In 1989, my wife Patt and I moved back to our hometown in New Mexico to care for our folks. I accepted a position as the planning and zoning director for the county and joined the state zoning officials association. As I talked with other zoning officials in the state, many of whom were also the local floodplain managers for their communities, about our participation in FEMA’s regulations, I realized how little local officials in New Mexico understood about flood control and how many people were being put in jeopardy because of it. As a group we decided to form an association of New Mexico floodplain managers and work towards educating ourselves and the general public about the dangers of flooding and our responsibility to ensure flood control happened in compliance with FEMA’s regulations. In 1994, we registered with the State as a nonprofit corporation and began to have annual conferences as the New Mexico Floodplain Managers Association (NMFMA). I served as chair, 1^st & 2^nd vice chair, and treasurer over the years as we grew. We were a floundering organization until Les Bond came to New Mexico from Arizona and offered to help us.  During the time that Les was with us, we really grew.  His knowledge of the national organization gave us insights on how to boost our ability to help floodplain management for our state and the nation.  When Les passed away in 2013, I became the NMFMA’s Executive Director.

I was asked to serve on the CBOR when ASFPM began working on the national CFM exam.  I felt like a fish out of water as I had never participated in a national group like ASFPM. I attended the first CBOR meeting in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1997 and served as the local government representative until 2002. I feel privileged to have been able to take part in such an important part of floodplain management in the US.  I was the recipient of the John Ivey Award in 2003 at the national conference in St Louis.

Since I was familiar with the national exam, I also helped to revise the CFM exam that New Mexico had developed years before and we eventually adopted the national exam as New Mexico’s CFM exam.  Our NMFMA membership agreed that we should try to convince our legislature to require local floodplain managers to become more knowledgeable about floodplain management and as the legislative committee chair for NMFMA, I spent a lot of time at the State capital talking to our state senators and representatives about flood control, which most of them knew nothing about. After a couple of years of working at this, we finally got the floodplain regulations in New Mexico changed to require all communities that had been mapped by FEMA to join the NFIP and to hire a person that was certified in floodplain management.  NMFMA was recognized as the official CFM authority in New Mexico and I became the CFM program administrator where I continued to serve until 2018.

NMFMA sponsored the 2006 annual ASFPM conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I volunteered to be the conference chair and New Mexico conference team worked with Diane Brown for approximately one year prior to the conference to make sure all the aspects of the conference were in place.  I learned so much from Diane and I realized how complicated organizing a conference really is.  To successfully organize a successful conference for ASFPM every year for 30+ years is such a phenomenal accomplishment. Diane is just one of those special people I had the privilege of working with.

I haven’t worked with many groups during my working life, but I have noticed that floodplain managers as a whole are some of the most dedicated and genuine people I have ever been associated with. Saving peoples’ lives and property is an honorable profession and I have been so fortunate to have spent time in my life involved in that effort.