Dear ICOM members, ICOM has established "Disaster Relief for Museums" immediately after the tsunami 2004. Its mission is to support museums affected by natural disasters as well as by man-made disasters that exceed national capacities. The initiative consists of three elements: - the Disaster Relief Task Force, which we are introducing in the message - the Disaster Relief Website: <http://icom.museum/disaster_relief/> - the (still small) Disaster Relief Fund In May 2008 ICOM EC constituted the Disaster Relief Task Force for a second triennium. In June the following members were appointed: Thomas Schuler (chair), Corine Wegener (vice-chair), Jorgen Wadum (ICOM-CC), Hans-Jürgen Harras (ICMS), Amareswar Galla (CCTF), Leif Pareli (Blue Shield), Hanna Pennock (EC), Hong Nam Kim (EC) and Carla Bonomi (secretariat). In July we had a very substantial weekend workshop in Berlin where we defined our goals and internal procedures. After this initial meeting we tried to catch up with the recent natural disasters. During the past three weeks we have collected quite a lot of information on Cyclone Nargis in Mynamar, on the Wenchuan earthquake in China and particularly on the impact of these disasters to museums. In Myanmar we have spotted 20 museums situated in the area cyclone Nargis had devastated. But as ICOM has no national committee and just one personal member in this country, our task force is not better off than many other institutions trying to get information and to assist a country not much interested in foreign support. As soon as we get detailed information we will post it on ICOM-L as well as on our website: <http://icom.museum/disaster_relief/myanmar.html> We have not checked all 55 museums In Sichuan, but concentrated on those 28 museums situated less than 100 km from the epicentre. At least 11 of them have been damaged. See the first results of our research on our preliminary website <http://icom.museum/disaster_relief/china.html> We have not extended our research to the provinces next to Sichuan, but we know that there are many museums affected there as well. According to the Chinese Ministry of Culture, 27 museums in 4 provinces are affected altogether. With the help of ICOM China and the Chinese Association of Museums, we will soon present a comprehensive list of affected museums and their requests for foreign assistance. As China is the host of our next General Assembly we are strongly committed not only to show our concern but also to give valuable international support. Concerning the conflict in Georgia see our previous posting to ICOM-L and our special temporary website <http://georgia.drfm.info> We would like to ask all ICOM committees and members to support our work, especially by giving assistance to museums affected by a disaster. Please, bookmark our website <http://icom.museum/disaster_relief/> and visit it after a major disaster has occurred. Dr. Thomas Schuler Chair Disaster Relief for Museums Task Force - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html