NYSFAAA EXEC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

DECEMBER 14-15, 2006

NEWBURGH, NY

(official)

Present:

Council: Dave Canaski, Marilyn Faller, Sharon Karwowski, Kerry Lubold, Andrea Mason, Heather McDonnell, Janet McGrath, Sheryl Mihopolus, Judi Miladin, Nancy Teodecki, Angela Van Dekker, Brenda Wright ( absent: Joan Warren, Maria Barlaam)

State Chairs: Debbie Evans, Jim Vallee, Doug Schaeffer, Jim Murphy, Linda Bridgewater, Karen Taylor, Christine Sears, Katrina Delgrosso, Ursula Bisconti, Mark Humbert

HESC: Patti Ronan Thompson, Brian Matthews

Guests: Patty Herbst, Jason Santora

Meeting Called to Order, 1:10 PM - Dave Canaski

Secretary’s Report- Nancy Teodecki

Minutes of the November meeting at Lake Placid distributed prior to meeting. One correction made at meeting.

MOTION: To approve minutes of November 2006 council meeting with correction.

McDonnell/ Van Dekker. Motion approved.

Resignation of Region2 Representative, Steven Dodds- Dave Canaski

MOTION: To accept Andrea Mason as the new Region 2 council representative.

Canaski. Motion approved.

Training Session: Parliamentary Procedure and Robert’s Rule- Heather McDonnell

Session outlined procedures, making motions; follow-up discussion by council.

Statement by President- Dave Canaski:

Workload concerns: continue to streamline, be more efficient with volunteer’s time.

Leadership philosophy: review documents- do they meet the way we now do business; management versus governance ( i.e. committees, but keep ex-officio in the loop.)

Executive Council Budget/Procedures: committee chairs responsible for their budget; President & Treasurer oversee, review and make suggestions for executive council items as ‘where do things go’; in response to attack on our industry, procedures will assist us in addressing the ‘political scrutiny’.

President’s Report: Dave Canaski

• Conference 2006- congrats to all involved; final report - February meeting.
• Conference 2007- budget presentation at Feb meeting.
• NASFAA Leadership Conference: one opening remaining; if interested, let Dave know.
• Federal Default Initiative-efforts coordinated by President & Past President, meeting at Lake Placid with focus on retention.
• Kids to College- approached by SallieMae Fund- on agenda tomorrow for discussion.

• My Rich Uncle- latest accusation & issues. Ethics committee’s work critical.
• SUNYFAP- opportunity for joint training; working with Warren Hoffman and Mark Schwartz. President Hoffman invited to Feb meeting.
• Future meeting sites discussed- cost versus mission/purpose/image.
• EASFAA Conf- executive council meeting if needed at the Niagara Falls conference.
• Need to update Executive Council History on Website.

Committees reporting to President:

Governance Committee- Judi Miladin

• 2 meetings held recently: Mission statement must be in place first, then preliminary work on Long Range Plan (LRP) , and then Constitution’s By-Laws to be in-line with LRP.
• Mission statement pulled from our June meeting. Please take back to Regions for discussion with possible adoption at Feb meeting:.

NYSFAAA is a charitable, volunteer professional association that promotes access to post secondary education for all students and conducts professional development and networking opportunities for its members and colleagues in related educational professions.

• Although Constitution has ‘Statement of Purpose’ committee wants a short mission statement that can be printed on the website and letterhead, with a ‘Statement of Purpose’ document expanding on the mission statement.
• Timeline of LRP- committee has questions on outline and membership on committee

Scholarship Committee- Debbie Evans

No report received.

Government Relations- Jim Vallee/ Christine Sears

• Coordinating our participation with the Legislative Forum, Feb 5/6, 2007 in Albany. Registration forms have just been released. Jim will sign us up and notify Marilyn of the amount due.
• Let committee chairs know your legislative reps in order to set-up appointments for Feb 6.
• Coordinating the Legislative Training Workshop during late January or early February. Bill Cavin has agreed to lead the Committee’s efforts again this year.
• Plans to coordinate a NYSFAAA visit to Washington D.C.(neither EASFAA nor the Tri-State Association has a plan at this time that we could partner with).

