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My name is Mark Mandel, and I am the Public Records Administrator for the District of Columbia. This position is the Chief Records Officer and also the State Archivist for the District.

The District is a unique government organization. It includes organizations and agencies you would find in a city, a county, and a State. There are some 60 agencies such as the Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Executive Office of the Mayor, Department of Human Services, and so on. There are roughly 35,000 employees.

I come to this position as a 31 year veteran of the IT industry, with 24 years of specialization in the ECM industry. Most of my career has been as a vendor, and I have over my long career worked in almost every position you can imagine, including developer, pre-sales technical support engineer, project manager, analyst, marketing director, proposal writer, business developer, and salesman. I have been an executive at several industry firms, including pioneering firms in high-volume scanning software, XML-based portal software, enterprise content management software, and more.

Years ago I recognized that specializing in ECM was my career direction. I had recognized that to move from a developer and pre-sales tech support guy I needed to hone my skills, so I went back to school and got my MBA, and each year or two I have endeavored to get additional training and certifications to stay abreast of what has been a rapidly evolving industry.

I also got involved in AIIM, and now ARMA. After many years as an AIIM member (this year will be my 24^th AIIM show in a row), I got involved with the National Capitol Chapter, first as Programs Chair, then as President. I made it a goal when I got involved that I would put maximum effort into my participation so that I could realize maximum benefit from the experience. I firmly believe that “you get out of something what you put into it,” and AIIM participation definitely works that way.

As chapter President, NCC-AIIM received the award for Chapter of the Year, and that led to an AIIM Distinguished Service Award, and this year to the Company of Fellows. I joined the Conference Committee for a couple of years and then the Professional Advisory Council (PAC). I became Chair of the PAC and served on the AIIM Board of Directors for two years. I have been a leader in several AIIM Chapter Leadership Conferences and developed the Chapter Virtual Leadership Conference process.

In the meantime I became a CPIM (a manufacturing certification, Certified in Production and Inventory Control), Certified Records Manager (CRM), a Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA+), an AIIM Business Process Management Master (BPMm), and now an AIIM Electronic Records Management Practitioner (ERMp).

I am currently serving as the President of the ARMA Northern Virginia chapter.

Little did I know that all of this association participation and certifications would lead to a job as a Chief Records Officer for a large government organization. Having sold or implemented numerous large ECM and RM systems gives me insight into best practices and how an organization should deploy and optimize the technology and related processes. This makes it a great fit, and I am really enjoying putting all this experience into practice.

My blog will share some of my tips, tricks, tools, and best practices so that hopefully I can pass along what I have learned, and what I continue to learn every day.