Mayday Mayday!
It’s one of my favorite conservation-themed days, Mayday, May 1st! I am personally fascinated by disaster preparedness. This is mainly because my grandparents and great-grandparents lived in Galveston during ‘The Storm’ of 1900.
There are many places to get more information about Mayday, Heritage Preservation encourages us to each do one thing for emergency preparedness. They sweeten the deal by offering a prize for the best Mayday project. They will list your project on their website whether you win the prize or not, you just have to tell them about your project for Mayday.
For ideas, check out the Society of American Archivists who have listed many ideas for Mayday projects on their website. One project that is simple and easy to do is a Pocket Response Plan (PReP). I saw this on the Council of State Archivists website. The PReP simplifies emergency information into a small card that can be carried with you. Portability is so key for emergency preparedness becaue often times you will not have access to your office or your computer when a disaster strikes. I was living in Queens, NY and working in New York City during the blackout in 2003 and I met up with a friend of mine who was out getting lunch when the electricity went out. He had an emergency kit in his office that he had created after his experiences during September 11 in New York, but the building was being shut and locked down so he could not go to his office to get it. We managed to survive, but patchy cel phone reception and no way to re-charge meant we saved our quarters for a pay phone to tell our families we were all right.
Even if your activity is just sitting down with your department and updating your phone list with everyone’s most recent cel phone number and land line, take a few minutes on Mayday to make some plans for how you will react to the unplanned.
