The Institute for Certified Records Managers (ICRM) announced today that it is seeking candidates to serve on the ICRM Board of Directors. Active CRMs in good standing are invited to apply for candidacy to a Board of Regents position. CRAs are not eligible to serve on the Board Regents.
Open positions include:
ARMA announced this week that it has completed its update to the Information Governance Professional (IGP) certification exam. The updated exam is now generally available for candidates.
The announcement, including the process and some background information, is available at https://magazine.arma.org/2022/07/the-igp-exam-new-and-improved/. The updated resources and link to register are available on the main IGP page at https://www.arma.org/general/custom.asp?page=igp.
(Full disclosure: I had a minor role in the update, participating on the standard-setting (i.e. passing score) workshop).
AIIM International announced today, July 20, on the AIIM Community (members only) that it has appointed an executive search firm to find Peggy Winton's successor as CEO. Apparently none of the ones they interviewed, or that applied but didn't get interviewed, made the cut.
I'm posting the job description here just so it can get wider visibility - they need a strong CEO in place ASAP. Key gatekeeping requirement is 7-10 years of senior association experience and a bachelor's degree. They also want someone with knowledge of or experience in information management, which drops the potential pool of candidates dramatically - just not a lot of those unicorns out there to choose from.
If any of my connections are interested, you can send a cover letter and resume to AIIMCEOSearch@vettedsolutions.com.
Here's the job description. I did find it interesting that while membership and conference and events were specifically called out, the CIP certification, or certifications broadly, were not, despite them being one of the top revenue lines for associations that develop them properly and market them effectively (or at all). This despite just having announced this week the intent to refresh the CIP program and exam.
OVERVIEW
The Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM) is seeking a dynamic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead the organization, which serves information management professionals and firms which provide their business solutions. In the digital transformation age, the information management professionals rely on AIIM for its independent research, education, and professional certification to keep current and advance their careers. Members value the AIIM community and networking opportunities, including the annual conference which attracts global non-members.
AIIM is excited to seek its next CEO who will replace a retiring executive, shape the industry and organization’s future, and build on past successes. Reporting to the Board of Directors, AIIM seeks an innovative, trusted, and transparent leader with a collaborative style who can effectively lead and promote the organization, drive membership and revenue growth, as well as develop and market new member-value-based programs, products, and events. A successful candidate will thrive in an association of individual members, firms, and solution-provider firms while emphasizing relationship-building, industry and professional advancement, and thriving through dynamic change. Further, the right professional fit will be a future-focused strategic thinker, growth-oriented, a quick study who maximizes resources, especially human capital – members, sponsors, and staff.
Established in 1943, AIIM is the world’s leading association dedicated to the information technology industry and its practice. Today, the mission remains relevant and meaningful as industries and businesses are experiencing a generational shift around how they manage their information and records. AIIM is a 501(c)6, tax-exempt membership organization. A 12-member Board of Directors governs AIIM. Long before the pandemic shifted work locations, AIIM’s virtual staff team of 14 executed the association’s work from their home offices in the U.S. and U.K. AIIM’s annual budget is approximately $3 million.
Information management continues to evolve as technology, uses and practices need to keep up with modern business. This is no truer than today’s current business and technological advances. AIIM, since its inception, has been at the forefront defining and driving industry practices and supporting the professionals that serve it. Keeping ahead of and leading the conversation with a vision for the future of information management is a critical to AIIM and what our membership expects of us and our leadership. Being at the helm of AIIM is an opportunity for a forward-thinking individual who would be excited to usher in and lead the next era of intelligent information management.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
The position requires 15% travel to business meetings and industry events.
MEASURES OF SUCCESS
The specifics regarding measures of success, including metrics, will ultimately be agreed upon by the new CEO and the AIIM Board, but at the end of the executive’s first year, the Board would expect the following:
Caught this on LinkedIn just now; it was also posted to the AIIM Community (members only) but, at least so far, not emailed to active CIPs yet. AIIM has announced that it is beginning a project to update the Certified Information Professional (CIP) exam.
Here is the announcement as it was posted; I'll have a few thoughts on it after.
The role of Information Management is extending beyond the traditional boundaries and continues to evolve. As such, the CIP key Body of Knowledge (BoK) and the corresponding exam must also evolve.
To that end, AIIM is undertaking the project to audit, edit, and update the CIP BoK – and we're not doing this in a vacuum.
We're recruiting Subject Matter Experts – like you – actively working in Information Management who have the knowledge, expertise, and time to collaborate on this project. At the conclusion of this project, we will be publishing the CIP v2023 BoK, Study Guide, and updated bank of exam questions. This project will be headed by a leading industry project manager well-versed in this type of an undertaking.
The project is commencing the first of August and is expected to run through February/March, 2023.
The deadline to submit your application is Friday, July 29. We will confirm your participation the first week in August. Submit your application here.
Domains:
The AIIM Community is built on how we share and learn what we know. Your participation would be so much appreciated. Thank you in advance – and I look forward to working with you.
My thoughts/questions:
First, in my opinion, working on a relevant, meaningful certification is a fantastic experience. I've gotten the opportunity to do it with 2 vendor certifications programs, several other associations, and of course three times at AIIM and it is incredibly rewarding. I strongly encourage qualified (i.e., passed the proctored CIP exam) CIPs to consider volunteering for this.
