COSTEP-Massachusetts

COSTEP-Massachusetts Advisory Committee Meeting Massachusetts State Archives June 19, 2009, 10am-2:30pm

The meeting was called to order by Gregor Trinkaus-Randall at 10:10 a.m.

Present – Ben Hiltunen, Sarah Zingarelli, Kathy Griffin, Terry French, Aimee Primeaux, Lori Foley, Beth Wade, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Michael Comeau, Martha Clark, Jennifer Fauxsmith, Veronica Martzahl, Jack Kabrel, Nancy Menard, Donna Hooper, Elaine Sudanowicz, Andrew Raddant, Sunny Vandermark, Joseph Mulé

Introductions – We welcomed two new members to the Advisory Committee: Nancy Menard (Palmer Public Library) and Joseph Mulé (Thayer Memorial Library, Lancaster).

Approval of Minutes – The minutes of March 27, 2009 were approved as amended. (Jon Dillon is the new Operations Manager of MEMA.)

Committee Reports – TriCommittee – Veronica Martzahl reported on the June 2nd meeting of the Content, Outreach and Training Committees. This meeting resulted in the merging of these three committees into the new TriCommittee. At that meeting, they discussed the mock-up of the COSTEP-MA logo which utilized the design of the COSTEP logo. Lori Foley reported that the designer who created the COSTEP logo was altering the COSTEP logo and would also work on the COSTEP-MA logo. There was a minor modification to the brochure tagline, from Emergency Response Framework for the Cultural Community to Emergency Response Framework for Cultural Resources. Final file will be sent to COSTEP-MA so it can be added to brochures and other documentation. Lincoln and Lancaster are the two test communities for the pilot project. Andy Grilz has been communicating with Salem to find out whether they would be willing to be a third test community. A list of responsibilities for the community contacts was also discussed at the TriCommittee meeting. Communications with the test communities will take place in four stages: 1- Representatives from the communities will compile a list of the cultural institutions that exist in that community. 2- A letter and brochure will be sent by COSTEP-MA and the Town Clerk or Town Manager to cultural institutions, introducing the concept of a meeting between the cultural institutions, town clerk, and local EMD and describing COSTEP and COSTEP-MA. 3- A formal invitation to the meeting will be sent out. 4- The actual meeting will occur. Copies of the documents can be obtained by emailing Gregor Trinkaus-Randall. The meeting guidelines are generally: 1- 1 to 1 ½ hours in length. 2- PowerPoint presentation explaining COSTEP-MA and how we got here 3- Introduction to the cultural resources information form 4- Meet/greet with local EMD 5- Review of disaster planning resources 6- Possibly an introduction to the concept of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) We will need a website for COSTEP-MA. Possible sites for hosting were discussed and members who might be able to assist will report back to the group. Wiki status/renewal – Aimee Primeaux reported that the pbwiki subscription will need to be renewed soon. Does COSTEP-MA want to continue with that subscription and format? The group decided that it wasn’t necessary that we use pbwiki or another subscription wiki service. We might be able to have a wiki hosted through an existing entity – members who might be able to assist will report back to the group. Veronica will talk to Tufts about wiki space, and Gregor will talk to Maureen Quinn from ITD.

Brochure for community meetings – The group discussed the purpose of the brochure proposed by the Tri-Committee. The brochure is to be mailed with the initial letter of introduction that will be sent to communities in advance of the meeting with EMDs. Suggestions and edits were made by the group regarding the content of the brochure. Sarah Zingarelli will compile statistics from MEMA and Elaine Sudanowicz will create a bullet point relating to preparedness and internal disaster plans. Photographs for inclusion in the brochure can be sent to Lori Foley. Martzahl will make the suggested corrections to the brochure and will distribute for comments.

Training Committee – Foley reported that the Committee will be meeting in July to develop the Train-the-Trainers program. Rather than have 351 talks on how to do this, a train the trainer program needs to happen. Ben noted that there are regional meetings of the EMDs.

Planning Committee – Ben Hiltunen reported that Michael Philbin met with Michael Comeau and Trinkaus-Randall regarding the proposed MOU. He has also briefed senior MEMA management regarding the MOU and they are supportive.

