In Defense of the North Carolina Archives and Their Role in the Franklin County Records Destruction Debacle

I have written a great deal about what happened in Franklin County on December 6, 2013. And I’ve stated some opinions (all my own) about the possible motivations, involvement of the myriad individuals, and the outcomes.

I’ve had a bit of fun at the expense of the Franklin County board and Angela Harris (Franklin County Manager), in particular – at whose feet I lay (about) 95% of the blame.

I’ve questioned the logic of the folks at the North Carolina Archives, for advising (strongly) the destruction of these records, without first undertaking a thorough investigation of what was in that basement, and for advising (in uber-strong language) that the records should not be given over to the Historical Society – since the NC Archives saw no value in them.

And, in my last post, I’ve had hearty belly-laugh at the time, expense, and general “head-space” this whole debacle has taken up at the archives. I still shake my head that these folks are so unbelievably unprepared and inept at handling a small (very small) crisis of this nature.

That said, the folks at NC Archives are not social media experts. Neither should they be. They are – for the most part – doing yeoman’s work in a field that makes most people yawn. I think their work is important, horribly underpaid, and badly understood – most notably by people like me.

I regret that their time has been taken up in dealing with this issue. In a more perfect world, their staff would have thought twice before writing the documents that I have called into question. In a better world they would have advised Patricia Chastain and the County Board to “do as they pleased”. In a better world – everyone would have communicated with and cooperated with everyone else thoroughly and respectfully.

Unfortunately we do not live in a better world.

All that said, I want to be clear. The NC Archives DID NOT DESTROY these documents. That was done at the Franklin County level – on an order given by Franklin County Manager, Angela Harris.

I’m done with this issue. The Historical Society can take it from here. The good people of Franklin County deserve better representation than the likes of Angela Harris and the Keystone Board that represent them – but I’m not their PR firm or their lobbying organization. I’ve done what I could to get the word out… My work is done.

Your Tax Money At Work!! Franklin County Records Destruction Debacle Continues at the NC Archives

It’s so rare that I actually get to see the machinations of the sausage factory at work – but tonight – we have a great, front row seat to the grinder, grinding away.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0GykIN45fqFTTdWczVvZkRRTzQ&usp=sharing

Apparently the folks at the North Carolina Archives are so discombobulated by the intensity of the reaction to their involvement in the wonton and pointless destruction of 150 year-old historical documents in Franklin County, North Carolina, that they put a staffer on the job of collecting, organizing and redistributing all the internet response (all they could find, given their sad skillset) back into their organization.

PLUS (and here’s where it gets REALLY fun), the document collection contains a few choice internal memos between staff, describing how they want to deal with the PR crisis, referencing their Public Relations firm (hired at how much per hour to troll Facebook and blogs and post positive comments in support of the NC Archives?)

I used to work in PR. We paid $400 per hour to do troll work like the troll work described and catalogued here. It was a cheap rate. I guarantee you that the NC Archives isn’t paying a cheap rate.

There are a TON of documents in this cache that detail their very “purposeful” response to the PR crisis. I started downloading docs as soon as I found the link, and I have to tell you – some of the materials are damned entertaining (lot’s of atta-boying and cross-agency support – plus a good view into who supports the NCArchives, no matter what… NCGS, are you listening?)

Enjoy the link folks. I promise you that if these people have one lick of sense between them – the link will be dead by tomorrow.

Talk about a lapse in SECURITY!!! Google Docs? Are You Kidding Me????

If the link goes bad, I’ll post some of the more choice documents with (my always acerbic) commentary. So HOPE the links goes bad!