Next, I'll be curious to know who the "leading industry project manager well-versed in this type of undertaking" is - since there are several undertakings in question:
The first three can be led by a motivated project lead and diligent volunteers and be done within the time frame they outline above; the Study Guide is a whole other semi-related chunk of work and bigger than I think they think it is if it is to align, or at least not contradict, all of the current AIIM+ Pro content. Updating all of that AIIM+ Pro content should be part of this too, if AIIM is going to continue to claim that AIIM+ Pro is "loaded with training courses that cover the body of knowledge that makes up the CIP exam."
I hope as well that this is an external project manager - in my mind there is zero chance that this can be successfully led by current staff who are already fully engaged and then some. And I hope whoever this project manager is has the strength of character to do the update the right way, as outlined in ISO 17024 and by lots of different resources available through the Institute for Credentialing Excellence, rather than being browbeaten into a substandard "certification" that "removes the friction from the process". To paraphrase John F. Kennedy's moon speech, people take certifications "...not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."
I'll also be curious to know who their psychometrician is. There's a whole process to developing the actual exam that goes beyond just writing X number of questions on Y different topics. Items have to be drafted and reviewed by different people. Items have to be scored and assessed for their validity. The scoring standard has to be set appropriately and not simply arbitrarily set to e.g. 70%. I was always very open and transparent in how we built and updated CIP, and I call on AIIM to do the same.
Finally, as I've written in many previous posts, the CIP could really be something special if it's done properly and if anyone at AIIM ever learns the first thing about marketing, but I have no faith whatsoever in the current senior leadership at AIIM and their ability to do that.
Anticipating a question/comment: I am not going to apply to participate as a subject matter expert. I would be happy to be that external project manager, but I'd run the update the way it's supposed to be done, rather than the way I fear senior management will cause it to be done - that's a big part of why I left AIIM last year in fact. And I don't think they can afford me. I hope that those that do apply as subject matter experts give due consideration to what they want the CIP to be and how to maximize the value of the CIP to the broader industry.
Update 7/19: Peggy Winton, outgoing AIIM CEO, just replied to the original LinkedIn announcement, "Future-readying. Modernization. Think different. #aiim". This confirms to me that she, at least, learned nothing from the February announcement changing the exam to an unproctored one and requiring retakes every three years - one of the points made in that announcement was, "In consultation with members of our community and professional training/certification experts, we make these changes to align with modern pervasive learning best practices." I'd love to see more members of the CIP Community push back and ask for more clarification on precisely what she means by her comment.
The July 2022 issue of The Information Management Menu is now live. I included a couple of announcements, a lot of events between now and Oct 31, and a new regular feature - an actual recipe! This month's recipe is for savory oatmeal - and a couple of variations on it are linked in the newsletter.
Check out the newsletter at https://mailchi.mp/f322780ef184/the-information-management-menu-july-2022.
I think by now everyone knows my thoughts on the compromised CIP exam. But in the last few weeks something...interesting...has happened, and I got asked about it the other day, with a suggestion that I might have been behind it.
Someone has been intentionally publicly compromising the exam by posting real questions, and answers, around industry websites and blogs. I first found out about it when an anonymous poster tried to post 4 comments to this blog on May 17, 2022. I moderate comments, so when I got the email about there being comments to approve or not, I took a look and immediately recognized them for what they were and disapproved them so they would NOT show up on my blog. I also retook the unproctored CIP exam to confirm that they were real exam questions and answers, and they were. I've also seen at least one other blog with a similar comment. Each comment consisted of 15-20 exam questions and answers.
Then, on May 22, someone named "B Cummins" sprayed the AIIM community with what appears to be a single post. I get email announcements when there are posts in groups I'm a member of, and I got them from CIP Study Group, CIPs Unite!, Records Managers, and the Open Forum. I also got sent it directly through the Community messaging; I heard from at least one other person that they had received it via message as well.
Each post is structured the same way:
CIP Exam Compromised
kejserinden nye klæder
NIAGLHLIRLSWDY
And then the exam questions and answers. I put the phrase through Google Translate and it comes back with "the empress new clothes" in Danish. I tried to Google the acronym and couldn't find anything that seemed to make sense.
The Community sites were cleaned up pretty quickly, and as I noted above the comments were never live on this blog. But I want to be absolutely clear: while I disagree with AIIM's handling of the CIP, and have for some time (in fact, it's why I left AIIM last year), I would never, under any circumstances, stoop to actually publishing real exam questions. It goes against everything I believe about certification programs and exams; moreover, I have too much respect for all the CIPs who passed the proctored exam, and even those who passed the unproctored one, to dishonor their achievements by publishing live exam questions.
Now, I did save a copy of one of the five times I took the unproctored exam. AIIM announced on May 12th that they had a plan to return the exam to a proctored status in approximately 60 days, and I will be taking the proctored exam again and comparing it to the one I saved to see if they updated the exam, which is absolutely essential since it's clearly out in the wild, or if they simply took the shortcut of turning proctoring on for the same, compromised, exam. I know where I'd put my money given their behavior regarding the exam over the last 6 months, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Once I know the answer either way I will "double-delete" the unproctored exam I saved.
But in the meantime, I want to make this 100% clear through this post: I did not make the B Cummins posts, I certainly didn't attempt to post those comments to my own blog, and I have no idea who is behind this. I wish I did, because I'd publicly expose and denounce them for the cheating cheaters that they are.
If anyone, particularly anyone at AIIM, has questions, I'm happy to entertain them including sharing the complete messages I received through the Community, from the Community posts, and from my blog. AIIM staff would be able to see the questions and confirm them on their own; anyone else, I'll of course remove any exam questions before sharing the messages. If you want to take me up on this, feel free to reach out at jwilkins13@gmail.com.
