Spring 2004 Update

The Alliance for Response project is having a significant impact in its host communities. Since the one-day forums were convened late last year in Boston, Cincinnati, and Dallas, cultural heritage networks have formed, and museums and libraries find themselves in new relationships with local emergency managers.

Boston
The first follow-up meeting was hosted by the president of the Boston Public Library on February 9. Both the deputy director of the Boston Emergency Management Agency (BEMA) and the environmental officer of FEMA Region V participated. The group has adopted the name Cultural Emergency Management Team (CEMT), pronounced “cement” for the committee that coalesced following the Alliance for Response Forum.

Several significant steps were taken at this meeting. For the first time in any major city, BEMA offered cultural institutions a regular seat at the city’s Emergency Operations Center. Arthur Beale, chair of Conservation and Collections Management at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, took the seat in early March. CEMT will work with BEMA to help draft a new section on the specific needs of cultural resources for the city’s Emergency Operations Plan. The group is also developing a cultural SWAT team, with CEMT members and their colleagues as the core, to aid institutions in the event of major disasters. After the initial meeting, the FEMA representative said, “Look what you started!”

The energy of the new group has affected more than disaster issues. Because no umbrella organization for – or inventory of – Boston’s cultural institutions exists, CEMT will seek funding to undertake the inventory and create a master database.

Dallas
Members of the Dallas Forum Core Planning Group have developed a cooperative initiative called START, the State of Texas Alliance for Response Team. They plan to foster regional START alliances throughout the state, beginning with the Dallas area. The North Central Texas START held its first organizational meeting on February 6. Nearly 45 people attended the meeting, including the executive director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, a representative of the National Weather Service, and the State Archivist.

The Homeland Security Coordinator for North Richland Hills, Texas, gave a presentation on CERT (Citizen Emergency Response Team) training and pledged to work with START members to adapt the curriculum for cultural institutions. The North Central Texas chapter of START, which includes the Dallas metropolitan area, will meet at the end of the summer at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth. Two Houston museums have already volunteered to host the first START meeting in their area.

Cincinnati
The focus of the December 12 forum was statewide, with discussion groups organized by geographic regions. Staff of the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) have written an article summarizing presentations and discussions from the Ohio Forum. The article has been distributed to forum participants, published in the Society of Ohio Archivists’ newsletter, and posted on various Web sites.

Follow-up efforts are moving ahead in all regions. At a meeting at Ohio University on April 16, participants will discuss how the university’s Library Emergency Management Team can become a resource for other cultural institutions in Southeastern Ohio. Regional meetings for cultural institutions in both the Cincinnati and Columbus areas are in the early planning stages, and the Cincinnati Library Consortium has offered to host a list-serv on disaster issues for the Southwest Ohio area.

On March 29, OCLC’s Tom Clareson, a Heritage Preservation Board member, made a presentation on the Alliance for Response Forums at the annual meeting of the Emergency Management Association of Ohio. He told the more than 60 county emergency managers at the session that the goal of the project is “to begin a dialogue between keepers of our cultural heritage and those who keep us, our buildings, and our collections safe.” June Mong, the current EMAO chair, pledged to contact the museums in her county.

Watch for more presentations on the forum series in the coming year. Alliance for Response will be on the agenda at annual meetings sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, and the Society of Southwest Archivists.

New York City
The fourth forum in the series will be held in New York City this fall. Like the others, it will be a one-day, invitation-only event. The planning committee has chosen the theme “Building Relationships” and will focus on bringing together cultural institutions and first responder agencies; collections care professionals and facilities managers; and operations and risk management departments. For more information, click here.

Alliance for Response is supported by grants from the Fidelity Foundation and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.