NYSFAAA EXEC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

APRIL 7 –8, 2005

SARATOGA SPRINGS PRIME HOTEL

Present: Sue Aldrich, Carolyn Corcoran, Gail Drapala, Clair Jacobi, Sharon Karwowski, Heather McDonnell (for Maria Barlaam), Judi Miladin, Karen Price-Scott, John Smith, Earl Tretheway, Samantha Veeder, Joan Warren, Mike Williams

Unable to Attend: Anne Barton, Kevin Ryan

Guests: Johanna Kelly, Jim Vallee

SECRETARY’S REPORT – Carolyn Corcoran

• February 2005 meeting minutes were distributed beforehand via email; reviewed for changes
• MOTION: TO APPROVE FEBRARY 2005 MEETING MINUTES; WARREN/SMITH; MOTION WAS APPROVED.

V.P. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Karen Price-Scott

• Karen handed out her report and summarized the Gramm, Leach, Bliley (FERPA) training held to date and the upcoming session in Albany at Charter One. Karen is working on FERPA training session locations for Rochester and Manhattan for May
• Judi and Karen will meet to discuss next plans (issues) for training

TREASURER’S REPORT – Sam Veeder

• Sam updated us on outstanding invoices; she sent out 7 letters for conference payment overdues; has gotten payment from 3 of those 7
• Not as successful a response from membership dues non-paid’s. Short discussion held on whether to delete non-paid’s from member database. Decision made that since non-paid’s arent’ getting any benefits, it’s best to leave them there until at least end of the fiscal year
• All regions are now current with quarterly reports to the Treasurer
• Sam will check with Chett on status of financial reports
• Regions 1, 3 and 7 have received training funds
• Reminder made to get expense reports to Sam in a timely way
• Discussion of Coordination of sponsorship items with Conference items
• Sam showed draft letter for vendors and did talk to ATAC about putting vendor sponsor process on website and it’s possible; discussion ensued on this with lots of input from Region 7
• We had discussion on annual vendor sponsor items and whether dollar amounts for categories of sponsorship need revising
• MOTION: FROM VEEDER/WARREN: TO SET ANNUAL 05-06 STATEWIDE SPONSORSHIP AS FOLLOWING:
• PLATINUM LEVEL $12,000 AND ABOVE
• GOLD LEVEL $8,500 TO 11,999
• SILVER LEVEL $5,000 TO 8,499
• BRONZE LEVEL $1,500 TO 4,999

MOTION CARRIED UNAMIMOUSLY.

· MOTION: FROM VEEDER/TRETHEWAY; TO APPROVE ANNUAL SPONSORSHIP PRICES FOR 0506 TO INCLUDE A FUTURE COST SETTING ON LEGISLATIVE GAZETTE AD; MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

· MOTION: FROM WARREN/VEEDER ; TO PUT SPONSORSHIP PROCESS ON THE WEBSITE AND IN THIS FIRST YEAR, A PAPER COVER LETTER WILL BE SENT TO VENDORS AND AN EMAIL WILL BE SENT VIA NYSFAAA LISTSERV. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

V.P. MEMBERSHIP REPORT – Joan Warren

• 1189 paid members (1600 duplicated)
• ATAC is working on producing membership makeup report by region
• 0405 membership application is closed
• Novice membership registration is open
• Joan asked ATAC to produce a variance report to show who’s registered for membership vs. who’s registered for an event (like Novice, annual conference). Should be able to use Novice 2005 registration process to gauge how annual conference registration will go
• 0506 membership application is open; required vs. optional fields on membership application could be significant for regions who want to target certain training and do demographic analysis
• More ‘lifetime membership’ discussion occurred
• Judi learned that Tom Dalton had given lifetime membership to: Peter Keitel and Dan Hunter and that Irv Bodofsky, Frank Hynes, Joseph Sciame, and Richard Strohl had been awarded it as well, in addition to them, that George Chin had also earned it as he’s the most recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award, so those seven (7) individuals are considered “lifetime” members at this point.
• MOTION: TO GRANDPARENT IN, AS LIFETIME MEMBERS, THE SEVEN INDIVIDUALS LISTED ABOVE AND FROM HERE FOREWARD, LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP WILL BE GIVEN AS A BENEFIT TO LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNERS ONLY. LIFETIME MEMBERS WILL PAY NO MEMBERSHIP FEES. MOTION MADE BY WARREN/SMITH. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

CONFERENCE 2005 REPORT – Gail Drapala

• Gail handed out tentative program and went through it
• A Novice reunion is ‘pre-conference’ event
• Joan brought up issue that ATAC has redesigned the conference registration and membership payment process for NYSFAAA in order to allow members to add additional regional affiliations throughout the year. As a result, the membership fee and conference fee are being billed separately (separate invoices). Joan has agreed to handle the processing of conference registration payments in order to ensure that conference attendees are paid members, and to facilitate follow-up activities. The point was made that this process is similar to EASFAA; the EASFAA Membership Chair handles their conference registration payments. Note: Council meeting postscript – Joan contacted the Conference 2005 Registration Chair, Sheryl Mihopulos, who volunteered to assist with the payment data entry process.

FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE UPDATE – Jim Vallee

• Jim went over his plan and updated us on committee composition
• Jim asked about linking Exec Council annual February lobbying more closely with Legislative Forum; everyone thought this would be a good idea and Jim plans to contact Brian Petratis of the College Board about future coordination
• Jim handed out Texas Guarantee’s website federal bill summary as well as NYSFAAA’s 2004 Draft Reauthorization platform and all read it
• Discussion followed on what we might want to add to our draft platform
• Heather suggested taking the TG piece to regional level and getting comments from regions; it was decided that it should be discussed at regional level and EC rep’s should get something back to Jim Vallee by June Council meeting.

HESC REPORT – Mike Williams

• Mike is currently doing HESC Update and from going to some regional meetings recently, knows that HESC needs to be time-sensitive at regional meetings
• He emphasized he’d report back to HESC anything Council wishes
• Gail mentioned that a Speakers Bureau is a necessity and since NYSFAAA now has a place on website for people to register as such, that all should utilize it

EASFAA REPORT – Judi Miladin for Anne Barton

• Just a reminder that the conference is coming up and encouraged all to attend

PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Judi Miladin

• Spending time on annual conference 2005 planning
• Did research on the lifetime membership issue
• Spent time on issues with Jim Briggs Workshops (all cleared up)
• Did contract for Conference 2008 with Turning Stone; our attorneys wanted several changes
• Update on Gear Up; there was some delay in getting contracts to us due to State Budget Office shutdown in late March; there was concern about NYSFAAA matching funds; Judi didn’t want to commit until saw contracts and they arrived on 4/6/05 and Judi needs to review. If all looks okay in contracts, we’ll go ahead and apply our matching funds. We would still have time to spend the money or it could be carried over. Cathy Bellomo will replace Anne Barton as Gear Up liaison.
• Spent time on some elections issues, both statewide and regional.
• Judi sent letters to congressional representatives on maintaining Perkins program
• At request of Sam Hoyt, state representative in Buffalo area, Judi drafted a letter to Sheldon Silver asking for continued funding for EOP. Dan Sistarnik helped in drafting the letter.
• Judi has heard from LaValle and D’Agatti’s offices that they’d like to continue discussions on TAP reform
• Judi was contacted by a coalition who supports taking away drug conviction offense from aid regulations
• Talked to Paula at ATAC about registering different domain names; cost is $100/name to register name and $25 annual fee to maintain them (possibly would register NYSFAAA.com, NYSFAAA.net, NYSFAA.com, NYSFAA.net)
• MOTION: TO REGISTER NYSFAAA.COM, NYSFAAA.NET, NYSFAA.COM, NYSFAA.NET AND NYSFAA.ORG AS OTHER DOMAIN NAMES. WARREN/SMITH. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

• Judi is looking for a statewide CAAN chairperson; discussion took place on taking another long look at CAAN and the population we’re trying to serve. John Smith offered to retract his resignation as statewide CAAN Chair. Judi and John will talk further about that.
• NASFAA Conference pin as NYSFAAA’s gift for July conference was discussed. Judi has done some research and passed around a catalog; she’ll stay in touch with Council via email on this issue.

POLICY AND PROCEDURES MANUAL UPDATE

• Judi recommended that we take the most recent update of P & P manual, dated December 2000, and everyone read it before next meeting and come ready to discuss and update it for June 2005 meeting. Carolyn will mail a copy to Anne Barton and Kevin Ryan.

NEW BUSINESS

• Sue Aldrich indicated that the Conference 2006 Steering Committee has asked for an idea of what Council expects for a bottom-line profit. Judi responded that Sam would probably need to look historically at what profits have been. John replied that $20000 seems average or normal in his experience. Rochester 2004 Conference made much of a profit than was expected.

MOTION: TO ADJOURN AT 10:35 A.M. SMITH/DRAPALA. MOTION APPROVED.