Treasurer’s Report- Marilyn Faller

• Review of Balance sheet and Budget Overview: some confusion on conference budget line items and sub-accounts. Marilyn will re-sort to make more sense and e-mail council the update.
• New mileage reimbursement: 48.5 cents effective 1/1/07.
• Letter from attorneys regarding Directors and Officers indemnification insurance (D & O coverage)/ liability protection, and the issue if those members handling funds should be ‘bonded’. Marilyn will research costs and policy language.
• Internet Banking Options: Bill pay via internet versus paper checks. HSBC offers this as free service and permits multiple users. Marilyn moving forward with service when she receives final information from her contacts.

Committees reporting to Treasurer:

Development Committee- Katrina Delgrosso

• Statistics provided comparing 2005/06 to 2006/07 income stream. Some vendors reducing contributions; some not sponsoring at all. Sponsors making choices where to spend funds- less on conference, more on annual sponsorship.
• Sponsors listed in 2 locations on website- Schools & Lenders and Member Services
• Instructions to advertise the appropriate vendors throughout the year were mentioned at regional meetings and via the NYSFAAA listserv.

Finance and Budget- Brenda Wright

• Dave, Marilyn and Brenda met the morning of council meeting. Will meet in late January to discuss how to assist the Treasurer with some of her duties.

Professional Ethics and Standards Committee- Doug Schaeffer

• 1^st meeting 11/30 in Syracuse. Committee members in attendance: Jim Vallee, Dawn Langdon, Elaine Hughes, Jim Cirrillo, Brian Levy, Mark Humbert and Doug Schaeffer.  Dave Canaski and 2006 Conference Chair, Beth Turner, also attended.
• Meeting focus was to develop recommendations for: Finance & Budget Committee on re-structuring the budget in the context of ethics & public image AND Conference Committee on budgeting and procedures in the context of ethics & public image. To assist in the effort Dave  described the current reporting and financial structure of NYSFAAA and Beth described the current procedures and financial structure regarding the annual conference.
• "State of current affairs" regarding the political & public relations landscape in the financial aid and lending industry were discussed:  My Rich Uncle- strong accusations in the media regarding improprieties between lenders & financial aid professionals; Congress- Democrats now in control, promising increased oversight of the relationships that schools share with lenders (Senator Kennedy’s proposed Sunshine Act). 
• Determined that steps should be taken to realign the financial structures of NYSFAAA as an organization and the annual conference.  The proposed realignment would better reflect the mission and purpose of NYSFAAA. Recommendations drafted and forwarded to Dave Canaski & council for December meeting.  These reflect only our committee's recommendations for Executive Council’s review.
• Council discussion: mentioned by H. McDonnell and A. Van Dekker- balance on committee needed based on feedback from regions. Doug is aware and is striving to re-enforce a balance. Will also advertise ‘open forum’.
• Also noted was that the MRU impact goes further than FAO; it impacts the ‘appearance of colleges’ when names of colleges are quoted in ads, publications, etc. Comment: FAO could provide ‘defense documentation’, i.e. how you prepare preferred lenders list.

First Vice President’s Report- Joan Warren (reported by Dave in Joan’s absence)

• Membership numbers : paid members 1236 YTD. Provided 10 year table for reference with break down of member classifications and unpaid invoice list.

