Work in progress and 2012 so far

Wow, a while between posts! A lot has happened this year so far and it is speeding by already.

• Agency's Information Publication Plan has been posted on our website as per the IPS requirements. 
• Information and Records Management Policy has been updated. Waiting for sign-off by CEO.
• Knowledge Management Strategy and plan completed.
• Risk assessment done on an internal project management system.
• Working groups set up for Intranet and internal project management system.
• Social Media up and running with great results.
• Reviewing Attorney-General's Consultation Paper on Extending Legal Deposit for impact on agency.
• Attended NAA's Digital Continuity Plan launch.
• Attended 3 day training on SharePoint @ DDLS
• Uni has just started again - Knowledge Management subject this semester! Reading lots!!
• On panel for current recruitment exercise
• Conducted two social media sessions for internal staff
• Involved in working group to implement smart forms for project applications
• Started compiling monthly analytics info from website
• Trialing Storify and other ways of archiving social media
• Attended an info session at NAA on new GRA 31
• Assisted external auditors in legislative compliance audit (FOI Act, Privacy Act and Archives Act)
• Had a week of leave (to do a bit of work on my house :-)
• Started discussions around a refresh or review of our external website
• Not so regular fortnightly Records Management team meetings (will get onto that)
• Took part in discussions around updating our internal Outlook distribution lists
• Attended first Corporate Managers meeting
• Attended several in-house 'brown bag' presentations
• Helped celebrate a colleague's 20 years with the agency
• Researching how to best conduct an Information or Knowledge Audit.
• Moved 100 Recall boxes of old registry files out of a compactus
• Completed an online survey which turned into an online article - needing corrections! Lesson learnt.
• Various updates to website, Intranet and social media channels
• Discussion around procedures and recording permissions and access to our EDRMS

Wowee! Good exercise to do, I used to do a similar thing as a report to my boss in my last job, weekly. This covers 2.5 months worth of work but is a good snapshot of what I do and am working on.

Record keeping

One of my first tasks in this new job has been to get my head around our records management systems and processes. The National Archives of Australia (NAA) has created an online assessment tool called Check-up and all government agencies have to submit their assessment by 30th September.

This really just involved talking to as many people as possible about how and when they use the systems and also about associated topics. The assessment asks about audits, business continuity plans, cabinet documents and other corporate governance areas. It was a good introduction to the agency as I learnt a lot while asking these questions.

Record keeping or records management (RM) has always been one of those neglected areas in government organisations from what I have seen. Coming from a law firm who had implemented a Document Management System attached to Outlook years ago, I was a bit amazed at how records were managed in the public sector. Obviously lawyers have different drivers for innovation (litigation, discovery, efficiency and cost savings). Now the NAA along with support from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) and the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) have introduced whole of government reforms and made this a function to notice (and resource)!

So our Check-up assessment is complete and I have been able to create a list of areas and tasks that my agency will need to look at over the coming year to ensure we have made some improvements by the next assessment date. This will help me to plan the resources I need and to prioritise what is the most important and realistic for our agency.

Has anyone else been involved in this process for their agency?