To relaunch the Washington Archives Management (WAM) monthly newsletter, we want to share our story with you, our valued customers and readers. The Washington Archives Management (WAM) story begins in 1967 when Bill Naubert Jr. borrowed $5,000 from his mother-in-law to start Merchants Moving & Storage with his business partner Joe Oswald. The company opened locations in Bremerton and Olympia. While the company mostly moved household and business goods, it occasionally faced uncommon moving challenges, such as providing a truck and driver to relocate an assortment of animals from Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, including two beluga whales, polar bear cubs, a snow leopard, and an elephant.
Fast forward to 2011 and you’ll see WAM has come a long way since the early days of moving household goods and zoological residents. This year, we are excited to announce the relaunch of our monthly newsletter, Off the Record. Off the Record will provide useful information concerning industry trends, best practices and compliance and regulation updates. We will also introduce you to members of the WAM team, share stories from our community involvement and sprinkle in a few fun facts and contests from time to time.
Our story is one we are particularly proud of and delighted to share with you. As Merchants Moving & Storage company grew over the years, so did Bill Naubert Jr.’s sons Mark and Bill. In 1991, Allwest Transportation formed and Mark took the reigns as president of the company. Mark saw an opportunity to grow the company in a new direction, and so, Washington Data Storage was founded as a division of Allwest transportation and became the local alternative for records and information management services known as WAM today.
In 1999, WAM opened its headquarters, a 45,000-square-foot records center in Fife and one year later Mark’s brother Bill joined the company. Bill brought experience from a successful career in administration and financial management and with Bill on board, WAM continued to grow and Allwest Transportation and the Tumwater records center relocated to its new home in Lacey.
In 2007, after a series of acquisitions, WAM expanded its headquarters in Fife from 45,000 square feet to over 85,000 square feet. The expansion gave the operations department much needed room to maneuver and added a FireLock™ Media Vault that provides the highest level of security and protection for our customers’ digital media assets.
Today’s business environment is increasingly focused on privacy and confidentiality through industry regulations and compliance and our customers need a secure way to dispose of their sensitive and proprietary information—onsite and directly from their offsite records collection. Our most recent venture, a mobile shred truck purchased in the summer of 2010, helps meet that need. Our new truck ensures that we can dispose of our clients’ valuable information assets in a safe, secure, and environmentally friendly manner, not to mention it looks pretty darn cool!
From snow leopards to mobile records shredding, the history of WAM would be incomplete without mentioning the loyal group of customers we value so much. Through our experiences with different clients and industries we have learned how to be a better organization and a better service partner. Our customers, big and small, deserve the best that we can be.
The New Year is already packed with initiatives that ensure WAM stays on the forefront of providing our customers with leading technology and the high levels of service they have come to expect in 2011 and beyond. Our mission is to “provide better ways to organize, manage, and protect our clients’ information assets” and our vision is to be the best decision our customers ever make. Please do not hesitate to contact us if ever there is a time when we are not living up to these standards.
From all of us here at Washington Archives Management, thanks for reading our newsletter and let’s make the most of 2011!
Best wishes,
Nick Naubert
nick@washingtonarchives.net