Alliance for Response Forums Lead to New Initiatives

The Heritage Emergency National Task Force launched the Alliance for Response project with three forums in Dallas, Boston, and Cincinnati in November and December last year. One main goal of the initiative is to nurture budding cultural heritage networks. Already the meetings have begun to fulfill their promise.

The first forum in Dallas led to the creation of START, the State of Texas Alliance for Response Task Force. START will hold its organizational meeting February 6 at the offices of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Everyone invited to the Dallas Forum is welcome to attend and discuss goals and strategies for the coming year. The Regional Liaison Officer for the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management will outline the state disaster declaration process, and a local representative of the Texas Homeland Security Office will outline opportunities for the staff of cultural institutions to participate in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT).

In Boston, a follow-up meeting will be hosted by the Boston Public Library on February 9. The special guest will be Steve Morash, Deputy Director of the Boston Emergency Management Agency. On the agenda is a discussion of linking Boston cultural institutions with the city’s Incident Command Center and participation in table-top exercises with local emergency managers. Also contemplated is a list-serv for exchanging ideas among institutions participating in the Boston Forum.

Spreading the Word
The three initial Forums have also sparked a good deal of interest outside the host cities. Members of the Core Planning Group for the Dallas Forum have been invited to make presentations at the annual meeting of the Society of Southwest Archivists and to help launch the Arkansas Disaster Assistance Task Force for Libraries, Archives and Museums. An informal “speakers bureau” on the START initiative has been proposed.

Tom Clareson, Heritage Preservation board member and chairman of the planning committee for the Cincinnati Forum, has been invited to address a meeting of the Ohio Emergency Managers Association. A panel on Alliance for Response will be featured at the 2004 annual meeting of the American Association for State and Local History.

Photos: Wes Boomgaarden, Preservation Officer of the Ohio State University Libraries, speaks at the Cincinnati forum.
Tom Clareson welcomes participants to the Cincinnati forum.
Credit: Dick Long.