Here are the webinars and podcasts I'm aware of for July 1 - 31, 2022. I don't have anything to do with them from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions. I also don't get paid or get anything out of this other than the satisfaction of helping get the word out.
Note that if your webinar is not RIM-related, even if it's put on by an industry group such as an ARMA chapter, I'm not going to list it. Change management is RIM-related IMO, "How to Write a Cover Letter" is not.
Finally, since most of the AIIM and ARMA chapters are on hiatus over the summer, I'll post the lists for July and August monthly. I'll go back to every couple of weeks once the chapter years start up again in late August/early September.
7/5 - AIIM+, Records Management Coffee & Conversations: Return to Office (members only)
7/12 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - M365: Third Party Add-Ons (members only)
7/12 - MER Sapient and Contoural, Getting RIM on an Equal Footing with IT
7/13 - AIIM International, Rethinking Risk: What AIIM Resaerch Reveals About New Drivers and Approaches
7/13 - IAPP, User Consent in the Digital Age (members only)
7/14 - ARMA International and Access Sciences, IG Program Progress: Focus on the "Why" Before the "What" and "How" (members only)
7/14 - IAPP, The Great Resignation: DSARs, Data Exfiltration and the Costs of Compliance (members only)
7/19 - Meru Data, Planning for 2023: Managing Across 5 State Privacy Laws
7/19 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - Offboarding Customers / Employees (members only)
7/20 - Access Sciences, Navigating Change on Your AI Journey
7/21 - ARMA International and Contoural, Futureproofing Your IG Program: Making Your Initiative Stick In Times Of Change (members only)
7/21 - IAPP, State of US Privacy: Countdown to Compliance (members only)
7/21 - Association of Legal Administrators Mile Hi Chapter, How to Improve Your Program with a Records Management Playbook
7/26 - AIIM+, Canada Coffee & Conversations: CPPA: How Can IG Professionals Play a Role? (members only)
If you know of a webinar or podcast during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com.
Re: vendor/consultant-led webinars, I know that demos are quite educational, as are customer case studies - but they are generally too narrow (and self-serving) for me to list them. This is irrespective of source; AIIM/ARMA/MER/etc. webinars that are basically sales pitches won't get listed either. MER Sapient-type stuff, or Access Sciences' webinars, are good examples I'm happy to include. If you think yours will pass muster, contact me at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com and let's talk. No cost to list anything, I just need the details (and for it to meet my criteria for education).
I noted last year that I was back on the speaking circuit. This post is an update to that one, with some updated topics and how I'm approaching speaking events for the rest of 2022 and 2023.
By way of background, I've been speaking on information management-related topics since around 2000. I've been privileged to speak at AIIM 2003 - 2022, ARMA 2003 - 2011, a number of MER conferences between 2010 and 2022, and more than 400 other events since 2003. I've also delivered a number of keynote sessions at conferences, user group meetings, and solution provider events.
Topics
Here are some topics that I'm very comfortable doing - I speak on them regularly, albeit with different nuances for different audiences. This is not an exhaustive list, just the things I've done more recently. If you don't see your topic or angle on the list, reach out to me anyway and we can discuss.
Some of these can be done as half- or full-day seminars or workshops, complete with checklists, guidelines, templates, etc.
Delivery
Many organizations are moving back to in-person meetings, or at least hybrid ones. I am quite comfortable doing in-person events, but you or your organization might not be. That's OK; I've been doing live remote events since 2004. For remote, I have access to Zoom, Slack, Teams, Webex, Google, etc. and if you have a different platform I'll figure it out.
For in-person events, whatever venue you use, I can make work; I've spoken in auditoriums, conference rooms, bars, a bowling alley, and even Fenway Park and the Boston Zoo.
Fees and Scheduling
As was the case this past year, I have decided to waive any speaking fees for local or regional events for non-profits like ARMA and AIIM chapters. For in-person events, even chapter meetings, I do need to recoup travel costs, but I'm a pretty cheap date. Solution providers and end user organizations? I'm available to speak at your events as well, but I do charge a fee and travel costs, with the fee based on the location, duration, and topic.
If you're interested, reach out to me at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com to discuss. Right now I'm scheduling starting in September 2022 through June 2023. If you're interested in a half- or full-day seminar, please contact me sooner than later as I have a very limited amount of availability for those.
Peter Rahalski, Infotechtion: Why 2022 is a Big Year for Automation in Microsoft 365 Records Management
Just posted the June 2022 issue of The Information Management Menu. A little lighter, as chapters and associations head into the summer doldrums, but still some interesting stuff. Check it out here:
https://mailchi.mp/cea263bb69e3/the-information-management-menu-june-2022
This is the first in a series of posts about getting speakers for your event. In this one, I'll try to focus on it from the event planner's perspective. I will have at least one more from the speaker's point of view. These posts are based on my experience as a paid public speaker for more than 20 years, and a chapter leader off & on in the interim.
Most of what I will share probably isn't applicable if you're looking for a highly known and visible keynote like a professional athlete, or if you're looking for a speaker for a huge audience. There are resources for those, including innumerable speakers bureaus, the National Speakers Association and Meeting Planners International. Rather, my focus is on connecting speakers in the information management industry with events, especially local ones, that need speakers on those topics.
So! When you're looking for a speaker for your event, there are a couple of things to consider.
What are you looking for?
What kind of meeting are you looking for a speaker for? Different speakers will have different comfort levels based on the size and type of audience. Some speakers are fantastic on, or facilitating, panels or interviews, but don't like being the main attraction.
Are you looking for someone to be on a panel, or facilitate one, or lead a breakout session, or deliver a keynote? Keynotes, in my opinion, are not just plenary sessions in front of a larger audience. More on that in a separate post. Are you hoping for someone who can fill multiple spots at the same event - or even fill a full- or multi-day event by themselves?
What topic(s) are you looking for? If it's something mainstream, what's the twist that will make it interesting to your audience? If it's cutting edge, how cutting edge is it - that is, will your audience be interested, and can you find a speaker that can make it relatable?
What you should definitely be looking for:
Where do you find speakers?
With all that in mind, where can you find speakers? I don't think it has to be as hard as you'd think. While there are a few dozen of us that seem to "make the rounds", I can give you a list of at least 100 speakers right now, including biographies and representative topics.
Where? If you looked at these sources going back just a couple of years, you could easily identify more than 100 speakers to pull from.
In short, there are lots of speakers out there, and many of them are happy to share their time and energy for low or no cost. If you absolutely cannot seem to make headway in finding a speaker, reach out to me and I'd be happy to try to help - and I don't mean just as a speaker.
Possible Speakers for Your Events
In the meantime, here's a starting point of people I know are generally available as speakers and are good at it. It's up to you to reach out to them directly to discuss topics, fees, logistics, etc., but they've given me permission to include an email to contact them at.
Here are the webinars and podcasts I'm aware of for June 16 - July 15, 2022. I don't have anything to do with them from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions. I also don't get paid or get anything out of this other than the satisfaction of helping get the word out.
6/16 - ARMA Greater Seattle, Why Records and Governance Matter - A Personal Journey
6/16 - ARMA Utah, Summer Social
6/16 - ARMA St. Louis, Member Appreciation Celebration
6/16 - ARMA New England, End of Year Event - Hingham Historical Society
6/21 - ARMA Mile Hi Denver, Information Architecture Workshop
6/21 - ARMA Atlanta, State of the Chapter
6/21 - ARMA San Antonio, Virtual Meetings and Ephemeral Messaging: Preservation and Spoliation Issues
6/21 - ARMA Tidewater, Reflections on a Chapter Year
6/21 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - Transition from a Physical to Digital Paradigm (members only)
6/22 - ARMA Houston, Supporting Privacy Compliance with Effective Records Management
6/22 - ARMA Jacksonville, The Information Circle, An Archival Approach to a Records Management Challenge
6/23 - ARMA Southwestern Ontario, The Opportunities and Challenges for a Police Service to Implement Body-worn Cameras & In-Car Videos
6/23 - ARMA Toronto, Annual General Meeting and Virtual Social
6/23 - ARMA Northern Virgina, Wrap Up for 2021-2022
6/23 - ARMA and ACEDS, Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (members only)
6/28 - AIIM+, Canada Coffee & Conversations: Best Practices in Canadian Government (members only)
6/29 - AIIM, It's All in the Tools: Putting M365 to Work for Information Management
6/29 - IGWorld Magazine, Data Security Basics for Information Managers
6/29 - ARMA Greater Los Angeles, Preparing for the CPRA and Other Compliancy Requirements
6/29 - ARMA Greater Washington DC Chapter, End of Year Mixer
6/29 - ARMA Upstate New York, Erie Canal Heritage Park Tour
6/30 - Austin ARMA, Member Appreciation Meeting
7/5 - AIIM+, Records Management Coffee & Conversations: Return to Office (members only)
7/12 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - M365: Third Party Add-Ons (members only)
7/12 - MER Sapient and Contoural, Getting RIM on an Equal Footing with IT
7/13 - AIIM International, Rethinking Risk: What AIIM Resaerch Reveals About New Drivers and Approaches
7/14 - ARMA International and Access Sciences, IG Program Progress: Focus on the "Why" Before the "What" and "How" (members only)
If you know of a webinar or podcast during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com.
Re: vendor/consultant-led webinars, I know that demos are quite educational, as are customer case studies - but they are generally too narrow (and self-serving) for me to list them. This is irrespective of source; AIIM/ARMA/MER/etc. webinars that are basically sales pitches won't get listed either. MER Sapient-type stuff, or Access Sciences' webinars, are good examples that I'm happy to include. If you think yours will pass muster, contact me at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com and let's talk. No cost to list anything, I just need the details (and for it to meet my criteria for educational value).
As they typically do, AIIM posted a list to the AIIM Community today recognizing new and renewing CIPs for the month of May. (I'd link to the post, but the AIIM Community is members-only). My name was on the list, and I've since had a couple of people reach out to me to ask why, given my overwhelming opposition to the changes to the CIP program AIIM announced in February. My opposition to those changes has not changed; recent announcements that seem to walk most if not all of them back sound good, but I'll believe them when I see them.
No, the reason for my "renewal" is pretty simple. I *did* pay the $150 (non-member rate) required to renew, so I could take the compromised, unproctored exam and gauge how it worked. I did take the exam - 5x so far in fact, and passed it 3 of those times - the other two intentionally failing to see what that behavior looked like. Before I left AIIM I'd also submitted 92 CEUs, and AIIM retained a record of that. So the administrative requirements had been met, and my status was renewed as of the date I passed the exam again.
But until it goes back to being a proctored exam - and, since as noted above, the current exam is compromised, that means the exam is updated as well, and the right way - I continue to view it as just a certificate program. Then again, certificate programs don't require or offer renewal requirements, so even that doesn't really apply.
That means that I will not use the designation, I will not bring it into certification discussions, I won't be fighting to include it in my panel discussion on certifications at ARMA InfoCon 2022 in October, etc. This is a defensible position, one that I'm pretty qualified to make based on my background with CIP and several other certifications - and a certification in certification development too.
I do not trust AIIM senior management to do the right thing, or to even understand what the right thing is, despite my many blog posts on the matter, so I'd need a whole lot more visibility into how they are updating the CIP exam and program before I'm prepared to trust it and refer to it as a certification. If you search "CIP" on this blog, you'll see a plethora of posts from each of the three development phases - 2011, 2016, and 2019 - with the type of information that would make me trust the process. Until they do those things, meaningfully and the right way, CIP is just a certificate program.
I first wrote about ARMA's project to update their Certified Information Governance Professional (IGP) certification in December 2021. Last week, ARMA announced an update to the status of that project. Specifically, the exam has been written and pilot testing of the exam questions is underway through June 18, with a go-live date for the new exam of July 15, 2022.
The announcement is available at https://www.arma.org/news/news.asp?id=606472; you can find some additional information about the IGP program at https://www.arma.org/page/igp
H/T: IGGuru.Net
Update 6/6: Added ARMA Greater Seattle event on 6/16
Update 6/2: Added IGWorld Magazine event on 6/29
Here are the webinars and podcasts I'm aware of for June 1-30, 2022. I don't have anything to do with them from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions. I also don't get paid or get anything out of this other than the satisfaction of helping get the word out.
Note that if your webinar is not RIM-related, even if it's put on by an industry group such as an ARMA chapter, I'm not going to list it. Change management is RIM-related IMO, "How to Write a Cover Letter" is not.
6/2 - NAGARA and Iron Mountain, Moving the Masses: Office Consolidations and Records Management in the Post-Pandemic World
6/7 - MER Sapient and Contoural, How Your Records Retention Schedule Helps or Hurts Your M365 Deployment
6/7 - AIIM+, Records Managers Coffee & Conversation - Records Management vs. Information Governance (members only)
6/8 - ARMA Puget Sound, Responding to Public Records Requests for Emails
6/8 - Access Sciences, Unforced Errors: 4 Costly AI Mistakes
6/9 - ARMA Greater Sacramento, Remote Dispositions
6/9 - ARMA Vancouver, Annual General Meeting
6/9 - ARMA Detroit, ARMA Mid-Michigan, ARMA Western Michigan, Managing Presidential Records
6/9 - AIIM+ WIIM, Virtual Onboarding - The New Norm (members only)
6/9 - MER Sapient and Valora, How to Manage Data Privacy While Managing Records
6/13 - ARMA NCR Ottawa, Annual General Meeting and Top Trends Shaping Content Management for 2022-23
6/14 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - M365: Remaining Functionality Gaps (members only)
6/15 - ARMA Nebraska, FUNdamental of IG Panel Discussion - Securing Information
6/15 - ARMA New Jersey, INFORM22 - Full Day Conference
6/15 - AIIM True North, Leveraging AI to Improve IG - And Vice Versa.
6/15 - AIIM, When Information Management and Automation Converge, Everybody Wins
6/15 - ARMA Golden State, Summer Roundtable - What's Up with You?
6/16 - ARMA Utah, Summer Social
6/16 - ARMA St. Louis, Member Appreciation Celebration
6/16 - ARMA Greater Seattle, Why Records and Governance Matter - A Personal Journey
6/21 - ARMA Mile Hi Denver, Information Architecture Workshop
6/21 - ARMA Atlanta, State of the Chapter
6/21 - AIIM+, Meeting the Challenge - Transition from a Physical to Digital Paradigm (members only)
6/22 - ARMA Houston, Supporting Privacy Compliance with Effective Records Management
6/22 - ARMA Jacksonville, The Information Circle, An Archival Approach to a Records Management Challenge
6/23 - ARMA Southwestern Ontario, The Opportunities and Challenges for a Police Service to Implement Body-worn Cameras & In-Car Videos
6/23 - ARMA Toronto, Annual General Meeting and Virtual Social
6/23 - ARMA and ACEDS, Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (members only)
6/28 - AIIM+, Canada Coffee & Conversation: Best Practices in Canadian Government (members only)
6/29 - AIIM, It's All in the Tools: Putting M365 to Work for Information Management
6/29 - IGWorld Magazine, Data Security Basics for Information Managers
If you know of a webinar or podcast during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com.
Re: vendor/consultant-led webinars, I know that demos are quite educational, as are customer case studies - but they are generally too narrow (and self-serving) for me to list them. This is irrespective of source; AIIM/ARMA/MER/etc. webinars that are basically sales pitches won't get listed either. MER Sapient-type stuff, or Access Sciences' webinars, are good examples I'm happy to include. If you think yours will pass muster, contact me at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com and let's talk. No cost to list anything, I just need the details (and for it to meet my criteria for education).
Update 6/7: I've rewritten this entire post due to a number of updates and actions that AIIM has taken since the original was published.
I mentioned in a recent post that AIIM had provided an update to the CIP program. The email closed with this note:
"Thank you for your patience and your understanding as we modernize and grow the CIP program. You will shortly receive a personal status update with a requalification timeline."
