The "international" in ARMA International. (From the President).

"I'm often asked just how "international" ARMA International really is. The "International" was added to our name in 1985 and our first international (outside of North America) chapter--in Tokyo--was chartered in 1989. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, our International Affairs Committee actively pursued ARMA chapters outside North America. However, we soon realized that our best contributions to the profession and support for our members could be made by partnering with existing RIM organizations and associations rather than trying to "take over the world."

To this end, in 1996 ARMA entered into an accord with the International Council on Archives (ICA) and the International Records Management Trust (IRMT). The ICA is the world's most influential professional association of national archivists from nearly 200 countries. For those who don't know, records management is known as archives (often "current archives" or "corporate archives") in nearly every country outside of North America and Australia, and the ICA encompasses everything from active paper records, electronic records, and historical records, to cultural artifacts and treasures. For more information, I encourage you to check out their Web site, www.ica.org.

ARMA's involvement with ICA is a long-term commitment of collaboration

and participation in ICA events. Along with President-Elect Gisele Crawford and Executive Director/CEO Peter Hermann, I will represent our association at the annual meeting of national archivists, ICA CITRA, in Marseille, France, in November. Past President Larry Eiring serves on the steering committee of the Section on Archival Education and Training (SAE) and in this capacity spoke at its annual meeting in Perth, Australia, in August. Peter Hermann serves on the Section on Professional Associations (SPA), and we are hoping to place ARMA members on at least two other committees--Electronic Records and Current Records. ARMA member Sharon Alexander-Gooding serves on the ICA Section for the Caribbean, CARBICA, and our International Director, Claudette Samuels, belongs to the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM).

Every four years, the ICA holds its "big event," the Quadrennial Congress. Held in Seville, Spain, in September 2000, ARMA sent delegates and our exhibit booth. It was the first time we have exhibited at such an event. The next Congress is in 2004 in Vienna and ARMA has been invited to play a key role in the development of the RIM program offerings. In addition, ARMA will be involved with ICA and its respective regional groups for RIM conferences in Costa Rica and Singapore in 2003.

On the home front, ARMA's International Relations Committee (IRC) has hosted three successful International Days at our annual conferences in Las Vegas, Montreal, and New Orleans. In fact, the event has grown so successful we are now discussing presenting it as a preconference track before the conference in Boston. This will allow us to focus more time and resources on the important issues of globalization in the RIM profession.

Our International Ambassador program has five outstanding ambassadors representing ARMA within their geographic regions: Hella Jean Bartolo for Europe, Sue Myburgh for Australia and Oceana, Sharon Alexander-Gooding for Central and South America and the Caribbean, Masashi Kotani for Asia, and Vaughan Spooner for Africa. They provide communication with allied organizations in their areas and serve as liaisons to the 350 international members from more than 30 countries who reside in their parts of the world.

Is this enough to make us truly ARMA International? Would we like to do more in the global arena? Are the returns we are getting on our involvement sufficient to merit the expenditure of more of our resources? Only time will tell and your board of directors will continue to closely monitor our international activities. I am proud of the progress we continue to make in putting the "international" in ARMA International.

Juanita M. Skillman, CRM, FAI
President
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