The Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) has launched its Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records campaign – and published its campaign toolkit – at an advocacy event in London on 17 July. 

Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records is the ARA’s first ever advocacy campaign for records management and has been developed by the ARA’s Records Management and Information Governance Section. 

The campaign has two main aims:

To help those undertaking records management to improve their advocacy skills and have their skills and expertise better understood and utilised; 
 
and 

To make decision makers in organisations aware that a  poor records management culture carries profound risk and that good records management can deliver significant returns.

The campaign toolkit, now freely available, offers advice, information and good ideas to all who wish to better communicate the importance of records management and the contribution made to organisations by skilled, professional records managers.
The toolkit also explains how those charged with records management duties can use the Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records artwork and messages to get the message across. Artwork downloads are available. 

In September 2014 letters and leaflets will go out from the ARA  to around 1000 leaders and decision makers in organisations in the UK and Ireland. The leaflet will make clear the risks being run in NOT doing records management well (or at all) and show how good recordkeeping can deliver efficiencies and organisational advantage. 

Everyone is urged to look at the toolkit and take part in the campaign: by planning how they will communicate in their own organisations to coincide, if possible, with the ARA letter-writing campaign; and by telling the ARA the names of the decision makers in their organisations who should receive the letter. 

Chair of the Section for Records Management and Information Governance David Jenkins says: ‘We are very hopeful that the campaign’s key messages, and the skills that the campaign helps to develop will have a positive impact on all staff working in recordkeeping roles,  whether as an archivist, records manager or conservator.’ 

Find the toolkit on the Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records webpage at 
http://www.archives.org.uk/campaigns/knowyourrecords.html

Contact the Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records campaign team at [log in to unmask]

Join in the conversation on Twitter: @KnowYourRecords

The Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records campaign team is: David Jenkins, Bryony Leventhall, Laura Hynds, Sarah Palmer, Margherita Orlando and Edward Ratcliffe. John Chambers and Marie Owens of the ARA are working with the campaign team. 

The ARA is delighted that many sector organisations are supporting the Don’t Risk It! Know Your Records campaign and is very keen to hear from others who wish to join the growing list. The campaign is supported by: IRMS; The National Archives; The National Records of Scotland; The Scottish Council on Archives; and the Business Archives Council. 

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