2015 Conference Recap

Post date: Nov 24, 2015 10:19:36 PM

The 2015 MnAFPM conference was held in Moorhead, MN. We had over 100 attendees. The conference kicked off Tuesday night with a lively game of MnAFPM bingo. Many went away with fabulous prizes. Wednesday training sessions were well attended. We had a nice break in the weather for the afternoon field tour, which sold out.

Thursday kicked off with a welcome address by the Moorhead Mayor Del Rae Williams. The first plenary session provided an update on ASFPM national topics from current board chair Ceil Strauss, followed up by presentations on the role of floodplains in water management, and an overview of flood mitigation efforts in Moorhead. Our lunch speaker was former Mayor Mark Voxland, who spoke about his experience leading the city during flood fights in recent years. The second plenary session focused on flood mitigation efforts in the red river valley.

We had 12 presentations during the concurrent sessions. Top speaking honors for concurrent presenters went to Ross Mullen, Brian Alberto, and Jeremy Walgrave.

Ross Mullen with his Top Speaker Award

Terry Zien received Floodplain Manager of the year for his tireless work in so many areas. Most recently Terry has been leveraging the Silver Jackets program to bring funding to flood mitigation efforts in the region and promote cross agency collaboration to reduce flood risk in our communities.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the conference. We look forward to seeing you next year in Saint Cloud.