Meet Anthony Adams, records officer for the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District. Anthony started with the district in late 2015 as the Executive Assistant and quickly embraced his role as the records officer. He completely reorganized the district’s retention schedule, and made sure that each record series created by the district was associated with an established retention schedule. Another of Anthony’s many accomplishments was to create a Retention Schedule Manual, which details each record the district manages, its retention, where the records are stored, and the custodian of each record.
Anthony Adams, records officer for the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District
When asked what he found most challenging about his job, Anthony replied, “Learning everything on my own has been challenging, but an adventure. I had no training on records and GRAMA, except what was provided online and through State Archives – who have been very helpful at all times with any question I have. Trying to find the right answers for public and coworker requests, identifying unknown records, and being the expert on our records, is also very challenging.” However, Anthony understands the importance of his role; when asked about his favorite part of his job, he stated, “Knowing that I am instrumental in making [a] difference is very rewarding. Having a supportive manager and staff makes it even better.”
Pam Roberts, Executive Director of Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling, was very complimentary about Anthony’s contributions:
[He] quickly educated himself on his responsibilities. Within the past 2 years, he has updated our records retention schedule modifying our records to match the State Records and ensured proper titles and schedules by working closely with the staff at the State Records offices. He has also updated our operating procedures and provided needed education for our team on records management and proper processes for any GRAMA requests. Anthony shows great passion in keeping our organization in compliance with all laws and regulations related to records management, which I greatly appreciate.
Anthony loves to share the knowledge he has gained about records management and had this advice to share with other records officers and managers:
Train all of your staff on records. Even if they do not directly deal with records or GRAMA requests, they can be instrumental in making your job easier. Everyone should know what a record is, and how to identify and retain/maintain them so that they do not inadvertently dispose of a record that should be retained.