massFM Events

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Annual Conference 2024 Save the Date and Call for Abstracts

massFM is excited to announce our 5th Annual massFM Conference will be held on October 30, 2024, at the Hogan Center at Holy Cross in Worcester.

massFM is seeking abstracts for the 2024 conference with details available at https://www.massfm.org/call-for-abstracts . The abstract submittal deadline is July 19, 2024.

Members only “Lunch & Learn” Meetings

Members only “Lunch & Learn” meetings will be held every other month on Thursdays at noon. A notification will be sent out prior to our next Lunch & Learn meeting.

Our next scheduled meeting is on July 11, 2024 noon ET:

Title: Flood Ready Neighborhoods Program

Description:

Flooding across the New Hampshire seacoast is already occurring and will be exacerbated as sea levels continue to rise and storms intensify. Municipal- and property-scale resilience efforts are on the rise but are not without their limitations. Therefore, innovative programming at a new scale is required to enable both a more just distribution of program benefits and collaborative progress toward place- and nature-based solutions.

The Flood Ready Neighborhoods Program (FRN) pilots a neighborhood-scale approach to planning for resilience. Through this program, staff from Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, New Hampshire Coastal Program, NH Sea Grant, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership, and UNH Extension are partnering with and supporting six climate-vulnerable neighborhoods in co-developing understanding and actions to reduce local flood risk. These neighborhoods include but are not limited to a 55+ manufactured home community previously evacuated due to riverine flooding, a residential street prone to chronic high tide flooding, and a rapidly gentrifying beach neighborhood vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal storms.

The principles and methods employed in FRN’s approach to resilience planning have proven to be transformative, challenging traditional, deficit-oriented models of providing technical assistance. A focus on community voices and assets, an emphasis on bridging and bonding, and a respect for self-determined futures have guided collaboration with and support of neighborhood leaders and residents to date. Through storytelling, FRN Program Staff will share, reflect on, and make sense of the deep work in building community and helping one another move toward preparedness planning.

Speaker:

Abigail Lyon is a Community Engagement Manager with the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP). In her role she manages the Piscataqua Region Environmental Planning Assessment (PREPA) project, provides municipal technical assistance to improve local regulations and decision-making, and supports communications for PREP and partner projects. As part of her role at PREP, she serves as a co-chair for the NH Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (CAW) a collaborative of over 40 organizations supporting community resilience across the NH coastal watershed. Abigail received her masters from the University of New Hampshire in Integrated Coastal Ecosystem Science, Policy, and Management. Her degree and work over the last 10 years has offered opportunities to take her experience working with members of the public on marine conservation issues to a higher and more intentional level focused on supporting resilience communities that protect water quality and natural resources. In her spare time she volunteers on the Dover Conservation Commission.

Lucy Perkins is a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Coastal Program and New Hampshire Sea Grant. As a fellow, Lucy supports the New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (CAW), works with municipal partners considering the development of a voluntary home elevation, property acquisition, and relocation program, and practices relationship-forward, community-led technical assistance in one of New Hampshire’s most flood-prone neighborhoods. Prior to this role, she completed her masters in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy at Tufts University. She was drawn to this degree and program for its focus on social justice and community organizing, an avenue through which she learned with residents in her home of South Portland, Maine about experiences of local air pollution from nearby petroleum storage facilities. She has also worked for the City of South Portland's Sustainability Office, in private consulting, and in non-profit fundraising. She serves as an Ambassador for her community’s Comprehensive Plan and volunteers with the Climigration Network.

PAST EVENTS:

The massFM 2023 Annual Conference was held on October 23, 2023. The presentations are available at 2023 Annual Conference Presentation PDFs.

MassFM 2022 Annual Conference (our first in-person conference) on October 13, 2022. Event details can be downloaded at: 2022 Annual Conference Details.

MassFM Annual Conference 2021: Climate Data Update: Evaluating Rising Risks (held October 21, 2021). The event flyer can be downloaded at: Annual Conference Flyer.

Elevation Certificate Virtual Workshop (Friday October 23, 2020)

Workshop Flyer

massFM First Annual Meeting (held on October 22, 2020) including annual conference training and and annual conference keynote panel.

Event Flyer

Exclusive Webinar: Floodplain Design, Construction + Impacts on Flood Insurance (held on May 13, 2020)

Webinar Flyer

massFM/NMCOG Floodplain Management Workshop: Tewskbury, MA (held on October 10, 2019):

Event Flyer

Presentations:

A Brief Overview on Impacts of Climate Change and why Floodplain Management Matters

FEMA Flood Studies and Maps - Letters of Map Change
Flood Insurance and Mitigation
NFIP Basics in Massachusetts
Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program
MEMA HMA Briefing
2018 MA State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan