At ACARM’s Annual General Meeting in Mexico City, on November 25th, 2017, attendees voted unanimously to accept Kelvin Smith, ACARM’s Honorary Secretary from 2000 to 2016, as an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Association.
Kelvin Smith, who received his BA from the Open University, spent his entire career in The National Archives UK, known as the Public Record Office until April 2003. From his initial appointment in 1967 and until his retirement in 2007, he took increasingly senior responsibilities throughout the Editorial and Publications Section; the Records Administration Division; the Search Department; the Establishment and Accounts Division; the Research and Planning Unit; the Records Administration Division; and Repository and Reprographic Services. He also served as Officer in Charge of the PRO’s Intermediate Repository at Hayes, Middlesex, and ended his career as Head of Cataloguing and Accessions Unit and Records Management Consultant in the Records Management Department.
Kelvin participated in many key TNA initiatives, including drafting the first Code of Practice for records management under Section 46 of the FoI Act, in the early 2000s, and a model plan for FOI authorities help those authorities comply with the code. He was instrumental in developing a suite of generic disposal schedules for government departments and delivered records management training to allow compliance with Section 46 of FoI to authorities throughout the public sector.
He also published Freedom of Information: A practical guide to implementing the Act (2004), Public Sector Records Management: A practical guide (2007), and Planning and Implementing Electronic Records Management: A practical guide (2007).
Kelvin was a regular presenter of records management issues at conferences, workshops and seminars, and also contributed to records management education, offering his insights and ideas to masters’ students at University College London and elsewhere and through RIPA International. He also undertook frequent assignments in developing countries, mainly in East and Southern Africa, on behalf of the International Records Management Trust. Some of the many countries he worked with included Ghana, The Gambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Palestine, Malaysia, Estonia and the United Arab Emirates.
Kelvin served as Honorary Secretary of the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers from 2000 to 2016, during which time he expanded ACARM’s communications network to incorporate and manage a variety of web-based and social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, and the ACARM website. He also managed the association’s memberships and accounts and supported the editing and publication of the newsletter. Through it all he was perpetually cheerful and enthusiastic, happy to lend a hand and a smile wherever needed. He is a worthy recipient of ACARM’s Lifetime Member award.
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