museumpests

Register now for the IPM For Collections Workshop

RPArenstein — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:33:48 +0000

Registration is underway for the one-day workshop on IPM for Collections to be held May 29, 2013 at the American Institute for Conservation Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. No need to be a conservator – one day registrations are available. This program is organized by members of the IPM Working Group and AIC’s Collections Care Network

Integrated Pest Management for Collections
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., $139
Preventing damage from pests is an essential task in the responsible management of all collections. Implementing an appropriate Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan is the best way to prevent infestations from taking root and to deal with any problems in a safe and effective manner. Participants will receive a basic introduction to IPM in order to be able to assess appropriate options for their institutions and collections in areas of policy and procedures, preventing infestations, trapping and monitoring, and remedial treatment.

Participants will learn to identify ways in which pests gain access to collections, how a pest monitoring program can be implemented, how to identify some of the most common and harmful museum pests, the pros and cons of a range of remedial treatments, and how to develop IPM policies and procedures for an institution.

Pat Kelley, Vice president, Insects Limited
Emily Kaplan, Conservator, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Rachael Perkins Arenstein, A.M. Art Conservation, LLC

IPM blog post from the Canadian Museum of Nature

RPArenstein — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:28:31 +0000

The Canadian Museum of Nature’s blog has a new post from staff members and IPM Working Group contributors Laura Smyk and Marcie Kwindt discussing pest control measures at the institution. Their post is informative with some dramatic images. Kudos to the authors!

2012 IPM Working Group Meeting Announcement

RPArenstein — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:46:42 +0000

We are currently accepting requests for a spot at our next meeting, which will be held March 1-2, 2012 and hosted by the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.

As in previous years, we plan to use the time during the two days to work together to complete resources that have been in process or requested by constituents in the areas of Pest ID aids, treatment resources, best practices for prevention and data collection/visualization. Building on last year’s meeting we will also focus on strategic planning for our group as well as our relationships with overseas colleagues. We will have reports on papers presented at the 2011 Pest Odyssey meeting in London, new apps for IPM and more.

We want to stress that the purpose of the group is not to teach or review IPM, but to solve individual institutional challenges while developing resources for the museum community. You should expect to take an active role in generating resources and to leave with an assignment. For more information on the working group please see the About Us page on www.museumpests.net.

We are offering past participants first priority at attending before putting out a wider call on the PestList and other listservs. If you would like to attend, please contact IPM-WG Chair Rachael Perkins Arenstein at rachael at amartconservation dot com. Please put “IPM Working Group RSVP” in the subject line of the email as messages without this subject line will not be opened.

IPM-WG Draft White Paper

RPArenstein — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:54:52 +0000

Below is the text from a draft white paper created by members of the IPM-WG Strategic Planning Initiative at the 2011 meeting. Comments from all past and present IPM-WG participants are welcome.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges facing IPM-WG and the steps that can be taken to address these challenges.

Over last 10 years IPM-WG has developed a successful range of web-based resources for integrated pest management in collection-holding institutions, centered on the Museum Pests website and Pestlist mail server.

Much of the work of the Group in recent years has been focused on the development of the website and the creation of content. Other than the relatively low-level of activity required to keep the site up to date, this work is now largely complete.

The group has a choice of disbanding, existing on a limited basis for the purposes of maintaining the Museum Pests site and list serve, or using these achievements as a foundation for growth. If we choose to grow and develop the Group, the current ad-hoc operational structure may not be sufficient.

Options

Disband: This would abandon the website and pestlist. Eventually the work that has been done to date would be lost and pulled out of context. IPM-WG has exemplified volunteer productivity. Any forward motion in terms of deliberate pooling and organization of resources would be halted and we could all go back to our separate projects.
Stasis: The website would maintain its existing scope, thus limiting utility. The IPM-WG would have to resolve our dependence on AMNH and Leon Zak for meeting and tech support. Information technology will continue to change, incurring use of resources: both volunteer time and money, albeit less time than money.
Growth: This would involve a more deliberate expansion of participation. Content of the website could be expanded to cover topics such as historic structures or wider geographical areas (ecosystems). Types of media and delivery mechanisms such as training courses, conferences and workshops could be developed and able to change with the times. This would require financial resources as well as volunteer and perhaps staff time. We would need to clearly define the current IPM-WG and determine whether or not to continue as a free-standing organization or under the umbrella of another institution or organization in order to maintain the accountability necessary to handle these larger responsibilities.

Requirements: Assuming that the Group wishes to grow, there are a number of elements that need to be put in place.

1) Mission Statement and Vision. A clear statement of the Group’s mission and the underlying vision for this mission is a pre-requisite for the development of long-term plans.

2) Bylaws. There are no written rules for the operation of the Group. If a more challenging agenda for activities is to be adopted, then procedures will need to be codified.

3) Strategic Plan. A strategic planning document will be needed to realize the long-term vision for the Group, setting goals and objectives for the next 5 years.

4) Steering Group. At the moment, there is no management structure for IPM-WG beyond the Chair/co-Chairs and no approval mechanism. Minimally, a steering group will be required to make the decisions necessary to implement a mission statement, vision, and bylaws. The Steering Group will be a temporary body, whose permanent replacement will be defined in the bylaws.

5) Long-Range Planning Group. Will be responsible for working up ideas and plans for further discussion/development by the Steering Group.

Roadmap

On 4 Mar 11

Long range planning group drafts mission statement and vision.
Present mission statement and vision to IPM-WG for comment/discussion

Long range planning group drafts White Paper
Present White Paper to IPM-WG for comment/discussion

By 18 Apr 11

Set up steering committee. Format suggested by LRPG:
- 6 – 8 members
- Selected by chair from nominations/volunteers or direct pick
Formalize long range planning group (LRPG). Suggestions:
- Keep as-is with small group of workers.
- Primary role to generate material for steering committee, such as bylaws, survey for IPM-WG members, etc.

By 1 May 11

Wider consultation on concept of IPM-WG overhaul
- Post White Paper and Draft Mission Statement on website where people from the IPM-WG and parties of interest will be able to access
- Mailshot (email) all previous participants and ask them to comment on the document. (Probably via a non-searchable blog)
  - Give the individuals three weeks to submit their comments and send a reminder after 2 weeks

By 1 Jun 11

Planning Group finalizes mission statement and vision, drafts bylaws
- Bylaws should be vetted by an appropriate outside source (or sources) that have experience and legal expertise.
- Ideas for where to go for vetting: Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, AAM, SPNHC

By 1 Jul 11

Steering Committee finalizes any changes and approves mission statement, vision, and bylaws.

Between 1 Jul – 1 Aug 11

Planning Group develops uses the guidelines of the bylaws, mission statement and vision to draft a more concrete version of the strategic plan

Between 1 Aug – 1 Sep 11

Wider consultation of the strategic plan, bylaws and mission statement to members, parties of interest and peer organizations.
- FAIC, AAM, SPNHC, other donors/supporters all should be part of the consultation. Post to site for viewing only

By 15 Sep 11

Steering Committee finalizes and approves the strategic plan
- Strategic plan helps determine the activities for next meeting in addition to other goals and web content set out by the group at the end of the 2011 IPM-WG meeting

By 1 Oct 11

Determine parent society or institutional host that meets requirements and philosophies of the group as outlined in the strategic plan

Hello world!

RPArenstein — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:45:00 +0000

Welcome to the blog of the Integrated Pest Management Working Group (IPM-WG). The mission of the IPM-WG is to promote and facilitate best practices in pest management for the collections and cultural heritage communities. All work of the group is available on the museumpests.net website.