Florida Art Museum Directors Association

Florida Association of Museums > Professional Development > Professional Resources > Florida Connecting to Collections Program > Emergency Plans

Emergency Plans

This self-paced program should be used for collecting organizations to develop their own institution-wide emergency plan. It is specifically designed for museums, archives, libraries, historic sites, or organizations with living collections. Use these guidelines to create a new emergency plan or revise your institution’s existing plan. The program has been divided into modules which can either be completed in order, or as needed. Modules cover the following topics:

Module Sections

Each module has been broken into four separate sections to give your institution the most information when revising or creating your emergency plan. The sections include:

Webinar
Each webinar was recorded as part of Florida Connecting to Collections 2012 or 2015: Developing Emergency Plans programs. Webinars are approximately 15 to 35 minutes long. The webinars will provide you with the core methodology needed for your institution’s emergency plan. Professionals from around the state donated their time and expertise to present the major themes and subjects involved in developing an emergency plan.

Activities
These activities assume participants have watched the webinar. We highly recommend you watch as a group, and immediately follow with the proposed discussion or exercise.

Two different types of activities were created to help your institution develop an emergency plan. The purpose of these activities is to help you engage colleagues within your institution (or within your work group) to identify and develop elements of the plan according to the particular circumstances of your organization.

  • Discussion Questions will help you think about and address components of your plan and potential issues. These questions can also be shared with staff who are assisting you with your institution’s emergency plan.
  • Practical Exercises are included in some of the modules via downloadable worksheets that will help you develop a section of your emergency plan. The practical exercises can also be distributed to staff for their input.

Samples
Participants in the Florida Connecting to Collections Developing Emergency Plans program have provided samples of plans they developed for their institutions. These sample plans were created using the same methodology and sources now available for self-paced participants.

Online Resources
Online resources from the Internet have been gathered to assist you as you develop an emergency plan for your institution. Some resources are sample plans from various organizations around the world. Others are resource documents that you can use when revising only portions of your plan.