{"id":16996,"date":"2017-06-09T16:15:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=16996"},"modified":"2017-06-09T16:15:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T21:15:58","slug":"45th-annual-meeting-workshop-may-29-building-emergency-response-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2017\/06\/09\/45th-annual-meeting-workshop-may-29-building-emergency-response-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"45th Annual Meeting – Workshop, May 29, “Building Emergency Response Skills”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three veteran National Heritage Responders delivered an emotional and highly persuasive workshop (abstract<\/a>) during this year\u2019s AIC Annual Meeting. \u00a0Susan Duhl, Bob Herskovitz and Ann Frellsen, having spent many hours of hard labor together in the field during disaster response, spoke seamlessly as a complementary team, not completing each other\u2019s sentences, but oftentimes each other\u2019s thoughts. \u00a0They mentioned having lived together in an RV in Louisiana, smelly and tired…and clearly they have cleaned up their act and can take this show on the road.<\/p>\n

As an active collections emergency responder for a large academic library institution, here are my key takeaways:<\/p>\n

When responding to a disaster, we need to get to know local government agents, whose word is law and yet whose language is foreign to most conservators. \u00a0We can prepare for this by taking the FEMA Incident Command training<\/a>, which introduces the vocabulary and the hierarchy of the world of the First Responders. \u00a0What we\u2019ll get out of it is the ability to communicate with others and to understand our roles. \u00a0By the way, conservators are NOT First Responders…that term is reserved for the fire, police, National Guard and other official personnel whose priority is human safety.<\/p>\n

Personal health has to be our #1 priority, because we\u2019re no good to anyone if we\u2019re injured or sick. \u00a0When there\u2019s no electricity, there\u2019s no Nilfisk, no fume hood, no suction disk, no light table…so we are going to McGyver our way through this thing with all our appropriate PPE on at all times. \u00a0Fresh air and sunlight go a long way when the alternative is standing in the dark, knee-deep in \u201cmud.\u201d \u00a0(I put that in quotes because the components of disaster area mud should be assumed to be everything you don\u2019t ever want to ingest.)<\/p>\n

Mental health of those around you is going to be a bigger concern than you expect or, indeed, want. \u00a0You can provide the sympathetic shoulder, the gentle persuasion to take a break, or even the diplomatic persuasion to a leader to move sideways and let someone else shoulder that burden for a while. \u00a0It can be hard to wrap one\u2019s mind around saving cultural heritage when people around you have lost homes and loved ones, but in fact our role in rescuing their patrimony contributes to their healing.<\/p>\n

Conservators with a bit of grit can survive and, in fact, thrive, in the extreme environment of disaster response. \u00a0We have to \u201cthink outside the lab,\u201d and get creative to make the best use of what is available. \u00a0To take on leadership roles in a disaster response we have to stay calm and focused, and accept that we are surrounded by confusion. \u00a0We may be the only ones on site who know how to assess what is possible and what is practical. But we also tend to become superheroes and work to long and too hard. \u00a0I am really grateful for the specific language the instructors modeled for how to remove an Incident Commander (let\u2019s get used to that ICS term for team leader) whose energy if not competence is flagging. \u201cHow are you doing? \u00a0You\u2019re doing such a great job! \u00a0I notice you\u2019re looking a little tired. \u00a0You\u2019ve been working really hard. \u00a0What we really need right now is someone to sit down over here and fill out this inventory…can you help out with that? \u00a0One of us can hold the radio for a little while.\u201d \u00a0You can\u2019t just kick them out…instead, move them sideways, and then they\u2019ll see that everything is going to be ok, and they can take a real break without feeling like they\u2019ve abandoned their responsibility.<\/p>\n

Our fearless leaders gave a lot of good tips and tricks. \u00a0Here is a sampling:<\/p>\n