"Using GARP (Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles) to Manage Your Records" presented by Lenore Greenberg, CRM

Article and photos by Anita Castora, CRM, Immediate Past President

Lenore Greenberg, CRM

GARP provides information management and governance of record creation, organization, security, maintenance and other activities used to effectively support recordkeeping of an organization. Lenore created a nice mnemonic, A Tip Card, to remember the principles of GARP, which are listed below.

·         Accountability

·         Transparency

·         Integrity

·         Protection

·         Compliance

·         Availability

·         Retention

·         Disposition

Lenore stated that the benefits for regulators would include:  being able to protect the public by assuring access about the operations, policies and procedures of regulated companies; RIM professionals using GARP to measure the records management programs of companies in a consistent and systematic manner; and businesses using this tool to document to regulators and the public that information will be available from these companies if ever needed.

The Maturity Model she displayed is a proven methodology to measure progress toward optimization; it will measure the current state and identify gaps against common framework; assists in the development remediation plan and can be used to audit and test against metrics.  She provided a GARP Maturity Model table that was color-coded and a chart that explains the model for us to use.

Doreen Smith, ARMA CT  Chapter, presents Lenore  with a token of our appreciation.

When using GARP in your organization, align the GARP principles to match your organizations goal, using the appropriate principle and level. You may also want to do a comparison to your competitors by asking for an internal review by Risk Management as well as having your program reviewed by your Steering Committee or Senior Executive.  When doing a GARP comparison, you will want to list your results - both positive and negative, have them reviewed by in-house Records Management, Internal Audit and if possible an outside Subject Matter Expert. She advised that you measure your GARP levels and goals, documents your findings and repeat the GARP evaluation at regular intervals.

Overall, it was a very informative presentation. If you would like to find out more, go to: www.arma.org/GARP  or contact Lenore at www.lgreenburg@Millican-Assoc.com  .  

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Just a reminder that we have many great books that are now available to ARMA Connecticut Chapter Members. These books are available for 30 days at a time. To see a list of the books, go to www.armaconnecticut.com  and then to Member section to view.  If you decide you would like to borrow a book, please contact me at anita.c@aefcu.com and we can make arrangements.

New Books - We are always looking to add more books so consider sharing from your library if you have something you could lend us. If you have any books that have helped you and/or that you recommend, please contact me.

CRM Study Resource - Many of these books are great tools when studying for the CRM, researching any changes to current procedures and for learning more about the best practices in RIM. The authors are experts in their fields and many are frequent speakers at ARMA Chapters all over the world. If anyone is interested in studying for the CRM and is interested in a mentor or study group, please contact me.

I want to also extend a big thank you to Alan Eddy and Jim Merrifield, who recently contributed some wonderful RIM books and ARMA International guidelines. Thanks, guys!