GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

January 9, 2003, Urban Drainage & Flood Control Offices - Denver
 

Meeting Attendees
 

Erin Ansell
Vince Aureimma
David Bennetts
Cameron Beul
Dan Buhman
Chris Carlson - Acting Secretary
Joe Chaplin
Kevin Doyle
Harvey Eastman
Dan Evans
Andrea Faucett
Jeremy Franz - Scholarship Chair
John Frazier
Stuart Gardner - CASFM Chair
Debbie Haferman - NE Rep

David Hollingsworth
Terri Kohls
Peter Kozinski - Metro Rep
Robert Krehbiel - Conference Chair
Larry Lang
Mark Matulik - Floodplain Chair
Kevin McBride - Stormwater Chair
Mike Meininger
Trent Prall - Treasurer
Kevin Ruswick
Bill Schenderlein
Georgia Simpson
David Thaemert
Cindy Thrush - Vice Chair
Darren Tuttle

 

 

The following is a summary of the interactions, comments and future items discussed. While this summary is not intended to represent a complete or comprehensive account of the meeting, it is intended to reflect the salient points raised or issues for further consideration. Should the attendees believe that anything may be misrepresented or misleading, please bring this to the attention of John Hunt, CASFM Secretary.

 

1.      Secretary Report

 

The secretary determined that a quorum was present at the meeting. The minutes of the November 2002 meeting were approved.

 

2.      Treasurer Report

 

The treasurer noted that the general fund balance had been $19,000 going into 2002, then increased to $31,000 by the end of 2002. The projected fund balance for the end of 2003 is $26,000. The treasurer’s report was accepted with one suggested modification: Budget item 13 should be titled “Floodplain Management 101 Workshop.”

 

3.      Regional Representatives Reports

 

Northeast Region: The next social is planned for January 23. Lyle Zevenbergen will make a presentation on the SAM program, a sediment transport analysis tool.

Metro Region: They had a social on January 8 at Baby Does. Twenty-five people attended. John Liou spoke about FEMA accepted models. The next Metro region social is on the calendar for April 17. Pete is looking for classes or workshop ideas for people in the metro area.

No other regional reps attended the meeting.

 

4.      Survey Results

 

Stuart passed around the survey responses. As of the meeting date, there had been 45 responses. Roughly half the respondents are employed by consulting firms and the other half by government. The respondents are evenly split between bachelors and masters degrees.

Ayres Associates offered to provide training courses. All of the courses were pretty highly rated. We could probably get good turnout at any one of the courses listed. No specific course location is heavily preferred over another.

Other conclusions from the survey results:

  • We will soon start a Help Wanted page on the web site.

  • The CFM class will probably be offered again this year.


    5.      Committee Reports

     

    Floodplain: Mark Matulik handed out a sheet with the committee’s goals and objectives for 2003. He recommended having a luncheon to discuss committee goals again at the 2003 conference, similar to last year. Mark intends to solicit CASFM member opinions on the services to be provided by the committee by way of another survey on the CASFM web page.

    One of the goals is to coordinate the committee’s activities with those of the ASFPM Flood Mitigation Committee. One element of this is to communicate to CASFM membership what ASFPM is doing.

    Another goal of the committee is to proctor the CFM exam at the 2003 annual conference. An objective under this goal is to modify the exam to be more salient to Colorado’s need. For example, they might try to omit the coastal-related questions.

    Mark is retiring, but would like to stay active in CASFM. He will be in Colorado approximately May through September and in Florida the rest of the year.

    Stormwater Quality: This committee had a meeting immediately following the general meeting. Robert McConnell from the State spoke about sediment control standards, about a 1-hour presentation.

    CASFM has a seat on the state Non-Point Source Council, which advises the state on issues related to non-point source pollution. Kevin has been filling that seat. That council has had much discussion recently about a bill that was passed that directed EPA to still continue funding grants; however, the council has been told that a lot of that money will go to post-fire problems. The council is also working on a grant application for school districts to do education on stormwater quality.

    A BMP performance workshop sponsored by CASFM and UDFCD is scheduled for April 9 at the Northglenn Holiday Inn.

    The USGS is doing a study about urban streams and Kevin would like to use the committee to get that information out to the membership.

    Scholarship: We received 4 applications for the Spring 2003 semester. One was from CU-Denver and three from CSU. The CU-Denver applicant is a Civil Engineering major, and the CSU applicants are majors in Watershed Science, Geomorphology, and Atmospheric Science. All are graduate students. The Spring 2003 scholarship amount is $1,000. In the future, we will give an annual scholarship of $2,000.