• “Please advise the regions that they will need to host member-only training events in January and February in order to boost their numbers.  These events need to be run through Events Management so that I can send invoices and follow up on payments due. Each region has access to all of their own data, so they can follow up with non-current members, but I will be sending a mass email at the end of the year to all former members in the database who have not joined this year. “

Committees reporting to First Vice President:

Membership Committee & Mentoring Committee- no reports

Awards Committee – Kathy Flaherty ( report read by Dave)

• Presentation of the 2006 awards at the banquet on November 8, 2006; program was a little longer this year in that the association transferred leadership from one president to the next. Committee was able to move the program along quite well.
• Although frequent messages were sent to the NYSFAAA list(s) about nominations for the awards, and forms have been available electronically for several years, the applicant pool was small. There is a concern that some regions did not have a single nomination. Over the next few months the committee will be discussing ways to encourage nominations of colleagues for recognition of their work for NYSFAAA. The committee may be taking a more active role in nominating regional members for awards.
• Council discussion: suggestions- be pro-active on nominations as representatives of council; can some type of form/profile be placed on website for members to complete? Refer to Membership Committee.

Second Vice President- Maria Barlaam (reported by Heather in Maria’s absence)

Committees reporting to Second Vice President:

Professional Development Committee

• Jim Briggs week confirmed (as reported in Sept minutes)
• EASFAA training in the Fall well attended. Spring date to be in March. If a region is interested need to know by 12/22.

Novice Training Committee

• Confirming facility (Cobleskill). More info will be forthcoming in the Spring
• Call for faculty

Conference 2007 – Jim Murphy (reporting tomorrow)

Council Discussion: re- EASFAA training in Committee report.: J. Miladin asked that we Refer back to the Professional Development Committee: what is the recommendation for our level of involvement? Issues: concerns on the deadline date (12/22) to decide if we wish to participate; Fall workshop- logistics, concern with EASFAA turnaround time and communication.. H. McDonnell suggested that we not participant in the Spring workshop.

Secretary’s Report- Nancy Teodecki

Committees reporting to Secretary:

Communications/ Website Committee:

Webletter: Laura Worley (reported by Nancy)

• Requests if each region can designate a representative that would forward regional information or articles from that region for the webletter. This would assist her with contacts in each region and hopefully provide a flow of information to her for each publication.

Communications: Ideta Daniel (reported by Nancy)

Working with The Legislative Gazette for NYSFAAA's Special Report to be published in the February 5^th issue.  Some tentative topics: The future of Higher Education for low-income students, With the new Congress what will be the effect on Higher Education, 2006 Scholarship Winners, Highlights from Annual Conference, Loan Consolidation While Enrolled in School – It Could Still Happen, Thank you to the Legislators for STEP Increase, HERA NegReg Areas of Interest for the Graduate and Professional Community. 

Questions for council

1:   Would like to do an online survey to the membership using an online tool such as “SurveyMonkey” http://www.surveymonkey.com/ to solicit feedback on how they use the website and what ideas they may have for improvement. Do you feel it’s worthwhile? (Council said “yes”)

 2: Could each of the Regional chairs secure a picture for those that are missing one on the website?

High School Outreach: Karen Taylor & Linda Bridgewater

· Discussion with Pat Johnson in late October on School Counselor Workshops; what has worked well in the past, what has not, and concerns going forward.

· Conference call 11/28 with N. Teodecki; following items were discussed:

1- Investigating the development of two databases to be added to the NYSFAAA website.  One would be a list of Financial Aid Nights to be held across the state (introduced idea at the Region III school counselor workshop; well received by the counselors).  The second database would be an interactive listing of all school counselors in the state.  The idea would be for school counselors to log into the NYSFAAA website and update or add information.  Enables the chair of the School Counselor Workshop sub-committee to get information out to the high schools much earlier.

2- Linda working with Ken Storms and Wayne Harwood on College Goal Sunday subcommittee.

3- Karen took the updated draft of the Financial Aid Consultants brochure that Sharon Karwowski & Anne Barton provided, and updated and re-structured the format.  New title:  What You Need to Know About:  Using College Planning Services and Consultants.  Copies distributed to Exec. Council members for any additional suggestions.  The brochure is going to print December 21, 2006; comments need to be sent to Karen before December 20, 2006 for consideration.

