NYSFAAA EXEC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

February 5, 2007

Albany, NY

Official

Council: Dave Canaski, Mark Humbert (representing region 3 ), Kerry Lubold, Andrea Mason, Heather McDonnell, Janet McGrath, Sheryl Mihopolus, Judi Miladin, Nancy Teodecki, Angela Van Dekker, Brenda Wright ( absent :Maria Barlaam, Marilyn Faller, Sharon Karwowski)

State Chairs: Jim Vallee, Linda Bridgewater, Karen Taylor, Christine Sears, Katrina Delgrosso, Claire Jacobi, Patricia Johnson, Bill Mack, Beth Turner

HESC liaison: Mike Williams

Guests: Warren Hoffman, Mark Schwartz

Meeting Called to Order, 1:08 PM - Dave Canaski

Motion to waive reading of the minutes. H. McDonnell/A. Mason. MOTION APPROVED

Secretary’s Report- Nancy Teodecki

Minutes of the December meeting distributed prior to meeting and corrections received prior to meeting.

MOTION: To approve minutes of December 2006 council meeting with corrections.

McDonnell/ Humbert. Motion approved.

President’s Report: Dave Canaski

• Comments with council on discussion on Attorney General Cuomo’s letter sent to colleges across the country about how they choose the providers included on their “preferred lender”lists.
• Conference 2007: conference call with co-chairs; discussion of preparation of budget, conference planning , and implementation of recommendations to the committee based on work of the Professional Ethics & Standards committee. Some modifications of recommendations agreed upon by participants. Other meetings held: Conference committee chairs, the Treasurer, and chair of Finance & Budget Committee meeting , and a Conference committee meeting.
• Conference call with Treasurer and chairs of committees who report to her. December recommendations from Professional Ethics & Standards committee, revisions to budget layout, planning for activities leading up to the budget presentation in June, development of web-survey on professional standards, & simplification of the development process.
• College Goal Sunday: 13 sites statewide scheduled for 2/11. Accounting and purchasing procedural issues were resolved.
• NYSFAA.org: successful in purchasing the NYSFAA.org ‘near-miss’ domain name for $250. Ideta Daniel is working with ATAC to get the site set-up as a re-direct to NYSFAAA.org.
• Government Relations Committee: preparations for the Legislative Forum. Created a position paper (distributed at training session following the meeting)
• Professional Standards and Ethics Committee: Doug Schaeffer has stepped-down as co—chair due to his new job responsibilities. He will remain on committee and serve as vice-chair. Howard Leslie of Monroe College has agreed to co-chair.

Treasurer’s Report: Marilyn Faller

• All invoices received as of February 2nd have been paid. Conference revenue fell short of budgeted amount, though the conference expenses were also less than budgeted, the results was a net conference income of $29,793.93.
• November revenue sharing checks were mailed for all regions. January revenue sharing checks were mailed for all regions except 5 and 7. Region 5 check held pending receipt of second quarter financial statements. Region 7 check held pending receipt of second quarter financial statements, and the return of the College Goal Sunday advance.
• The Budget template was revised to match the updated committee structure and $2,500 was allocated for the Ethics and Standards Committee, as per the vote at our December meeting. Note that the Budget doesn’t balance by $2,500 for this reason.
• Met with Brenda Wright (Finance & Budget Chair) to discuss how the Committee could help with some of the Treasurer responsibilities. We agreed that Brenda would be responsible for paying all invoices associated with the annual conference. This information has been communicated to the 2007 Conference Committee Chairs.
• Submitted an application for Internet Banking Services to HSBC, and expect the service to be available and in use within the next month. Also submitted an application to view our savings account information online, rather than via paper statements. This should also be in place by next month. In addition to Treasurer, checking writing privileges for Dave Canaski and Brenda Wright will be set-up.
• Purchased the online version of Quickbooks so that our account information can be viewed by more than one person over the web. Once the data conversion is complete Treasurer will set up logins for herself, Dave Canaski, Brenda Wright, and our auditors. The cost for this service will be $16.00 per month. Expect data conversion to be completed within the next week.

1st VP- Joan Warren

Membership – total membership 1309. Outstanding payment issues: mass e-mail reminders sent for all ‘non-renewed previous members’.

2^nd VP- Maria Baarlam--reported by H. McDonnell

• Novice: starting Sunday instead of Saturday, finishing Friday morning.
• During Novice update Angela VanDekker brought forward a proposal by Howard McGinn of Academic Finance Corporation - a $10,000 donation in memory of Doug Boucher - as scholarships for folks to attend Novice. Further discussion needed; Dave & representative will set-up conference call with Development & Novice Committee chairs.

Secretary’s Report- Nancy Teodecki

Early Awareness- (reported by Nancy)

• KIDS TO COLLEGE: co-chairs discussed the proposal. Since the program mirrors Gear Up and we are financially committed by contract to Gear Up, we do not feel we want to spread our resources (people) thin by duplicating efforts.
• Conference call with committee scheduled for February 12. Every region now has a representative on the committee.