I received that updated email and it does show my correct renewal date of 5/4/2025. There are some issues that AIIM is still working through with regards to the CEU visibility and inclusion in the email, but as they clarified viia email and in the AIIM Community,
"We most certainly are able to track your CEUs from our systems -- even the legacy ones. All conferences you have attended with AIIM, all courses in the legacy learning management system and within AIIM+ Pro, AIIM webinars and virtual events, and downloaded ebooks. These are all trackable by AIIM, and we are working to update all these totals into one system."
As you would expect, non-AIIM CEUs need to be submitted manually - this form https://gzclelland.wufoo.com/forms/cip-certification-maintenance-form/ and process have not changed, but the form does need to use the email address at which this email was received. If changes are required, CIPs should reach out to AIIM at hello@aiim.org to make them.
If you haven't accessed AIIM+ Pro yet, it consists of 30 courses as of today, June 7, 2022, mostly taken from the legacy content but given a massive makeover to be much more engaging and valuable. I've been critical of AIIM for a lot of things since I left, but this is one I think they've gotten substantially right. In additional to the individual courses, AIIM has created a number of learning paths that gather anywhere from 3 - 12 related courses together into, e.g., "Capturing and Sharing Documents" or "Modern Records Management."
The courses show a timing of anywhere from 20 - 60 minutes, but this is only an approximation of the actual video run time. Students should expect to take up to 2-3x the time shown to complete a module if they do the exercises and activities included.
The CIP study guide is also there, and broken into 11 easier to consume chunks of content. This is also where you would access the currently still unproctored CIP exam - note that you do NOT need an AIIM+ Pro subscription to access it.
Remaining concerns with AIIM+ Pro as a mechanism for doing and tracking CEUs:
And of course my ongoing concerns:
WBT Systems is always putting good stuff out and this one is no exception. I really like the suggestion about incorporating VIPs - industry influencers, experienced practitioners, even vendors if used properly - and the idea of an alumni program. I'll be looking for ways to incorporate these into my training offerings!
Read the entire post here: https://www.wbtsystems.com/learning-hub/blogs/differentiate-your-online-learning-programs
Great link from Deirdre Reid's Association Brain food newsletter. The MemberSuite article discusses value propositions from the perspectives of individuals as well as their employers, and how to get employers involved with the credentialing program. It concludes with some recommendations for how to increase the value of your credential, notably instilling a culture that values and even brags about credentialing - things like ensuring credential holders' designation is included whenever they are mentioned, etc.
I'd have forwarded this to my two primary membership associations, AIIM and ARMA, or at least linked to them in a Tweet, but neither has marketed their credentials in years and have barely mentioned them in months, usually just to describe impending changes to them (or reverting those changes).
IG GURU published this via Twitter earlier today. You can find the full story at https://igguru.net/2022/05/20/breaking-iso-publishes-new-information-governance-ig-standard/.
You can find the standard itself on the ISO page at https://www.iso.org/standard/77915.html. I looked on the ANSI page to purchase it so I could review, but the only version they have is the FDIS (Final Draft International Standard). While there are not likely to have been any changes, I still plan to wait for the official official version.
I find it fascinating that the concept and principles of information governance can be captured in a 12-page ISO standard, and that page count includes titles, definitions etc. IIRC. Again, I'll get it once it's on the ANSI site and will review it here.
Here are the webinars and podcasts I'm aware of for May 17 - June 15, 2022. I don't have anything to do with them from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions. I also don't get paid or get anything out of this other than the satisfaction of helping get the word out.
Note that if your webinar is not RIM-related, even if it's put on by an industry group such as an ARMA chapter, I'm not going to list it. Change management is RIM-related IMO, "How to Write a Cover Letter" is not.
5/17 - ARMA Mile Hi Denver, Immigrant Secrets: Research & Privacy in Genealogy
5/17 - ARMA Mid-Michigan, Even in Death, There are Records (Cemetery Records)
5/17 - ARMA San Antonio, The Pivotal Role of Front End Digitization Workflows
5/17 - ARMA Northern Virginia, Blockchain and Bitcoin for RIM Professionals
5/17 - ARMA Atlanta, Build, Adapt & Execute Your Information Governance, Privacy, and eDiscovery Strategy
5/18 - ARMA Nebraska, Police Dogs - Take a Bite Out of Records
5/18 - ARMA Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Metroparks and Zoo Records Management Policy
5/18 - ARMA Golden Gate, Using Metrics as a Records and Information Management Power Tool
5/18 - ARMA Pittsburgh, Artificial Intelligence - Algorithms & Unintended Bias: Understanding and Responding to Emerging Regulations on Automated Decision-Making
5/19 - ARMA Metro New York City, 5 Steps to Get Your Firm's Information Governance Initiatives Off the Ground
5/19 - ARMA Greater Columbus, Spring Seminar
5/19 - ARMA Liberty Bell, 5 Steps to Get Your Firm's Information Governance Initiatives Off the Ground
5/20 - ARMA Hawai'i, Governmental Records - A Look at Hawai'i and Oregon
5/24 - ARMA New England, Drafting Effective Information Management Policies - Workshop
5/24 - ARMA Chicago, Spring Seminar
5/25 - ARMA Louisville, Records Reincarnation, Send an email to Lydia.mcgahee@texasroadhouse.com.