4- CAAN - Linda and Karen have decided not to change anything until after the activities for the current year have been completed. Joint letter put out by NYSFAAA and HESC (the CAAN letter) updated and will be sent very early in January.  Financial Aid Fact Sheet updated which will be included with the CAAN letter mailing along with the Student Financial Aid Wall Chart and the ‘Using College Planning Services and Consultants’ brochure.

5- Final report on High School Workshops to be given at February meeting.

Subcommittee: College Goal Sunday- Ken Storm’s report read by Nancy

• Grant application was completed and submitted over the summer; the 3-year/$150,000 grant was approved by the Lumina Foundation, and the first-year funding of $65,000 has been received by the NYSFAAA Treasurer.

• 13 sites have been identified, and NYSFAAA Site Coordinators are completing logistical details and organizing volunteers. (we were unable to have a North Country/Region 8 site due to a conflict with SUNY day)

• We estimate that at least 20-25 volunteers will be needed for each site. Please do everything you can to encourage your Region to participate. Wayne has sent Executive Council members a Regional list of Site Coordinators so you can direct volunteers to them.

• The NY CGS Web site is starting up and will be an important resource for students, families, and volunteers. We hope to develop this as a management tool for the state-wide program.

• Individual student mailings have begun, announcing the CGS events to targeted, local populations. Further marketing to the target groups will include communications from the school counselors, community organizations, and additional personal mailings.

• The State Task Force& Site Coordinators met on 12/11 to continue planning & preparation.

Early Awareness: Cathy Patella & Anne Barton (report read by Nancy)

• Conference call with N. Teodecki on 11/ 20 to review current project status, committee structure, and future projects. Cathy and Anne had scheduled a conference call for 12/8 to discuss planning but unfortunately had to cancel the call and will reschedule for later this month.
• Positive feedback received from Regions 1 & 3 on the Middle School brochures. Region1 did a mailing to over 70 middle schools, and requests for additional brochures have been received. Nancy sent a special ‘thank you’ message for Kevin Ryan, Region 1 Chair, to read at their Dec12th meeting, thanking members of that region for all their support over the past few years.
• Region3 distributed brochures at the counselor workshop and will continue to mail to schools that did not attend. Although the number of middle schools attendance at Region3 workshop was low, many high schools work in conjunction with the middle schools, so those counselors took the brochures on their behalf.

Subcommittee: Gear-up- Cathy Patella

• By the end of December 12,500 packets will be delivered to NY GEAR UP students. The three-hole pencil pouch includes the Early Awareness Middle School brochure & a mood pencil that changes from green to yellow. Samples provided to council if the representatives would like to share with their respective region. Cathy also thanks the many regional members who assisted in the “stuffing of pouches and mailing preparation”.

Regional Reports: Due to time constraints at meeting, regional reports were forwarded to the Secretary for inclusion in the minutes:

Region 1- Janet McGrath

• Holiday meeting held 12/12 at Shanghai Reds in Buffalo.  Approximately 75 people attended.  100 toys were collected and donated for Toys for Tots.  Dan Hunter and Warren Hoffman did readings for the attendees. 
• I read a letter from Nancy Teodecki, Early Awareness, thanking Region 1 for their active participation with Early Awareness and all the work they have done.   Stephanie Atti is the committee member from Region 1. Kevin Ryan and Brent McEnroe were mentioned for their significant contributions and informed the regions that we will be discussing Kids to College Program by Sallie Mae at the next Executive Council meeting.
• High School Counselor’s Workshop was held November 16, 2006 at the Classics V.  It was a half-day workshop. 102 attended at Classics V and 46 attended at St. Bonaventure.  The counselors were very happy with the topics that we offered this year and the location.  The evaluations were positive and several counselors suggested topics for next year. The hot topic this year was the ACG and SMART grants.  A lot of questions were brought up by the counselors.
• Volunteers and chairpeople for the Support Staff Workshop and Admission Counselors/Financial Aid Workshop are being sought by the region . Spring 2007 NYSFAAA Region I meetings are set up and are on the web site. College Goal Sunday will be held Feb. 11, 2007.  A request was put out for volunteers. Statement of Principles and Procedures was sent to Region 1 members for review and comments

Region 2- Andrea Mason

• We had our Holiday luncheon and meeting on 12/13 at SUNY Geneseo. It was announced that I was new Rep to Exec Council. Training was on SFA conference.
• Membership Committee is starting a new mentoring group where we can bring new members into the group and get them involved.
• A new Training committee has been created to make the Regional meeting more informative and worthwhile.

