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National Task Force on Emergency Response



With apologies for cross posting:

SAA sent two high-level representatives to a meeting of the National Task
Force on Emergency Response held this week in Washington, D.C.  Maygene
Daniels, past president of SAA and Tom Connors, SAA Council member, reported
on the meeting, the purpose of which was to share information concerning the
status of cultural institutions in the area of 9/11's attack.  This Task
Force is an excellent means of helping archives and cultural institutions
rescue community heritage materials after devastation.  Maygene is SAA's
designated representative to the Task Force.  It is through the active
involvement of dedicated volunteers such as Maygene and Tom that SAA can
contribute to healing the wounds of this tragedy.

Maygene reports:

Larry Reger, executive director of Heritage Preservation, opened the
discussion by reminding the group that Jamie Lee Whitten, former FEMA
director, observed that in a disaster, after people have health, safety,
shelter, and food, they turn to the things that they care about - their
personal and community cultural heritage.  Reger also emphasized that
recovery of cultural materials should not be an issue until human safety is
assured and the area secured.  Nonetheless, he pointed out that we are in
the position to help when the correct time comes.  The following goals were
identified:

-Gather information on collections affected by the disaster to help FEMA in
its relief and recovery.  The American Association of Museums already is
gathering information about affected museums (somehow sharing information on
its web site?)  Jane Long of the Task Force will be a coordinating point for
this information among all cultural institutions, and will work through John
Ketchum of FEMA.  Information on lost and endangered historical records will
be an important component of this.

-Be prepared to provide information to institutions on how to recover from
the disaster:

      Government aid.  A representative of the Small Business Administration
explained that SBA is the government's emergency loan banker.  Loans are
available to private non-profit organizations as well as to businesses.
FEMA also provides relief, especially for individuals.  The Task Force has
prepared a booklet:  Resources for Recovery:  Post-Disaster Aid for Cultural
Institutions, available on the Heritage Preservation web site.  It is being
up-dated now with new information.

     Eventually expertise, supplies, vacant space may be needed.   Again the
Task Force can coordinate information, but input from our community will be
important.

-Get information out to the general public concerning how to retrieve and
clean personal photographs, papers, works of art.  Information already is
available (including the Task Force's "Recovery Wheel") It would be
particularly helpful to have media coverage.  The Task Force has prepared a
press release.

In summary, the meeting was a useful early step in recovery and in
identifying actions of our various organizations.

Tom Connors further reported that,

The organizations represented included the two Endowments (George Farr for
NEH), NCC (Bruce Craig), AHA (Arnita Jones), ARL, CLIR (Abby Smith), Small
Business Administration, GSA, NARA (Norvell Jones), American Institute for
Conservation, Society for Historical Archaeology, President's Commission on
Arts and Humanities, AAM, IMLS and a few others that I didn't catch.  There
were 23 people present.

The National Task Force on Emergency Response has produced a press
release entitled "When the Dust Settles: Tips for Safely Cleaning Family
Treasures."  (In disasters, the problem is usually water or fire
damage.  In this case it's dust and soot damage.)

A numerical breakdown of cultural institutions in the "no go" area
(below 14th Street) was given.   In the affected area there are 42
museums, 57 archives and libraries and 245 outdoor sculptures.

The Small Business Administration will make loans and in some case
grants available to private non-profit groups for repair and rebuilding
and also for restoration of collections.

NYU is providing space for resource groups to work out of.

Larry Reger suggested that 3 working groups be formed:

(1) an assessment of damage group,
(2) an information to cultural institutions group,
(3) an information to individuals group

Continuing communications will take place via an e-mail reflector of
attendees.

Additional information about the Task Force may be found at
http://www.heritagepreservation.org/PROGRAMS/taskfer.htm or by calling
202-634-1422 / 888-388-6789.




Susan E. Fox, CAE
Executive Director
Society of American Archivists
527 S. Wells St., 5th Floor
Chicago, IL  60607
312-922-0140
fax:  312-347-1452
sfox@archivists.org
www.archivists.org


The mission of the Society of American Archivists is to serve the
educational and informational needs of our members and to provide leadership
to ensure the identification, preservation, and use of the nation's historic
record.

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