Annual recertification
Required of every appointed municipal records officer in Clearwater by Chapter 44. This is a state requirement. CAMRO does not administer it and cannot extend it.
The requirement
Every municipality must have an appointed records officer, and that officer must recertify each calendar year with the Clearwater State Archives. It is a ninety-minute open-book assessment covering the Public Records Act, the Open Meetings Act and the current General Retention Schedule.
Recertification is personal, not municipal. It does not transfer with the appointment, and a newly appointed officer must certify within 90 days of appointment regardless of where in the year that falls.
When and where
| Route | When | Notes | |—|—|—| | Online, through the State Archives | Any time, 1 January – 15 December | Most members do this. Results immediately. | | Recorders’ Day, League fall meeting | October | Proctored session CAMRO hosts. Bring your schedule. | | Regional session, State Archives | Announced each spring | Fairholm and two rotating locations. |
If you miss it
The municipality is out of compliance from 1 January, and the officer may not certify a record as a true copy — which in practice means deeds, plats and court-bound certifications stop. The Archives allows a 60-day cure. After that the municipality must appoint someone else, and that person then has 90 days.
This has happened four times in Clearwater since 2020. In every case the municipality had one employee and that employee was on medical leave.
What CAMRO does
We host the proctored session at Recorders’ Day, we run a two-hour refresher webinar each September, and we send reminders in September, November and the first week of December to every member the Archives has not yet cleared.
We do not receive your result, and we cannot tell you whether you have certified. The Archives can.
Recorders’ Day · Clearwater State Archives — recertification