Region 3 – Sharon Karwowski

• Discussed the Statement of Principles at our Holiday business meeting 12/6 held at the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles and provided a training session on Diversity. I shared the emails I had received from Bill Cheetham, John View, and Irv Bodofsky. Dave Canaski expressed the need to obtain membership feedback. We reviewed the new budgeting process for funding Regional level and revenue sharing increase per member. We will continue to submit annual budgets for what our regional activities will be. Bill was very concerned about the $2,500 minimum regions would have. He seemed to feel that the Executive level of NYSFAAA was trying to micro-manage regional business.

• Guidance Counselor Workshops were held. The Binghamton site had 50 attendees. John View has spoken to schools in the Binghamton Area to encourage their help at next year's workshop. The Syracuse site had 160 attendees and was held at the NYS Fairgrounds. Novice Training was not offered this year but will be considered for next year. Special thanks to: John View, Bill Cheetham, Nancy Teodecki, and Bonnie Evans for their help.
• Support Staff Workshop was held Oct 24th in Fayetteville. There were 55 attendees and there was no registration fee this year. No NYSFAAA state sponsorship was requested. The cost to the region was $2,499.38.
• It is our intention to devote our entire January meeting to the changes currently being proposed to both the Statement of Principles and the budgets.

Region 4- no report received

Region 5- Heather McDonnell

· Only activity was 2 guidance counselor workshops that are reported by the GC.

Region 6- Angela Van Dekker

• Meeting on 9/28 at Barnard College. 53 members attended. In addition to general updates, there was a Presentation on ACG and Smart Grants by Sandy Santana and Angela Van Dekker. Several important discussions took place: Discussion on need for volunteers, increasing membership attendance at meetings and participation in general. Outreach to increase participation of CUNY members. Members not receiving emails -List serve and regional mailings. Requested that an email reminder be sent to members to make sure they understood that they needed to check the regional list serve in order to receive regional news. Both the Current and Original NYSFAAA Statement of Principles, as well as, the Proposed Statement of Principles were distributed and discussed. Many members were upset with the tone of the proposed document. A significant and heated discussion followed.
• High School Guidance Counselor Workshop The workshop was held on November 16th at Fordham University – Lincoln Center. 143 counselors attended the workshop. Topics presented were ACG/Smart Grants, Financial Aid 101, Filling the Gap, Interpreting the Financial Aid Award Letter, Chase Smart Start Scholarships and Professional Judgment. Other organizations helping with the workshop were: Fordham University, SUNY FIT, SUNY MRC, CUNY Hunter, CUNY BMCC, NY Automotive and Diesel Institute, Wachovia, Sallie Mae and National Education. The workshop was sponsored by Academic Finance Corporation, Bank of America, Chase Education Finance, Citibank, First Niagara Bank, HSBC Bank USA, N.A., KeyBank, M&T Bank, Nellie Mae, Nelnet, Next Student, NYS Higher Education Services Corporation, Sallie Mae Education Trust, Sallie Mae New York, Student Loan Xpress and Wachovia Education Finance.
• Training Survey of Members was sent to all region VI members. At this time 48 members have responded.
• December meeting and holiday reception held on 12/13 after the HESC training. Approximately 89 registered. Registrations had to be closed because of capacity issues. At the meeting, a series of updates were made. Members brought up the statement of principles from the last meeting, as well as feedback from other regions. Strong feelings have been expressed. A very brief summary of the first ethics committee meeting sparked a discussion and concerns were voiced. The region feels that it is important that meetings be held at least close to the city. They want to have a stronger voice. They have requested that regional representation and voting be more closely linked to the number of members in the region. Members will continue to explore their options.
• Tri-Regional planning has begun. We have volunteers from each region and have contacted the members for potential sites for the following: May 3, 4, 10, 11.