    There is no official requirement for the scholarship recipient to report back to CASFM. Mark Matulik mentioned that ASFPM has an annual $25,000 scholarship and the person comes back to the annual conference to report on their research project. Inviting our scholarship recipient to the CASFM conference would be a good idea.

    The committee’s original ideas included making any previous CASFM scholarship winners ineligible for future scholarship awards. This hasn’t really been established as policy, however. This issue should be discussed in future general meetings. The scholarship is to be awarded and the money disbursed in early February. The committee members were thanked for their efforts. Special recognition is due to Jeremy Franz for his excellent work on coordinating the committee’s efforts.

    Outreach: Chris Carlson reported that we need to send a check for $645 to the Colorado Municipal League (CML) for annual dues. Mike Meininger volunteered to help with the outreach to Colorado Counties Incorporated (CCI). Kevin McBride offered to help with outreach to communities on stormwater quality issues.

    Membership: Dan Evans relayed the message from Kevin Gingery that so far there are 259 paid members for 2003. At this time last year we had about 188 paid members.
     

    6.      Workshops and Seminars

     

    It is very likely that we will sponsor one or more of the NHI workshops in 2003.
     

    7.      2003 Conference

     

    The call for presentations and award nominations will go out at the end of January. Presentation abstracts will be due by March 31and award nominations by June 30.

    Robert Krehbiel asked whether the membership has an interest in any specific topics that he should be pursuing? NPDES Phase II and FEMA Map Modernization are two topics that were mentioned.

    David Bennetts is the program chair and the website has a list of the others involved in the conference. Ideas for a conference theme were solicited. Some of the ideas:

  • High Plains Dripster

  • Changing Times

  • Not Just a Hole in the Ground – from 2001 list

  • Managing the Flood of Growth – from 2001 list

  • Riding the Storm Out 2

  • Unification – Streamlining Stormwater

  • Floodplains Without Water

  • Where is the Water?

  • Floodplains With and Without Water

  • Do You Really Need Water to Have a Floodplain?

  • The Future of Mitigation

  • Protecting People… Protecting Rivers (12 votes)

  • Preparing for the Future

  • Protecting People… Protecting Rivers… Preparing for the Future

  • I Thought it was in Steamboat

  • Limited Water… Growing Demand

  • Water Conservation

  • From the Colorado to the West Nile

  • I’ve Seen Fire and I’ve Seen Rain

  • I’ve Seen Fire and I (Haven’t) Seen Rain (16 votes)

    Dave and Robert need ideas for a keynote speaker as soon as possible. Mark Matulik suggested the emergency manager from LaPlata County.

    The 2004 conference may be held in Glenwood Springs at the Hotel Colorado. By the next meeting we’ll hopefully have a general feel for how it will work. There are more opportunities for families at Glenwood with the hot springs pool and vapor caves, etc. There should be room for our conference but it may be a bit more disjointed than in the past. The General Meeting in May might be held at the Hotel Colorado, which would allow members to see what the facility is like.

    8.      Newsletter Report

     

    Cindy Thrush reported that the Winter 2003 newsletter would be out soon. She has the letter from the chair, but needs reports from others to fill out the newsletter.

    She is looking into modifying the format to include ASFPM news and other current news of interest to CASFM members.
     

    9.     Other Items not on the Agenda

     

    CWCB will be selecting a consulting firm to provide a Temporary Mapping Coordinator and run a pilot Map Modernization project. It was suggested that whoever becomes the mapping coordinator should keep in contact with CASFM and post updates on the website to help keep people informed.

    There will be a retirement party for Mark Matulik on January 30th . This is on the calendar on CASFM’s web site.

    There will be a check off item on this year’s Colorado income tax returns for watershed restoration. This will help to fund watershed restoration grants, $25,000 for planning and $50,000 for construction.

    The position to be vacated by Mark Matulik will soon be posted on the State website, www.state.co.us . We can also add this to CASFM’s help wanted page.
     

    NEXT MEETING:


    Thursday March 13, 2003 at McLaughlin Water Engineers in Lakewood.
     

    ACTION ITEMS:

     

  • Stuart will add a Help Wanted page to website.

  • Scholarship Committee will select recipient and disburse funds.

  • Outreach Committee will have a check sent to CML.

  • Conference Committee will distribute calls for presentations and award nominations.

     

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