A Conversation with Gordy Hoke on RM

As you can see below in the interview below, Gordy Hoke is passionate about records and information management. As a Certified Records Manager, his expertise is documented. I've also had the great pleasure of working with him as a contributor to the magazine over the years. He made my job as an editor much easier.

By Bryant Duhon

Infonomics: What about records management is attractive to you?
Hoke: First, Records & Information Management (RIM) can be a tremendous force for good in the world. Our avalanche of information – physical and digital – is worse than useless if we can’t organize it and find it at appropriate times. Certainly, without RIM, businesses can barely operate. But more than that, society depends upon secure, readily available records and information.

• Regulatory compliance is not just a game. The regulations are there to protect people and ensure justice. Organizations prove compliance by producing documenting records.
• Democracy depends on records management because RIM ensures fair elections. Voter registration/roles, making sure no one votes twice, processing absentee ballots, and more are all dependent on high quality records management. In new democracies, these may be new concepts, and that’s why I support the International Records Management Trust (www.irmt.org). But if we had better records management here in Minnesota, we would have a senator by now.
• Both business and government depend on RIM to function. How confident are you that the Social Security Administration will have accurate records of your work, so someday you may be able to collect a pension? How confident are you that, when the big plasma TV you bought goes blank, the manufacturer will be able to find your warranty registration? It depends on the quality of their RIM.
• Whereas criminal prosecution may turn on, literally, a smoking gun, most civil legal cases turn on the presentation of records. RIM is essential to justice.

Second, RIM appeals to my sense of order. You wouldn’t know it from looking at my desk, but I like to have everything in its proper place. RIM is a discipline developed over thousands of years, and it works. That’s gratifying. As a discipline, it continues to evolve, and I like to the challenge of applying timeless principles in new ways.

Infonomics: And how does someone with a degree in Theology become involved in the ECM industry?
Hoke: You know that list that St. Peter purportedly keeps at the Pearly Gates to see who gets to play a harp and who goes south? That’s records management. And you know those stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai? That’s records management. But more seriously, you might say I was led here. When I finished my calling as a pastor, I transferred my skills. After a series of steps (including counselor and news anchor), an imaging software vendor hired me for my writing and speaking. That led to a career in content management. Then, when the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley sank in, I realized Records & Information Management was an essential, complementary, but very different skill set. The unending challenge of applying RIM discipline to ECM technology fascinates me.

Infonomics: What’s the value of involvement in a local chapter?
Hoke: Community, education, resources, and service.

• For most of my career, I have worked out of a private office. That gets isolating, even lonely. My Twin Cities AIIM and ARMA chapters keep me in touch with my peers, bringing camaraderie, encouragement, and support. The chapter members are both colleagues and friends.
• The education I receive at chapter meetings and conferences is top-notch. In a field that evolves as quickly as the technology it uses, staying current is essential. There is always more to learn, and the chapters bring the best teachers in the world to our doorstep.
• Minnesota has tremendous local talent and resources, and chapter meetings are where I learn about them and develop an appreciation for them. Sharing information and resources is a superb and easy way to improve one’s work.
• I receive so much value from my chapters that I can’t help but want to give back. So I serve the chapters wherever I can. But it’s a strange thing…no matter how much I try to give, it seems I always get more back.

Infonomics: You write a lot. What about writing appeals to you?
Hoke: I am a wordsmith. I love playing with words and using them effectively. It’s fun, and it allows me to express myself with precision and clarity. But I am happiest when I write half the time and work with clients the other half. The research I do for my writing makes me a better consultant, and the work I do in the field keeps my writing realistic and helpful.

Infonomics: You spent a lot of time with AS/400 user group related to document imaging. Can you explain that involvement and what that is/was?
Hoke: IBM’s AS/400, released in June of 1989, was the first commercial computer optimized for content management (then call document imaging). Its target market was the huge number of mid-sized businesses, and it sold well over a half-million boxes. But by the mid-1990s, software developers, including IBM, seemed to be ignoring the platform for content management. With AIIM’s endorsement, I organized a user group for sharing and advocacy. This increased awareness at software developers and improved cooperation among users. The group continued until IBM decided to sell solutions, not platforms, and the need evaporated.

Infonomics: Currently, what do you find most interesting about the direction of the industry?
Hoke: This challenge: adapt the discipline of RIM to all of the new technology that content management evolves. It seems like every month or two, there is a new medium for communicating or storing records and information. (Social networks are a different medium from Web content management, for example.) How do we manage and control all of these media? RIM is media-independent…the principles remain the same. But it is a challenge to apply the old principles in new ways. Sometimes it requires adding a new ECM tool to the RIM tool belt, but the goal of an organized, controlled information lifecycle never changes. That’s fascinating!