The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) relies on good information to adequately respond to local disasters. For larger disasters, that data is also key to determining Federal responses.
COSTEP MA is extremely fortunate to have emergency management professionals from MEMA and the Boston Office of Emergency Management (Boston OEM) on our Executive Board. From their perspectives, better data about the cultural heritage sector will result in more specific and realistic Hazard Planning, more accurate budgeting and forecasting for recovery, and will provide them with opportunities to more proactively connect to disaster-affected institutions. Having broad data about buildings amd collections–with institutional contact information–is extremely helpful for minimizing miscommunications, and can also facilitate smoother State and Federal relief, if needed.
Towards this goal of “better data” for MEMA, and by exetension other local and Federal Emergency Management Agencies, we would like to announce a draft of a statewide survey, forthcoming in 2022, that attempts to circumscribe the Cultural Heritage Sector in Massachusetts.
The draft is open for your comments: “Cultural Heritage Facilities Survey.” The Survey is in draft mode and you are welcome to fill out fields to test the form — all submissions, however, will be discarded when it formally goes live next year.
MEMA will collect the data, manage it, and display it publicly in an interactive map used by their Agency and other stakeholders (unless you specify for it to remain private). COSTEP MA is committed to yearly notices to our subscribers to check and update their data.
Now and in the future, we are facing bigger storms for longer durations, and our buildings and collections are at greater risks of natural disaster. Please consider being proactive in managing these risks by sharing your institution’s general information (and specific location) with MEMA directly, when the survey when it goes live next year. In the meantime, please share your feedback with us at COSTEPMA@gmail.com. Please feel free to share this widely among others in the Cultural Heritage Sector. Thank you!