FLOOD00900

• County: Statewide
• Title: FEMA Mapping Advisory Committee
• Date: 5/7/1998
• Prepared For: State of Colorado
• Prepared By: CWCB
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Community File

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Summaries of Breakouts and Development of Committee Recommendations
(11:15 -12:00)

Each subcommittee chair will present a 5-minut summary of their discussion and
their formal recommendations, to be considered for incorporation into a single unified
set of recommendations from the entire committee. During the final portion of the
meeting, the group as a whole will attempt to draft recommendations to be made to
the ASFPM Board of Directors,

A Closina Note

I do not want this to sound like Pollyanna (even though I did watch that movie with
my kids). Nevertheless, I am more optimistic about maps than I have been in a long
time. My immediate predecessor as committee chair, Jim Morris (then of Arizona,
now of Ohio) first promoted the idea to me several years ago that those of us who do
not work at FEMA need to step forward with ideas and resources (as opposed to
stepping forward with complaints and/or demands) for making floodplain maps better.
I would like to see our committee thinking beyond FIRMs and FIS', beyond FEMA
dollars, beyond paper maps and reports, and definitely beyond "we/they"
discussions, I know very well there are problems with FIRMs and FIS', because I
see them almost every day at my job. I also see problems with floodplain mapping
and engineering performed by parties other than FEMA, because I see them at my
job too. I have become leery of and somewhat cynical about the overused word
"PARTNERSHIP", It no longer means anything to me. Perhaps better words for my
purposes would be "RESPONSIBILITY" (we are all responsible for our communities'
maps) and "OPPORTUNITY" (we need to create and seize opportunities to make our
maps better). I genuinely think we have a chance to move forward on Jim Morris's
suggestions. My intent is to use Milwaukee as our springboard to get some changes
started.

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