 High School Outreach- Karen Taylor, Co-chair

• A meeting has been scheduled for the High School Workshops on April 6^th in Syracuse.  Kathy Michalski issub-committee chair for the coming year.  Additionally, an invitation is being sent to all past site coordinators inviting them to the meeting and asking them to continue to act as site coordinators for 2007.  We are currently looking for a school person for Region 6; hope to have someone in place very soon.
• NYSFAAA and HESC also continued the long history of distributing information designed to educate students and families about aid opportunities by distributing the 2007/2008 Student Financial Aid Wall Chart, “Get The Facts About Financial Aid” flier and HESC’s “How to Apply Fact Sheet” to High School Counselors, libraries and legislative offices.  We have had many follow up requests for additional copies from the legislative offices.
• The “What You Need to Know About: Using College Planning Services and Consultants” brochure is now posted to the NYSFAAA website.  Copies of the brochure are also being sent to high schools throughout the state.
• Once College Goal Sunday has passed the our focus will be turning to discussions concerning CAAN and the development of the two new websites for Financial Aid Nights and the interactive listing for school counselors in the state.

Communications/Website- (report read by Nancy)

· The NYSFAAA Special Report page in the February 5th issue of The Legislative Gazette is set to go.  Copies will be delivered to council at the meeting.

· Working with Brian Ghanoo from Region VI on a "New York Statewide Default Prevention Project" page for the website.  It's now in the testing phase, and Brian and his "Advisory Team" are currently reviewing it.  He scheduled a conference call (Jan 31) with Jeff Baker of the Department of Education to discussion a few options.  Two questions posed : whether the new default products and services webpage will be updateable later ( response –YES) and whether the calendar function at the NYSFAAA website could include a unique color/event title for "student success/default prevention" (response: The online calendar is restricted to 5 categories. Right now they are Administrative, Events, Meetings, Region, Other. Dave will review further with Brian)

· Along with major updates, there are lots of little things on the site that need updating (example-student scholarship application is 05/06) . Direction needed for responsibility and flow of information- State Chairs , Officer in charge of Website Committee or Website chair? (council agreed that state chairs should be responsible)

· Regional postings: Would each region review their regional site information under ‘Notes/Report Index’  page to take a look and remove the out- dated information. If there is something there that they would like archived, notify Ideta.

Guidance Counselor Workshops- Patricia Johnson

Pat gave the final 2006 Fall Guidance Counselor Workshop report. Overall good evaluations. There are some discrepancies in the Treasurer’s report versus her report but she’ll contact Marilyn to resolve. She thanked council for the opportunity to serve for the past several years and will continue to assist with this workshop on the regional level

Regional Reports:

Region 1: Janet McGrath

• Meeting held for the 2007 Support Staff Workshop on 1/31. Co-Chairs: Kathy Michalski and Rachel Barker.
• College Goal Sunday, Medaille College, 2/10/07 from 12 – 5 p.m. .
• NYSFAAA Region 1 membership meeting 2/22/07- Round Table Discussion.
• 2/26/07 meeting for the 2007 Admissions Advisor Workshop at the University of Buffalo.
• Janet McGrath, Region 1 Representative, sent out information on the Mission Statement. One comment was received that it looked good.

Region 2: Andrea Mason

• No meeting since our Holiday meeting in December.
• Next meeting 2/15/07 at Roberts Wesleyan College; Dan Hunter will do training on the Importance of Mentoring.
• College Goal Sunday, 2/11/07, East High School in Rochester.

Region 3: Sharon Karwowski (presented by Mark Humbert)

• Our January meeting was primarily devoted to an open discussion about Executive Council, Statement of Principles, and Proposed Mission Statement. Some ideas/thoughts discussed:
  • Principles should be overarching and not too specific.
  • We should be focused more on our mission and legislative responsibilities.
  • Positively promote ourselves better- who we are, what we stand for.
  • Training on ethical standards suggested at Novice and at the conference.
  • Mentoring should focus on the bigger picture of ethical behavior
  • Time set aside for a regional meeting at the conference and possibly state wide meeting at the larger conferences like Department of Education Fall conferences to help
  promote mentoring and our values

• What happened to membership cards and pins? Mission statement could be on

the back of the membership card.

• Updated region on responsibilities of council representative since it’s an election year.

• In regards to articles for the Webletter, the region felt that committee chairs should be responsible to submit a brief article about their particular event(s).
  College Bowl Sunday, 2/11/07, 10-2. Concern about lack of publicity.
  
  

Region 4: Brenda Wright

• Holiday meeting 12/7/06 at the Italian American Community Center. Collection for Toys for Tots. Financial Aid Jeopardy; questions on the HERA changes.
• Support staff workshop, 12/14/06, at Glen Sanders Mansion, Scotia. Topics: HERA, HESC updates on loans grants & scholarships, emotional intelligence presentation & financial aid jeopardy.
• Next meeting 2/8/07,training by Jim Vallee on updates in Congress.
• Hosting 2 sites for College Goal Sunday- Troy HS and Fort Pain.
• 3/30/07 region 4 &5 joint training scheduled.
  
