield, Jr., was a dedicated employee of the City of San Antonio for over forty years. Indeed, although fully eligible for retirement, he postponed it until the year following the commencement of operations at the Municipal Records Facility to ensure its success and to see his dream of a centralized municipal records complex come to fruition. The successful completion of the Municipal Records Facility is due solely to the dedication, tenacity and diligence of Mr. Whitfield.
On March 28, 2002, in recognition of Mr. Whitfield’s outstanding contributions, the City of San Antonio City Council voted to rename the Municipal Records Facility the “George Whitfield, Jr. Municipal Records Facility”.
Thank you for the info Joseph! We had not planned to profile specific people in our Who’s Who posts, but rather describe the various positions within records management. We might add in some spotlights on notable records managers in the future, though.