Meta-Leadership Summit for Preparedness – Comeau reported that he, Martha Clark, Trinkaus-Randall, and Lori Foley attended the Summit after being invited by Sudanowicz. The CDC Foundation was a sponsor of the event which taught the concept of being a leader of leaders – meta-leadership – in the context of catastrophic circumstances. Components of meta-leadership include: 1- Influence vs. control 2- Leading up and out, rather than down 3- “OODA” loop – Orient – Observe – Decide – Act The attendees included individuals from government agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Comeau stated that due to involvement with CEMT, MEMA, and COSTEP, many of the exercises felt familiar. The workshop will likely be repeated in the summer/fall.

Municipal Survey – Comeau reported that Trinkaus-Randall worked to obtain funding to help municipalities with preservation planning three years ago. Senator Jamie Eldridge (after initiation by Pam Resor, who had been working to have it funded) met with Gregor and Michael about language in the 2009 budget requiring the Secretary of the Commonwealth to report to the Legislature on the preservation and storage of municipal records by June 30, 2009. The Supervisor of Public Records is required by state law to aid the preservation of municipal records, but a revenue stream will be necessary to maintain a program. Previous assessments done in 1990 and 1992 resulted in some action being taken and the establishment of the Preserved to Serve statewide preservation program. Trinkaus-Randall has been working with Comeau, Clark, and Terry French from the Massachusetts Archives to distribute a brief 5 question survey to municipal clerks regarding the storage and condition of their records. The questions covered vault storage, records management programs, state storage standards, general conditions, and interest in training programs. A report is being compiled that will be presented to the Legislature. The recent story about the Worcester cemetery records is unfortunately timely and will be included in the report. http://www.telegram.com/article/20090615/NEWS/906150385/1116 Based on the report, funding for the Supervisor of Public Records’ office and municipal preservation will be sought. Eldridge’s legislative aide was formerly Resor’s and has been working with the process for some time. Foley suggested that the outreach committee might be able to help with this, targeting town clerks. The data collection will be done next week.

Meeting with MEMA Assistant Directors – Trinkaus-Randall and Jennifer Fauxsmith met with new Assistant Directors Michael Raskin and Richard Fitzgerald at MEMA in Framingham at the end of May. The purpose of the meeting was to bring the two gentlemen up to speed on the COSTEP effort and its predecessors, dating back to 1996 and including CEMT, d-Plan, COSTEP, etc. The importance of the creation of an ESF for cultural resources and for the cultural community to have a seat at the table for disaster planning and response was discussed. We should have the annex ready for presentation by the end of summer. Trinkaus-Randall stressed that Massachusetts is at for forefront of such efforts. The idea of an AIC-CERT spinoff was well-received, although funding is still an issue. Sudanowicz suggested taking the annex to FEMA for possible inclusion in the FEMA ESF structure. Andrew Raddant agreed that getting cultural resources out of the federal ESF-11 would be a good idea. Comeau stated that all of these ideas and advancements argue for the continued cohesion of the COSTEP-MA group.

Boston Mayor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness – Trinkaus-Randall, Michael Comeau, and Martha Clark met with Don McGough of MOEP to introduce him to the COTEP-MA efforts. This met with a positive response and Sudanowicz will continue to participate as a member of COSTEP and representative from the Boston MOEP.

Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) and public libraries – Trinkaus-Randall reported that this effort is on hiatus until Liz McDonald returns. The surveying of public libraries in Region 2 is complete and Regional 1 is complete except for Suffolk County. The foundation is in place, the program is well-received, and there are plans to complete Regions 1&2 and to move on to Regions 3&4.

PowerPoint presentation to EMDs – Comeau reported on the presentation to EMDs from MEMA regions 1&2 in May. Don Boyce was in attendance, and there were approximately 70 EMDS in the audience. This was the first presentation of the former CEMT PowerPoint describing cultural resources and providing insight into how cultural resources and emergency management community can work together in the event of a disaster. The reception was good, and there was a positive Q&A session from the group. Comeau and Trinkaus-Randall emphasized the importance of working together and that the cultural community is “here to help.” After the presentation, there were invites for the presentation to be shared with other groups. The intent is still to present to MEMT, but scheduling is tricky given the loaded agendas MEMT has, especially during hurricane season and winter. Hiltunen suggested aiming for the time between hurricane season and winter. Foley suggested converting the presentation to video and uploading to YouTube, possibly with a celebrity voice-over. Suggestions were made regarding possible celebrities or contacts. Mulé suggested that NPR could be a resource for the video. Tom Ashbrook might narrate, Marcia Brooks also. (Brooks is on National Technology Council—closed captioning.)

