National Records and Information Management Month is celebrated each year in April to promote good record keeping and information management, and to celebrate it cooperative CUSO CU*Answers held a RIM Awareness Week for clients and staff.

Establishing an environment of learning is an important aspect of strengthening the Records and Information Management brand internally at CU*Answers. By establishing opportunities for active learning employees can have a heightened sense of awareness to the environment surrounding them. This brand building exercise is also an opportunity to network with employees inside of all departments regardless of their current role within the RIM framework.

For credit unions, CU*Answers held two educational courses on best practices with respect to RIM policy and managing email. “Reinforcing records and information management to our credit unions is part of building the business,” said Marilyn Boyd, internal auditor for CU*Answers.

Staff were given the opportunity to attend courses specifically for the CUSO’s RIM policy, educating staff from the basic (glossary of terms) to the practical (specific team members’ responsibilities as employees). Attendees were entered into a drawing for a personal shredder and were invited to participate in games related to RIM.

Each department has established a records management schedule, created procedures reinforcing the schedules, purged obsolete items from their information repositories and identified key individuals to serve as the liaison between their department and the Records Management authority at CU*Answers. To learn more about RIM at CU*Answers, visit their website.