Menu
Log in


INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR
CULTURAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

Log in

ASIS Cultural Properties Council - Chairman's Corner

September 06, 2016 5:54 PM | Rob Layne (Administrator)

by Robert A. Carotenuto, CPP, PCI, PSP

[reprinted from the ASIS Cultural Properties Council August 2016 Newsletter]

Cultural Property Council members have had a busy spring!  During our monthly council calls, our council has been discussing how to meet the current active shooter and terrorist assaults that have taken so many lives and threaten the institutions that we safeguard.  Cultural properties are soft targets with limited resources.  We are some of the most visited tourist sites in the world.  My own institution, the New York Botanical Garden, saw visitation surpass one million this past fiscal year, and my former employer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, had a record attendance of over 6.7 million visitors.  Many of my colleagues on the council speak of similar surges in attendance, and so we are developing strategies to continue to protect all our new visitors, often with static, or even diminishing, resources.  Our council has undertaken the following initiatives to discuss pressing issues in our industry:

Speaking Engagements:

Several council members participated in the Smithsonian National Conference on Cultural Property Protection, held June 1-3 at the Smithsonian in D.C., and spearheaded by council member Douglas Hall, who moderated a session on visitor\public screening.  Gary Miville moderated a session on cultural property resources and James “Jes” Stewart was a panelist on a session entitled, “Museum Customer Service: creating a Wow Experience.” Stevan Layne led a workshop entitled, “Developing and Implementing Your Own Collections Emergency Plan.”

Several council members spoke at the American Alliance for Museums conference held in D.C. over the Memorial Day weekend.  Stevan Layne, Mark Peterson and I spoke about how “Priceless Collections Require Specialized Security.” Mike Kirchner, Bill Powers, Chris Provan, and Mark Peterson discussed cultural property construction security concerns in their presentation entitled, “Construction 2.0: Lessons Learned in Large and Small Museums.”  Doug Hall discussed the museum security staffing survey and report performed by the Smithsonian in his session entitled, Smithsonian Strategic Staffing Analysis.”  These well-attended sessions helped to promote the work of our council and ASIS International.

Our council is proud to have two sessions at this year’s ASIS International Annual Seminar and Exhibits in Orlando.  Andy Davis will be addressing how to combat terrorist threats on Monday, September 12th in his session entitled Protect Cultural and Hospitality Venues from Terrorist Attacks.  Andy Davis, Stevan Layne, James McGuffey, Ronald Ronacher, and I will be addressing soft target security on Tuesday, September 13th during our presentation entitled, “Strategies for Hardening Soft Targets.”  I am proud to be representing the council at the ASIS International Global Conference in Shanghai, where I will be speaking on Monday, November 14th about emergency planning in my session entitled, “Expecting the Unexpected: Creating a practical Emergency Management Plan.”

Publications:

Given space limitations, I will briefly list the documents we have in various stages of publication:

  • 1)    Houses of Worship Security Risk Analysis; approved by ASIS International and to be available August, 2016 through our council’s ASIS website.
  • 2)    Council Brochure, completed and translated into Dutch and Arabic. Working on French and Spanish translations.  We see this as an essential step in recruiting international members.
  • 3)    Fire Suppression White Paper, awaiting ASIS International review.
  • 4)    Children’s Safety in Museums (working title), council peer-review; plans to collaborate with School Safety Council
  • 5)    CRISP Report on Clunia archaeological site in Spain; in draft.
  • 6)    Armed Guard Survey and Visitor Screening Survey; several members collaborating with the Smithsonian and the IFCPP; future White Papers.

Our council seeks to collaborate with other councils on issues of mutual importance, so please reach out to us!

International:

Kudos to Ibrahim Bulut, James Clark, Andy Davis, and Ricardo Sanz Marcos for all their efforts on championing our council and ASIS International.  Jim and Ricardo will be launching a risk analysis of the Clunia archaeological site in Spain later this year and this will be our first efforts in working with the ASIS International foundation, writing a CRISP Report, and expanding on the groundbreaking work by Dr. Arthur Kingsbury on archaeological site security.  Ibrahim’s articles below highlight his interactions with ICOM and ARCA, two of the international leaders in researching threats to museums and their collections.  Andy is leading the inaugural International Arts and Antiquities Forum (IAAS) at the Baltic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, November 11, 2016.  He, Ricardo Sanz Marcos and Jim McGuffey will be representing our council and speaking on operational best practices, building multilayered defenses, current threats and countermeasures for houses of worship, and operational best practices for security operations (physical and technical).

A special thanks to Andy and Ibrahim for translating our brochure into Arabic and Dutch, respectively.  Ibrahim was also instrumental in recruiting new council member, Kaatje Claes, from G4S in Belgium.  Lastly, Andy, Ibrahim, Ricardo and I are currently working on session submittals for the ASIS International Global Conference in Milan, March, 2107.

New Members

Joining our active team are Daniel Munoz, Hammer Museum; Clint Wynne, Security Concepts, Inc.; Jaime Juarez, Cleveland Museum; and Kaatje Claes, G4S, Belgium.


  
 

1305 Krameria, Unit H-129, Denver, CO  80220  Local: 303.322.9667
Copyright © 2015 - 2018 International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection.  All Rights Reserved