5/25 - ARMA San Diego, Facilitation Strategies for IG Professionals
5/26 - AIIM Florida, Taking Productivity to New Heights with Low-Code Tools and Automation
5/26 - ARMA Milwaukee, Extend Your Vacation
5/26 - Austin ARMA, Panel Discussion - Make Defensible Disposition a Reality
6/2 - NAGARA and Iron Mountain, Moving the Masses: Office Consolidations and Records Management in the Post-Pandemic World
6/8 - ARMA Puget Sound, Responding to Public Records Requests for Emails
6/8 - Access Sciences, 4 Costly AI Mistakes
6/9 - ARMA Vancouver, Annual General Meeting
6/9 - ARMA Detroit, ARMA Mid-Michigan, ARMA Western Michigan, Managing Presidential Records
6/9 - MER Sapient and Valora, How to Manage Data Privacy While Managing Records
6/15 - ARMA Nebraska, FUNdamental of IG Panel Discussion - Securing Information
6/15 - ARMA New Jersey, INFORM22 - Full Day Conference
If you know of a webinar or podcast during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com.
Re: vendor/consultant-led webinars, I know that demos are quite educational, as are customer case studies - but they are generally too narrow (and self-serving) for me to list them. This is irrespective of source; AIIM/ARMA/MER/etc. webinars that are basically sales pitches won't get listed either. If you think yours will pass muster, contact me at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com and let's talk.
Last week I attended the MER 2022 conference, held for the first time outside of Chicago in Indianapolis, IN. This was the first in-person MER conference since 2019; it was one of the first events in our industry impacted by the broad COVID shutdowns. I was there to attend and network; I also had a speaking session on professional development for information professionals.
The hotel venue was excellent, as is typical of the MER, and I have to give a special shout out to the food which was pretty amazing for conference food.
As with AIIM22, I got the chance to catch up with some of my favorite colleagues including no fewer than five of my Slackers! (I'll do a post about this august body at some point.) In-person attendance was, however, somewhat sparse - I'd guess 150 or so including speakers & vendors. There were at least another 100 attending via hybrid, and it may be significantly more than that - I was told that there were 100+ virtual attendees for my session. Attendance at the in-person sessions was around 20-30 per session, and one of the rooms was set for around 200, so people really rattled around in there. I know, social distancing, but still.
There were only 12 vendors listed on the website; only 7 actually set up booths and had personnel manning them. The ICRM had what I assume was a free booth as well. Not sure if the low overall number and even lower turnout was due to COVID restrictions, the event being in Indianapolis this year, or something else, but it was definitely unusual to see so few vendors in attendance.
The app was good for seeing the schedule, but as with AIIM22, there was no real way to interact with other attendees other than 1-on-1 email-style messaging. I don't understand why nobody seems to get the value a) of having a live feed and b) keeping that live feed going year round. I'll go out on a limb here and say that there's probably a non-trivial number of conference ticket sales being left on the table because attendees can't stay in touch between conferences and can't show off/generate fear of missing out (FOMO) with their colleagues.
At the opening keynote, Seth Williams announced that MER has joined the training game. MER Immerse Online will feature online self-paced training courses, at least initially. At launch it includes Rob Bogue's very good courses on change management and managing information with SharePoint and M365; later this year, it will also include courses on eDiscovery, by Ann Snyder; Mind the Gap: Demystifying AI Systems and Their Implications for Information Governance, by Julie Brickell and Bruce Hedin; and Fundamentals of Information Management, by...me! I'm hoping to have my course done and ready to go by the end of the year, and we may start posting bits as they are ready rather than waiting for it all to be done.
I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my colleagues old and new during conference. So much so in fact, that I started feeling a little run-down on Saturday as I prepared to head home. At the time, I chalked it up to too much time at the cigar bar, but a colleague informed me in a group text this morning that she'd tested positive for COVID today. Another colleague in that group text also tested positive, so I decided that I would take a rapid test. Despite having had OG COVID in December 2020, and having gotten 3 Pfizer shots, I, too, tested positive this morning. We since found out that another of the Slacker group did as well; I'm not yet ready to call it a superspreader event, but it goes to show that COVID is still out there.
MER hasn't yet announced where MER 2023 will be held. I've strongly recommended to them that they consider Denver, for all the reasons I outlined in my many AIIM22 posts. Regardless of where it is, though, I am absolutely looking forward to next year's conference!
Update 5/24:Biannual is every 2 years, not every 6 months. I've noted that in my reponse to the final bullet.
AIIM sent out the following email today, updating CIPs on some decisions they've made. I'll post my thoughts after the email.
Our sincere thanks to you and all CIPs that have provided feedback through various channels about recent changes to the examination and recertification process. We appreciate your passion and your dedication to the Intelligent Information Management practice. As you may remember, we solicited feedback from the extended CIP community via anonymous survey. Having now analyzed the survey responses from 120 participating CIPs, we are proposing the following actions to be taken:
Thank you for your patience and your understanding as we modernize and grow the CIP program. You will shortly receive a personal status update with a requalification timeline.
All the best,
Peggy
Me: I think it's good that AIIM took into account the feedback from the CIP community, and seems to be reverting many of the changes. Specifically:
Updated 5/12 to note that the exam is NOT behind the AIIM+ Pro paywall.
Updated 5/24 to note the results of retaking the exam again because I'm a completionist.
TL; DR: Besides the broader issues I'd noted with the CIP exam being not proctored and therefore compromised, the exam, the process to take it, and the results are all still very much works in progress, despite AIIM having had nearly 3 months from the date of the announcement that the exam would be unproctored, more than 3 months since they actually flipped the switch, and more than 9 months since I was told with little uncertainty that that was where it was going.