Region 7- Sheryl Mihopolus

• Meeting 10/13: a discussion of how we balance the needs of staff, students and their families, and our Colleagues within the Aid Office itself. We discussed the following: Office set-up, physical layout - what's good, what's not so good, what we'd like to see in an ideal world. Work assignment and structure - providing customer service balanced with getting the volume of work done. How incoming calls are handled. How job assignments are made - who handles the "counter" - appointments vs. walk-ins. How we manage staff to keep on task.

• The EASFAA Verification training was conducted by Clint Hanson and was held on October 27 in Farmingdale. We had 60 attendees; total of 65 were registered, but we had 5 no shows.
• Meeting 12/8- roundtable discussion: 2006-07 changes and additions to the federal programs, need analysis formulae and packaging/administrative changes. Legislative Update about lending issues NYSFAAA proposal about ethical principles. Looking ahead at 07/08.
• Our January meeting will focus on government benefits and will be held on January 12 at Adelphi University and will feature a professor from the Adelphi School of Social Work. One of the laws governing federal financial aid changed this year, and expands certain eligibility criteria for applicants who have already met a "means test." The means tests include supplemental security income, food stamp program, free and reduced price lunch program, TANF, and the WIC program for women and children. We believe that it will be very beneficial for our membership to have a representative who could discuss eligibility criteria for any or all of those benefit programs. The focus will be on: What kinds of people are eligible, what the benefits provide, where people go for assistance, how long the benefits last, and general questions of that nature. The law didn't mention Section 8 housing but that's another category of applicants we get quite frequently.

Region 8- Kerry Lubold

• Conference 2006 :The final report to Executive Council will be available for the February meeting. Conference evaluations were very positive overall. We expect to have a positive financial gain from conference revenue.
• Conference 2007:The region was polled for interest in having a bus available for transport to NYC for conference 2007. All but one school responded indicating a bus was not desired. Jefferson Community College expressed interest in a bus, but only if it was leaving from the Watertown or Syracuse area.
• Policy & Procedures Manual: The region was polled on suggestions for changes/updates to NYSFAAA’s policies & procedures manual. A few region members responded, but only to say they had no suggestions.
• School Counselor Workshops Held in November at Jefferson Community College and the Lake Placid Resort. 74 attendees. Workshops were very well received and very interactive.
• December Holiday Meeting was held on December 8^th at the Lake Placid Resort, dinner followed at the Mirror Lake Inn. A raffle was held to raise funds to be donated to the Crary Foundation.
• Future Training: The region will be polled for future training workshops to schedule during upcoming regional meetings.

HESC LIASION REPORT – Patti Ronan Thompson and Brian Matthews

· New TAP reporting requirements- new state law requires an annual report to governor & legislature by February 2007. Report will include the number of students: receiving TAP in each term, granted waivers by their institution, decertified for not meeting good academic standards; also will include credits earned by recipients. HESC will need to collect data from schools for credits earned. School will receive file during the week of 12/18 of their undergrads certified for each term of the prior year.

· Recent webcast had technical difficulties so reverted to conference call which was successful.

· Jeremy Weiss hired to work on TAP manual. Jeremy will invite members to participant in a focus group in early 2007 for input on manual. Dave requested that this be sent to him so he can send out to list.

· Governor- elect E. Spitzer has met with the HESC Budget Representatives

· At the conclusion of this report, a presentation was made to Judi Miladin by Brian Matthews on behalf of HESC for her years of service to the corporation during her presidency.

