Folks, One week after I took office as President of SAA last year, Katrina hit Mississippi and the levees broke in New Orleans. With the assistance of Allen Weinstein, the Archivist of the United States, help a small disaster assessment team get to the Mississippi Coast to inspect the damage first hand. I was on that team, and what I saw remains vivid to this day. In many areas, the destruction was complete; all that was left of the Waveland City Hall was the cement slab. What I remember most, though, were the many individuals who worked to recover their collections, often putting their responsibilities as custodians of their communities' heritage ahead of their personal lives. While there, members of the team observed that often relatively small efforts of disaster preparedness made a big difference. In Waveland, the city council minutes were moved to a more secure location; while all other records were lost, these essential records were preserved. It's so easy to put off emergency preparedness. Although it's important, it's not urgent. The patron at the reference desk, the donor with a great collection, the backlog needing processing are all starring in our faces and demanding our attention. Hurricanes may give us some warning, but fires, floods, earthquakes, and toronados do not. The Society of American Archivists is encouraging every archivist to take some personal responsibility for emergency preparedness one day each year. We hope that on that day, all archivists will do something -- no matter how small -- to help protect their collections. We hope that many repositories will undertake activities at an institutional level. But if not, individuals can make sure they know the location of here the nearest fire extinguisher and alarm, ensure that paths to emergency exits are clear, that materials they are responsible are in boxes. The spirit of MayDay is to do something small, something that can be done in a day. It's not intended for major projects such as writing a disaster plan, although MayDay might be a good kickoff day. The SAA website (www.archivists.org/mayday/MayDayActivityList.pdf) lists a number of ideas. Please join your colleagues in participating in MayDay this coming May 1. If you do, please send a note to [log in to unmask] Thanks, Richard Pearce-Moses A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>