Monday, March 25, 2013

CFM exam to be held on 4/15/13 in Montpelier, VT


We wanted to announce that a spring Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) exam has been scheduled and confirmed for Monday, April 15th from 9am-12pm located in Montpelier.   


What is the CFM program all about you may ask?  Here is a small excerpt from the ASFPM website about the Program:


The Association of State Floodplain Managers has established a national program for professional certification of floodplain managers. The program recognizes continuing education and professional development that enhance the knowledge and performance of local, state, federal, and private-sector floodplain managers.

The primary goal of the ASFPM Certified Floodplain Manager Program (CFM Program) is to help reduce the nation's flood losses and protect and enhance the natural resources and functions of its floodplains by improving the knowledge and abilities of floodplain managers in the United States.  A second goal of the CFM Program is to increase the prominence of floodplain management in decision-making by local officials and the public.



Additional information regarding ASFPM and the CFM program can be found at ASFPM’s website or the CFM Program page: www.floods.orgCFM page



General Exam Information:

The exam will be held at the central Agency of Natural Resource office located in the National Life Building in Montpelier.  If you are interested, you are now able to register for this exam with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) office.  All registration forms and ASFPM membership applications should be sent to the ASFPM office in Madison, WI. 

If you are not a member of ASFPM, then the cost to register for the exam is $375.  However, if you join ASFPM as a member for $110, the exam registration fee will only be $100 for a total fee of $210.  If you are planning to become an ASFPM member and register for the exam at the same time, you should send the ASFPM membership form, the exam registration form and payment for both together for the ease of processing.


Please note that all exam registrations must be received by ASFPM no later than 2 weeks before the exam date.  This means that all registration forms need to be received by the ASFPM office no later than Monday, April 1, otherwise you will not be able to sit for the exam.  The CFM exam registration form and the ASFPM membership form can be found here.




Review Session:
We will also be offering an all-day review session for the exam on Thursday, April 11.   The review session will be held from 9am-5pm in the ANR offices located in Montpelier at the National Life Building. Please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer (rebecca.pfeiffer@state.vt.us) in advance if you intend to be at the review session so that we can be sure that there will be enough room.

 



We apologize for the short notification and turnaround time for the exam.  However, if you are interested in taking the exam but would not be ready to do so for the 4/15 date, please contact Rebecca so that your name will remain on our list of people to contact  later in the year for another CFM exam this fall or winter. 



There will also be another opportunity to take the CFM exam at the annual ASFPM conference which will be held in Hartford, CT this June. The exam will be offered on June 10th & 14th.  You can contact Rebecca or the ASFPM office for more information about the CFM exams offered at the annual conference. 



Again, please let Rebecca know if you have any questions and pass along the word to whomever else you think may be interested in sitting for the exam. 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Taking Names for ASFPM Scholarship Wait List



Hello all,

It's been a while since we have posted a new message, but hopefully this announcement is worth the wait!  We would like to announce that we will be starting a wait list for conference registration scholarships.  The scholarships would be available to any "local official"  interested in attending the 2013 Association of State Floodplain Manager’s (ASFPM) conference.  The term "local official" includes local or regional planners, community staff, NPO or NGO employees, state employees, students, etc. 

This year, the ASFPM conference will be held in Hartford, CT from June 9-14th.  1995 was the last time the ASFPM conference was held in New England so this is a great opportunity to be part of an international flood conference with typically well over 1,200 participants.



Right now, all of our scholarships have been offered, however, it is very likely that additional money may be available. Therefore, we are soliciting interested people for a wait list if the additional money does come through, which appears likely to happen.  

If you are interested in adding your name to the wait list, please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer by Friday, April 5th  (rebecca.pfeiffer@state.vt.us).  We should have an idea by that time how many additional scholarships may be available.  Once we know the number of additional available scholarships, we will extend an invitation to those on the wait list on a first-come, first-served basis.



The scholarships will pay for either the “local official” registration fee of $385 to attend the Full Conference or a One-Day registration fee of $250.  All other travel expenses (hotel, meals, parking, mileage, etc.) incurred to attend the conference will not be covered under this scholarship and will be the sole responsibility of the conference registrant.  





If you have been interested in obtaining your Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) certification, there will be 2 exam review sessions offered as a workshop with the exam being offered following the workshop.  The person taking the exam would need to register for the CFM exam before the conference, so for more information regarding the CFM exam please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer.



Please note:

-      The registration covers one workshop or field tour.  If you are selected to receive a scholarship and select more than one workshop or field tour, you will be responsible for the additional charges.  TBD on whether you pay for add-ons upfront or when you show up at the conference. 



-         If you are interested in signing up for the one day registration, please be aware that the one day does not include a workshop/field tour



If you are interested in attending the conference and will need hotel accommodations, I highly recommend booking your hotel room as early as possible.  Both conference hotels offer government employees a per diem rate of $104/night.  The links to reserve a hotel room can be found on ASFPM's conference web page: http://asfpmconference.org/.  Local government employees are also entitled to the government employee rate.