2014-2015 Disaster Planning and Recovery Subcommittee Annual Report

Report from the Disaster Planning and Recovery Subcommittee

Regional Archival Associations Consortium Annual Meeting

Cleveland, Ohio, August 19, 2015

2014-2015 subcommittee members were Jean L. Green, New York Archives Conference; Daria Labinsky, Midwest Archives Conference; Leslie O’Neill, Delaware Valley Archivists Group; Malia Van Heukelem, Association of Hawaii Archivists; and Celeste Wiley, Charleston Archives, Libraries, and Museum Council.

Former subcommittee chair Tim Hawkins stepped down earlier this year, and Rachel Chatelbash and Amanda Focke took over as cochairs. Mark Wolfe has replaced Jean Green as New York Archives Conference representative.

Our 2014-2015 goals were to:

1. Identify existing disaster recovery resources available regionally;
2. Identify disaster preparedness educational resources available regionally;
3. Consolidate links into a guide on the RAAC microsite;
4. Communicate the presence of the guide through SAA and the regionals.

We completed all four of our goals.

The subcommittee’s primary goal was to complete the Disaster Recovery Resources webpage. Subcommittee members contributed the information for the page by researching our specific regions, with several members also researching areas that did not have members on the committee. We collected information on resources, vendors, emergency advice hotlines, funding and supply sources, and training opportunities. Members also supplied information on national and international resources, but on a more limited scale.

The webpage went live in April. It is at http://www2.archivists.org/groups/regional-archival-associations-consortium-raac/disaster-recovery-resources, and is available via a link on the RAAC homepage. RAAC web liaison Lynette Stoudt handled the technical aspects and has continued to maintain and edit it throughout the year. The page was posted to the RAAC Facebook page in July.

We envision the Disaster Recovery Resources webpage as something that evolves as new resources are created, and as awareness of it builds and other archivists, preservationists, and resource creators send information our way. We encourage other RAAC members to continue to share the information located on the webpage with their organization’s membership.

Since we met our goals, the Disaster Planning and Recovery Subcommittee had the option of dissolving, but the members chose to continue it. We have had some brief email discussions about which topics to pursue next and hope to reach a decision at today’s meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Daria Labinsky

Midwest Archives Conference