The association
About CAMRO
The professional association for the people who keep, produce and disclose the records of Clearwater's 214 municipalities.
What we do
CAMRO certifies records officers, trains them, represents them at the Capitol, and gives them somewhere to ask a question that has a statutory deadline attached to it.
What we are not
We are not a regulator. We do not appoint records officers, we cannot compel a municipality to release anything, and we do not act for requesters. Those belong to the municipality, the courts and the Clearwater State Archives respectively.
How we started
In March 1961, eleven clerks met in a room above a hardware store in Fairholm because none of them could get a straight answer about how long to keep tax rolls. Margaret Halloran, then city clerk of Fairholm, chaired that meeting and served as the association's first president. The career award is named for her.
The state had no retention schedule until 1974. CAMRO wrote the draft that became it.
The association today
- Members
- 344
- Municipalities represented
- 188 of 214
- Regions and districts
- 4 regions, 12 districts
- Staff
- 3
- Annual conference
- Every spring since 1963
- Institute
- Every July with Fairholm State University
- Founded
- 1961
Governance
A Board of Directors of eleven — six officers and five at-large — meets quarterly. Twelve district directors carry the association into the districts and are elected by their own districts, not by the board. Standing committees do the work: Education, Legislative, Membership, Awards, Mentorship and Technology.
Business meetings are held twice a year, at the annual conference and at Recorders' Day. Every active member votes.
Staff
The office is three people in Fairholm. They answer the phone between 8:30 and 4:30, and one of them has been doing it since 2009.