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I wrote a post in February 2022 outlining my attempt to use the newly unproctored AIIM CIP exam to "renew" my "certification". (The quotes are because, absent a proctored exam, in my considered professional opinion the CIP is now a certificate program, and certificate programs do not require renewal. Yes, there are standards for certificate programs as well.) In it, I noted that I hadn't received the promised "recertification email that you’ll receive closer to your renewal date." I updated that post on Mar 2 to note that I still hadn't received it.
On April 30, exactly 30 days out from my renewal date of May 30, I sent another email and got a response to the effect that CEUs would be allowed for renewal, but no details were readily available yet (confirmed, the renewal verbiage on the AIIM website hasn't changed since Feb 10) and that I could either take the currently unproctored exam or do CEUs. In both cases, the price is $150, and the person I talked to knows (or should know) that I am currently an AIIM+ Pro Member. I take this to mean that there is no longer a member discount for renewal, even though the Stay Certified tab still references the member discount. If this is not the case, and I just overpaid by $15 as a result of using the link AIIM sent, I'll update this post. Note that I still haven't received any sort of automated reminder and as of this writing I'm 19 days out from expiration.
I had some time last week so I decided to attempt the process again. The verbiage still hasn't been updated on the Stay Certified tab to allow renewing CIPs to pay the reduced exam fee for renewal, so it's still a "reach out to hello@aiim.org and ask" manual process.
Last week's email response included the following: If you would like to take the currently unproctored exam you can pay for your renewal here (link to the renewal-priced exam; since AIIM didn't post it I won't either) we will then add the exam into your Northpass (AIIM+) profile. As promised, the exam appeared in my profile, listed after the AIIM21 sessions and before the CIP Study Guide courses.
Aside: I meant to test whether you had to have an AIIM+ or AIIM+ Pro account in order to be able to access the exam. I'll get confirmation of that next week when the person who runs that is back in the office. I know when I canceled my AIIM+ Pro subscription for a day or so, it immediately removed all access to AIIM training - my "CEUs", the courses I'd completed, the certificates, everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if membership was now basically a requirement. Once I confirm one way or the other I'll update this post.
Update 5/12/2022: I canceled my sub, and have no courses, and no learning paths, but I still do have access to the CIP exam.
I clicked the View button, and it opened up an interface similar to other AIIM+ Pro resources. Interestingly, the domains were listed, but in reverse order, and Domain 1 was renamed from Creating and Capturing Information to Creating, Capturing, and Sharing Content. The other four domains remained the same.
I clicked the Start Course button, and the description noted that it's 100 questions, and will take about two hours, but "Luckily, there's no time limit!" It also references the renewal requirement to retake the exam, so this will presumably need to be updated as well if the reversion to allow CEUs does happen. It also references AIIM's arbitrary change to the passing score from 60%, which was derived using psychometrically valid modified Angoff scoring, to 70%, which, again, was an arbitrary value. So much for Peggy Winton's and AIIM's concerns about the CEU renewal process being arbitrary.
I clicked the Continue button, and the first question appeared. Because it's not proctored, I can tab out to the study guide or any other resources. More importantly, I can copy & paste questions from the test interface:
1 of 100
Which is the most significant challenge to [rest of question removed so *I* am not contributing to the compromise of the exam]?
Or take screenshots and sell the questions to one of the many cheating cheatery cheater websites. Or get help from someone else. Or have someone else take the exam for me.
It looks like the exam was made harder in another way. Many of the exam questions were multiple choice multiple response constrained, e.g., "Select two". It looks like all of those were rewritten to be "Select all that apply." Multiple response questions are already harder than single response; removing the constraint just makes them harder still. In addition, you are allowed to provide only one answer to a multiple-response question - which I did inadvertently by clicking Next Question too fast - and, importantly, there is no way to go back to a previous question.
It appears that at least some of the questions have been edited as well - for example, I saw one that only has 3 response choices, and I don't recall there being so many 5- and 6-choice questions on the exam.
When I clicked Continue after the final question, I got my score (88%, but I was trying to get through it quickly....) and a list of every question with the correct answer and my answer. I could also toggle to show all possible answers, so again, I could absolutely capture this and make it available pretty readily. I would despise whoever does this, but AIIM's kidding itself if it thinks it won't happen.
Once you're done reviewing the exam, there's an option to "Retake quiz" which starts it over, and another Continue button. Hitting Continue returned this message: "Congratulations! You've passed the exam and are officially a Certified Information Professional." Clicking Continue led to another message, with links to add CIP to your LinkedIn profile (but it just loads the standard LinkedIn view) and to "Join the Super-Exclusive Online Community Group Only CIPs Have Access To!" This is the CIPs Unite group on the AIIM community.
I retook it twice. I can't readily tell if the back end is using the two forms I'd developed or if it's an item bank, but I did see different questions and some of the same questions in different order so it's at least being randomized.
When I clicked Back to My Courses, my courses completed had incremented to 51; the Certified Information Professional (CIP) Exam was listed at the top as 0 CEUs, but there is no direct link to the certificate in the main interface.
I clicked the Retake Course in the CIP Exam course to see if I could access it there, and doing so apparently reset the course entirely! It now shows that it's not started, and I have to complete it all over again, despite having received an email from Peggy Winton and two from AIIM+ with links to view or download the certificate. Both of those links now take me to the start of the exam.
