Hi Erika, Am responding on-list only because the Connecting to Collections Webinar last week addressed this issue and if you’re a member of the network (free) you can download the materials, and policy from the MSU Museum made available here http://www.connectingtocollections.org/beyond-no-food-or-drink-in-the-gallery/
The recommendations are to have a separate food management policy that correlates to the collections management policy, and that training of museum and catering staff is crucial to keep pest issues at a minimum or nonexistent. We currently operate with best practices in mind when it comes to food management but the webinar has spurred us to actually draft a policy, which I think was the case for many of the webinar participants. Hope this is helpful, Nezka Nezka Pfeifer Curator The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art 1901 Mulberry Street Scranton, PA 18510-2390 p: 570.346.7186 ext. 512 f: 570.346.0652 www.everhart-museum.org <http://www.everhart-museum.org/> Follow the breadcrumbs to the Everhart Museum and explore the symbols and archetypes found in fairy tales in Wolves, Magic Mirrors & Spinning Wheels: The Anatomy of Fairy Tales. Be inspired by artworks illustrating new fairy tales in our Community Art at the Everhart: Fairy Tale Remix exhibit in Gallery ONE. All exhibits on view July 15 – December 31, 2016. Want to always be in the know about happenings at the Everhart? Become our friend on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Everhart-Museum-of-Natural-History-Science-Art/57064683336?ref=ts> and follow on Twitter @everhartmuseum <https://twitter.com/#!/everhartmuseum> and Instagram @everhartmuseum <https://instagram.com/everhartmuseum/> . Be sure to designate the Everhart Museum as your charity of choice and raise money for the Everhart by shopping at Amazon via <http://smile.amazon.com/?tag=abba-smile-us-20&version=1.0> AmazonSmile. From: pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net] On Behalf Of Erika Range Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2016 11:45 AM To: pestlist@museumpests.net Subject: [pestlist] Pest Managment Policies Hi everyone, I am doing a quick survey of other institutions policies when it comes to pest management. I work for a large national museum in Ottawa and we are reviewing our policies. Our museum, like many others have begun hosting large catered events as an additional source of revenue in these challenging times. We hire an external contractor to implement our pest management program (apparently as a cost cutting measure), but are disappointed in the results and the amount of our time which goes into training these contractors. Does anyone out there have experience with implementing policies around the expectations for these external companies/contractors? OR do you have experience with implementing plans which correlate to hosted/catered events? We are also reviewing our freezing policies, and we tend to freeze everything that comes in or out of collections and exhibit space, (building materials, specimens, artifacts etc) as a pest infestation would be devastating to our collection. We are curious as to the freezing policies other institutions have specifically around freezing non-collection materials. Could anyone share their experiences? A reply through pest-list is fine, but I'm also happy to discuss further using era...@mus-nature.ca Kindest regards, Erika Range
