A long career in a state floodplain management office helped Bill bring issues of state concern to ASFPM’s attention. As an ASFPM officer, that provided opportunities for numerous frank discussions with FEMA staff so they understand state issues, and helped them understand that the states are the first line of contact for locals managing flood risk, not the FEMA Regions.

While a board member, Bill served during a time in which ASFPM grew from a relatively small not-for-profit organization with a handful of employees to a medium sized one with over 20 employees and a budget of well over one million dollars. This created management challenges. It led to a different role for the board and executive office, as the board could no longer manage every aspect of ASFPM’s activities, nor could a treasurer be expected to approve each individual expenditure. Over time, the board and the executive office developed policies and plans for the executive office to perform the operations of the organization under general Board guidance.

Bill served two stints as treasurer, 2003 – 2006 and 2008 – 2010. The first period was one of growth. At that time, the treasurer was expected to review all receipts and expenditures in accordance with the annual budget. The increasing size and complexity of the organization made that task impossible. Instead we transformed the treasurer’s role to one of spot checking, reviewing quarterly budget reports, developing the annual budget, and managing the investments. The 2008-2010 period was during the Great Recession, and care had to be taken to manage funds to avoid layoffs. We were temporarily unable to add to our investments but fortunately, due to investing safely in prior years, ASFPM was able to weather the financial storm.

As chair, Bill initiated an internal board approach to develop ASFPM policy positions through ad hoc committees, allowing in-depth board decision-making without overly burdening individual board members — all who are volunteers.

A similar approach was used to review and pass the 2015 National Flood Programs and Policy in Review (over 400 recommendations), with various board members reviewing portions of the document while all board members had an opportunity to weigh in on issues of concern in final adoption.

Although no longer on the board of directors, Bill continues to remain involved in both official and unofficial capacities, including the development and expansion of the ASFPM state-to-state mentoring program. The program has evolved beyond its original intent of being used mainly to provide individual mentoring relationships to one in which states can share information with each other, with FEMA staff, and in which state topic-specific workshops are being developed for state staff use.

Further, when FEMA began rolling out Risk Rating 2.0, the National Flood Insurance Program’s new rating methodology in 2021, Bill was part of a working group of at ASFPM that brought our concerns on issues around mitigation and rating accuracy, outreach and training, and the need for a premium estimator to FEMA’s attention in hopes that these shortcomings of the new program can be addressed.

Despite retiring from state service, the joy of working with so many dedicated individuals is what keeps Bill involved with ASFPM to this day. In 2021, he was recognized for his continued commitment to the association with the Louthain Award for Distinguished Service. He was awarded the Meritorious Lifetime Achievement in Floodplain Management Award in 2016.