Preparing for Something You Hope Never Happens

That will never happen! 

A phrase that sends many a collections manager and emergency professional rushing to knock on wood or toss salt over their shoulder to ward off bad luck. 

We all want to think that disaster will not strike at our museum. I would also like to be safe rather than sorry. As with many things in life, there is a balance between preparing for every emergency (no matter how unlikely) and never preparing because you do not think an emergency could happen to your museum. But emergency preparedness is not just for 'disasters' (depending on your definition and severity, but my mind goes to natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, or wildfires). Water leaks, vandalism, or power outages are all incidents that could benefit from emergency preparedness. These 'smaller' emergencies are more likely to happen- so we are more likely to be ready for them- but it is important that we prepare for even the unlikely events too. The last thing you want to do in the middle of an "unlikely" emergency is figure out your team's response.

Last year we worked with Becca Kennedy with Curae Collections Care on improving our emergency preparedness. We developed an Emergency Action Plan that reflects our museum's needs, our staff's capacity and our location's most likely emergencies. We were also able to improve our emergency kit: something that Becca Kennedy had also aided us with several years ago. Equipment and materials (some as simple as paper towels and buckets in case of a water leak) help fortify our museum. 

Our part of our emergency kit, stored in a trash bin on wheels, so that it is easily accessible in an emergency situation.

We trained on emergency procedures and discussed what our staff's biggest concerns were for our museum, which helped us all understand what we needed from an Emergency Action Plan. During our training Becca also created a fake collections-focused emergency and as a team we walked through our emergency response and how we could potentially salvage our collections objects. 

The "Heurich Team" in custom safety vests to better identify museum staff during a potential large emergency. Here Dan Rudie, Director of Preservation, tests out our new infrared camera on Kai Walther, Development Manager

Collections Manager Kimberly Totten working to salvage fake collections objects submerged in water to practice for an emergency flooding or plumbing leak

So why did we go to all this trouble? Training staff, filling out emergency kits, and drafting an Emergency Action Plan: it is all so that we can better prepare for something we truly hope will never happen. By being proactive we can potentially prevent our collections from being damaged or lost entirely. Our museum (and the collections within) is not just a gateway into public history, but also as a place for community engagement. I'm more than happy to prepare for any emergency if it means potentially saving opportunities for education and community growth.