Hazard Mitigation Grants – Zingarelli reported that the Hazard Mitigation grants are open for applications now. Communities can apply for grants to upgrade drainage systems, elevators, for the flood proofing of buildings, etc. Town needs to have a hazard mitigation plan to be included.

Pilot Projects – The group discussed the following items in regards to planning for the pilot projects: 1- Which institutions should be included on the list for the intro meeting? 2- Included organizations must hold records/objects of cultural import. Not just records, could also be the place or the structure. 3- Every community is unique and will have different combination of cultural resources/institutions/emergency management structure/emergency plan. 4- Ensure that participating institutions are willing to use the command/control structure supplied by COSTEP-MA. 5- The actual meetings with the test communities, Lincoln and Lancaster, will help to answer these and other questions. 6- We might include the list of participants and ask, in the introductory letter, for suggestions of institutions we might have missed. It was pointed out that we should be aware that this could cause tensions between organizations that might have different political/social positions. 7- We should spread the word to the Massachusetts Municipal Association which will help prepare communities before they receive the invitations to participate with COSTEP-MA. 8- Cultural Resources Information form is being resent to town clerks. The propped meetings will be an opportunity for institutions to fill out the forms and give them, in person, to the EMD. 9- We need to encourage the creation of internal institutional disaster plans. 10- Collaboration and communication are key to our efforts and for the local communities.

Annex discussion – Group reviewed the latest draft of the proposed annex for cultural resources. Please review the annex and send any last comments to Trinkaus-Randall by Thursday, June 25.

Memorandum of Understanding – It is relatively easy to agree in principle to the partnerships we have been discussing but can be much more complex during an actual situation. An MOU can help to cement the partnerships and responsibilities of major partners, and allows each partner to specify what it is they can bring to the table. The draft MOU is based on one used in California between colleges and universities. Sudanowicz reminded the group to be aware of potential legal issues with an MOU between government and private organizations. The question was raised as to whether COSTEP-MA (which isn’t an official agency, 501(c)3, etc.) be the main entity in the MOU. What is COSTEP-MA actually capable of? A determination was made that the Massachusetts Archives and Board of Library Commissioners should be the main entities in the MOU. Perhaps we should look at the MOU as a tool and not a specific document at this time. The edited MOU can be used as a model for municipalities to use between EMDs, Town Clerks, and cultural institutions. Sudanowicz suggested that the group investigate VOAD MOUs to use as additional templates. Hiltunen offered to contact the head of VOAD for information on the MOUs. Hurricane Operations Checklist – Trinkaus-Randall emailed the Hurricane Operations Checklist to the group prior to the meeting. He asked for comments and pointed out that for all of the work we’ve done, it is noteworthy that cultural resources are not mentioned once in the Checklist. The Checklist is based on the ’38 hurricane. If anyone has ideas about where cultural resources could be inserted, pass it along to Trinkaus-Randall. Group discussed the notification line at 72 hours. Large museums, potentially with large numbers of people, should definitely be on the contact list. Sudanowicz noted that the City of Boston is implementing a new alert system and will be able to send alerts to groups. Zingarelli noted that MEMA would contact the Department of Education, which would then notify institutions. Perhaps the notification of cultural institutions should be the responsibility of the municipalities rather than MEMA? Trinkaus-Randall offered to be added to one of the contact lists so he can then send out alerts to cultural community using his email lists. Sudanowicz mentioned that the National Hurricane Center can be accessed for updates as well. Trinkaus-Randall has been receiving positive feedbacks on the weather alerts he sends out and institutions have been taking action based on the alerts.

Next meeting – The next Advisory Committee meeting will take place on the 25th of September at 10 am at the Massachusetts Archives. The Steering Committee will meet in the interim and will send updates and revised versions of documents a needed. Just a reminder – the grant monies are now gone, and lunch will not be provided at future meetings.