Meeting recessed at 5:30

Meeting reconvened and called to order by D. Canaski , 12/15 8:35 AM

ITEM: Kids to College

Dave’s discussion with SallieMae Fund; voiced concern with taking on another major project.

MOTION: to refer to the Early Awareness Committee for review & recommendations as to our level of involvement. McDonnell/Karwowski. MOTION approved unanimously.

ITEM: Recommendations of Ethics/Standards Committee:

Committee’s Goal: make recommendations that would allow for transparency in the relationship that is shared between NYSFAAA and member partners in the industry with regard to how funds are generated allocated and ultimately spent.

1- Finance and Budget Committee Recommendations:

MOTION: To Accept Recommendations of the Ethics Committee with regards to the Finance and Budget Committee. Faller/Wright.

Discussion: Does it fit our needs financially? Report classified revenue into 2 categories, operating & donated, and committee functions as administrative or missions driven.

TABLE MOTION : To refer these recommendations to Finance Committee to review.

McDonnell/Van Dekker.

CALL TO QUESTION- Mihopolus. VOTE ON CALL TO QUESTION-MOTION APPROVED.

TABLE MOTION unanimously approved. Note to Regions- if there is a member in your region to assist on finance committee, contact Brenda Wright .

2- Conference Committee Recommendations:

Discussion on items, in particular bullet #5 (NYSFAAA acting as intermediary in purchase of gifts, drink vouchers, etc). Recommendations may be too prescriptive versus global and questions on how to police.

Refer these items to Conference 2007 for discussion and possible implementation for 2007, or future conference committees.

ITEM: Redesign of Budget to Align with New Committee Structure/Committee Recommendations:

MOTION: $2500 budget to Ethics Committee (currently no budget had been

designated) Faller/Wright . MOTION unanimously approved.

ITEM: Statement of Principles/Mission Statement/Values Statement

MOTION: To charge the Governance Committee to develop a mission statement and statement of principles; to proceed with the development of a new long range plan; and to subsequently review of all of our governing documents to ensure congruence with our mission. Miladin/Karwowski

Discussion: committee consists of all past presidents. Suggested for younger member participants. Committee had already discussed this idea; take to regions for further discussion.

CALL TO QUESTION-McDonnell. VOTE ON CALL TO QUESTION-MOTION APPROVED.

VOTE on MOTION - 6 ayes, 4 opposed, 1 abstained. MOTION APPROVED

ITEM: Creation of Diversity Committee- Reconsideration of Council Action at Sept meeting

H. McDonell stated that she voted on a motion, and later upon review of the motion in the minutes, realized she casted her voted incorrectly.

MOTION: to reconsider our motion at the September meeting; motion was “That Diversity Committee be reconstituted and added to the responsibilities of the 1^st Vice President”. McDonnell/ Faller

TABLE MOTION: Miladin/Karwowski. Since Joan is not present, table until Joan can be part of the discussion and provide language for the committee.

VOTE on TABLE MOTION : 5 Ayes, 6 Opposed. MOTION DEFEATED.

Further discussion lead to CALL TO QUESTION- Faller. VOTE TO CALL QUESTION-MOTION APPROVED.

VOTE ON MOTION to reconsider the Sept motion: 6 Aye, 5 Opposed. MOTION DEFEATED (need ‘majority’ vote on ‘reconsider motions’) . Therefore the motion at the September meeting, “That Diversity Committee be reconstituted and added to the responsibilities of the 1^st Vice President”, stands approved.

NEW BUSINESS:

MOTION : For Dave and Marilyn to be the authorized signers on our SmithBarney accounts. McDonnell/Miladin. MOTION unanimously approved.

Conference 2007: Jim Murphy

· Program sessions will be designated into categories to assist participants with selections. Possible speaker Governor-elect E. Spitzer. Discussion will occur at their January meeting on possible increase of Registration and Booth fees.

MOTION TO ADJOURN at 10:40 AM: Miladin/Faller. MOTION UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.

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