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 October 10, 2005 Dear Members and Supporters of AAAM, In the wake of the recent natural disasters that have affected our nation’s Gulf Coast, AAAM has formed a Disaster Task Force, which will provide a mechanism to support those cultural institutions and individuals critically impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I am calling on all members to support the efforts of our Disaster Task Force. All inquiries regarding the Disaster Task Force should be directed to AAAM Executive Director, William Billingsley. AAAM is committed to utilizing the professional expertise of its membership as a resource for cultural institutions and evacuees impacted by the recent natural disasters. This Disaster Task Force includes our executive committee and other museum professionals of varying areas of expertise from the AAAM membership who will assist in recovery efforts on both a short and long-term basis. The Task Force will devote all available resources to meet the needs of member institutions of these disasters. In addition, in response to this crisis, the Disaster Task Force will initiate contact with institutional personnel, register the needs of impacted museums and cultural institutions, provide assessments of damage, report the status of these assessments to regional and national relief agencies, develop an action plan, document their activities, and communicate the ongoing progress of those impacted institutions throughout their recovery period. Additionally, AAAM has initiated an on-going, online update at www.blackmuseums.org to provide status reports on African American cultural institutions located in the Gulf Coast region impacted by the hurricanes; as well as Web links to free, downloadable resources such as brochures from the Heritage Preservation Emergency Task Force and FEMA. Members of AAAM also continue to support the recovery efforts organized by other national organizations that are already under way. During the week of October 3 - 9, Shirl Spicer, secretary for the Association’s Board of Directors and a staff member of the North Carolina Museum of History, joined one of several disaster assessment teams who visited hurricane-impacted cultural institutions in Louisiana. The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) sponsors these assessment team visits. In response to the disaster, several member institutions initiated relief efforts for those individuals and families displaced by the Gulf Coast disaster. Finally, I am encouraging each of you to support disaster relief efforts in any way that you can, and I am also asking member institutions to offer free admission to evacuees over the next few weeks. This will provide an outlet for entertaining activities for those individuals and families devastated by the disaster in hopes of restoring some normalcy to their lives. We will continue to provide updates on the progress of our relief and recovery efforts for impacted institutions in the Gulf Coast region in future issues of our newsletter, the scrip, and on this website. For updates on the status of those museums impacted by the recent hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, please click here. Dr. Lawrence J. Pijeaux, Jr. President, AAAM * * * * * * * * * * * * To find HURRICANE DISASTER RESOURCES online, please visit the website for the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. There you can download free brochures, such as “Before and After Disasters: Federal Funding for Cultural Institutions,” and access direct web links which provide authoritative information for cultural heritage institutions, as well as links to FEMA assistance sites. Click on the link below: www.heritagepreservation.org/programs/TFHurricaneRes.htm  |
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