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Home > TAM
Publications > PREP Forward
FOREWORD
The Texas Association of Museums (TAM) is pleased to offer this
valuable resource manual to the field. Texas has over 700 museums, university
and county historical collections, and community cultural centers, all
holding items of cultural and historical significance in trust for the
public. In 1991, TAM surveyed its institutional members and discovered
that the majority did not have disaster plans and that many of those who
did were very dissatisfied with their existing plans.
Recognizing, therefore, that disaster planning is a bit of housekeeping
most museums postpone, the TAM Council committed the Association to assisting
Texas museums in this area. Jack Nokes, who was President at the time,
appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on Disaster Planning, naming Mary Candee
and Rick Casagrande as co-chairs. They subsequently put together a hardworking
committee of museum professionals from across the state, representing
all types and sizes of museums. Their names are listed in the front of
this manual and I thank each for his or her contribution to the project.
This manual is the first product of the committee's work, which we are
offering to the museum community at large because, as the scope of the
project enlarged, we felt it would be useful beyond the state borders.
The committee has also planned two workshops--one on preparedness and
a second one on recovery--that will use this manual as a planning tool.
I want especially to commend Mary Candee and Rick Casagrande for their
dedication to this project over a number of years and for the countless
volunteer hours they have poured into the project. They first made the
TAM Council aware of the need of Texas museums for help in disaster planning,
conceived this project, sought funding for it, supervised the committee,
and edited the resource manual. This sort of commitment is extraordinary,
yet typical of these individuals and loyal TAM members in general. I also
wish to thank TAM Executive Director Margaret Blagg for contributing her
time and talents as executive editor for the manual.
Several institutions have graciously allowed us to reprint their material--disaster
plans and planning forms--in this manual. TAM shares these in the spirit
of general museum generosity, but I caution you to use their material
only as a starting point in developing your own materials. I expect that
you will learn much from the collective experience of those who developed
the plans and forms reprinted here; but, disaster planning is a process,
not a collection of forms. I encourage all users of this manual to start
that process right away within your institutions.
Gary N. Smith, President Texas Association of Museums, 1993
Website ©2003, Texas Association of Museums. Please let us know how we can better serve your needs! admin@texasmuseums.org
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