Background
This series documents the work and activities of the Zone A Emergency Government office. Zone A represents the city of Glendale and the villages of Shorewood, Fox Point, Bayside, Brown Deer, River Hills, and Whitefish Bay. Robert E. Cavey was the Zone A director for a majority of the time covered in the series, so many of the records are closely tied to him and his activities.
The zones were created to pool the resources of each community in the county. Initially, Zone A was a cooperative effort between the seven communities in its region of Milwaukee County and was led by a zone coordinator and civil defense directors from each municipality. In 1962, Zone A decided to hire a full-time director, and in 1963 Robert Cavey was hired to fill that role. When Cavey took his post, he formalized the agreements between the seven municipalities, cementing their agreement to work together in emergency planning. He created an emergency operating plan with “annexes”: portions of the emergency operating plan that address specific areas of concern, such as Communications, Police, Shelter, Fire and Rescue, and Health Services. Also within his role as Zone A director, Cavey spent much of his time working with the Zone A Commission and the Fire and Rescue Services committee. His other duties as director for Zone A included work with multiple state and national civil defense organizations where he frequently participated as a member as well as chair to committees. Cavey retired in 1988, and the later dates of the collection document his retirement and the continued work of his successor, Cecile Zemski.
Records
These records document the administration and functioning of Zone A, as well as the professional associations, work and research of the Zone A director. The records, showing the work done in Zone A over the course of 35 years, from 1959 to 1990 (with the bulk of the material from 1963 to the early 1980s), demonstrates local concerns about civil defense and emergency preparedness. It also illustrates the state of civil defense and emergency management on a regional and nationwide scale through the variety of professional and governmental organizations with which the Zone A director was associated.
Particularly well documented is the ongoing work of Zone A and its advisory body, the Zone A Commission. Minutes and correspondence pertaining to the commission and the associated Radio Communication Commission, as well as the director's subject files, present a look at the efforts of Zone A and its director over the duration of the records' time span. The records also successfully demonstrate the changing face of civil defense as politics and popular opinion begin to influence the public perception of the profession's work. This evidence includes the name change of the United States Civil Defense Council to the National Coordinating Council on Emergency Management, correspondence throughout the records, and Robert Cavey's responses to several surveys.
While the combination of the records for the professional organizations in the collection illustrates a significant period of time, a number of the organizations documented feature records for only a few years. Additionally, the middle years of Zone A are more strongly documented than the early and late years.
The original order of the records was altered to facilitate access. It is now arranged in three series to document Zone A's administration, the director's work, and Zone A's relationship with other civil defense organizations. Within each series, sub-series are arranged alphabetically by title or subject.
ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS, 1955-1990, document Zone A's operation. The sub-series of “Agreements” documents the pooling and coordination of local resources for civil defense. It includes agreements with member organizations and between municipalities pertaining to the establishment and continuing management of partnerships making up Zone A and Milwaukee County civil defense. They include Zone A-related assistance agreements and the agreements to formalize and strengthen coordination with the Radio Communications Commission, one of the most critical components of emergency response. Material in the sub-series titled “Annexes” detail each annexes' (which could be described as a sub-committee specializing in a particular aspect of emergency planning) contribution to the overall Zone A emergency operating plan. Finally, the “Zone A Committees” subseries consists of the minutes and correspondence of the Zone A Civil Defense Commission (which advises Zone A Emergency Government) and the Fire and Rescue Services committee meetings.
OTHER CIVIL DEFENSE ORGANIZATIONS, 1961-1988, documents Zone A's relationship and coordination with other civil defense organizations. The series includes correspondence with and documentation of membership in a number of civil defense professional organizations, as well as federal, state and local committees not directly tied to Zone A. Among the organizations most heavily documented are the United States Civil Defense Council, the Southeast Area Wisconsin Division of Emergency Government and its associated fire and police committees, and the Wisconsin Civil Defense and Disaster Association. Robert Cavey was particularly heavily involved with the United States Civil Defense Council and the Wisconsin Civil Defense and Disaster Association, holding the position of chairman on a number of committees in both organizations and represented Zone A in the Southeast Area meetings. The Southeast Area committee information in particular is also important for its illustration of civil defense work on a scale larger than that of Zone A.
The COORDINATOR'S, 1955-1962, AND DIRECTOR'S, 1963-1987, SUBJECT FILES document the coordinator's and director's activities and interests. The series consists of files accumulated by these individuals in the course of work and research. Information includes newspaper clippings and press releases from Zone A as well as Wisconsin and the United States.
The director's speaking kit is included in this series, as is documentation of the Vial of Life program. The Vial of Life program was developed to encourage Zone A residents to keep their emergency information on a slip of paper in a vial in their cars or kitchens so emergency personnel could appropriately help them if necessary. The Vial of Life records provide an example of explicit directions to speakers and suggested techniques to avoid frightening audiences yet gain their confidence and ultimately their compliance.
Records of the auxiliary police training course document how personnel were trained to handle emergency situations. Information on available emergency shelter and health resources for the American Red Cross are here and document available emergency shelter in Zone A. Finally, minutes and correspondence of the Community Youth and Family Aids Planning committee are included here because Robert Cavey attended the meetings as an appointed community member, not as a representative of Zone A.