  

Region 5: Heather McDonnell

• Region has not met since the last Executive Council meeting. Activities within the region will be reported by the High School Outreach Committee. Our next meeting will be on 3/16/07 at Sarah Lawrence College.The training session will be on communication and strategic planning between offices on campus.
• College Goal Sunday site in Yonkers, NY. CGS will be held at Lincoln High School on 2/11/07. We have been advised that another high school for near-by Portchester has been invited as well.
• Region 5 will co-sponsor an Intermediate Training workshop with Region 4 , 3/30/07 at the Citizens Bank Place, Albany. The topics will include ACG/SMART, Legislative update, citizenship issues and a Leadership session. Also planning a Support Staff workshop to be held later this spring.
• Roberta Daskin from Sarah Lawrence is Region 5’s coordinator for the annual Tri-Regional meeting tentatively scheduled to be held at NYU in early May.

Region 6: Angela VanDekker

· Tri Regional committee progressing:Tri Regional will be in May either at NYU or Fordham (most likely at NYU).Representatives from all three regions, new members involved. Concerns on budget- $3,000 is not sufficient.

• Jim Briggs Tax Workshop, 2/15/07 at John Jay College
• 1/19/07 regional meeting at Baruch College; lower attendance (Probably too close to start of spring classes.)Difficulty in securing meeting space; limited when a meeting could be scheduled. Over 40 signed up and 34 attended. Program included: HESC update, Financial Literacy-Personal Financial Guidance for the College Student by Steve Malin from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Fundamentals of Needs Analysis-Hands on with Case Studies, Discussion of the Mission Statement.
• Prior to the meeting, the mission statement from the governance Committee and a second version were emailed to region 6 members along with the Statement of Purpose from the constitution in order to spark thinking. There was a general discussion about mission and an alternate mission statement was suggested. The statement, forwarded to Judi Miladin and LRP committee: “NYSFAAA is a charitable, volunteer association that brings together financial aid professionals to promote professional development, mentoring and networking in an environment of mutual support to facilitate the work of these professionals in promoting, advocating for and providing student access to post-secondary education. “

• Requested Shelley Worrell to send a picture for the regional page. Mary Torres-Erickson will forward regional news to Laura Worley for the web letter.

Region 7: Sheryl Mihopolus

• January meeting well attended (over 40 attendees); focus on government benefits which are reported on the FAFSA. Discussion of these benefits by the region preceded an hour long presentation by 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.
• Presentation: 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. The website http:fcpe.adelphi.edu./Social_site/index.htm contains important benefit information which may assist all NYSFAAA members. If NYSFAAA feels that a link to this site would be something we wish to have on the NYSFAAA website I’m certain that we could secure the permission of the site’s creator. The site is called “Government Money for Everyday People” and includes 70 federal, state and local programs available in New York State.

• Jim Gathard from Bank of America gave the membership an overview of the “hot” legislative issues like student loan interest rate reductions. Jim’s report was given as a follow-up to information he presented at our December meeting.

· Upcoming Events: Region 7’s Tax Workshop, 2/13/07 at Molloy College. Financial Aid 101 for non-financial aid personnel – registrars, admissions, and bursar, March 2 at Bank of America site in Farmingdale.

Region 8: Kerry Lubold

Our region hasn’t met since last council meeting. Our next region meeting is on March 2nd at Clarkson University.

HESC report: Mike Williams

• New toll-free line dedicated for financial aid professionals; will feature a redesigned and simpler voice response system, which will also allow callers to be transferred to their chosen HESC program area. .
• Based on recent feedback from school and lender partners, HESC will not be providing a public link on hesc.org to Greentree’s new Student Loan Buying Guide,
• Jennifer Dwire, the former Regional Manager for Key Education, has joined HESC’s College and University Relations teams.
• HESC recently e-mailed the January ’07 edition of the “HESC Colleague Newsletter” to financial aid administrators throughout the state; updates new 07-08 TAP enhancements, and also spotlights NYSFAAA President David Canaski.
• The 2007-08 College Data Survey is now available on the Web. This data survey is used annually to collect specific school information for TAP, APTS and scholarship processing.
• New TAP Enhancement for 07-08 -Effective immediately, students whose residence is being questioned can now complete the NYS Residence Review Questionnaire on-line at HESC.org. If a student reports a state or country other than New York State on his FAFSA in one of the four questions listed below, their residence will automatically be questioned and the code “7” will appear on his TAP record. If the student completes his ETA on-line, they will be linked to the Residency Questionnaire: student address, student state of residence, student driver’s license, parent state of residence OR date of residence is less than one year from September 1 of the prior year. Additionally, colleges can download a Residency Questionnaire at HESC.org to distribute to students for completion (questionnaire under “Forms for Financial Aid Professionals” in the General Functions section within Transaction Processing).
• The New York State Licensed Social Worker Loan Forgiveness Program (LSW) is now on-line. LSW is the first program to adopt the on-line application process.

Conference 2006 Final Report - Beth Turner, chair

• Beth thanked HESC for their contribution for AV needs by keeping each session supplied and providing staffing assistance. Found that most of the meetings were by conference calls versus on-site meeting; keeping in contact with committee chairs is critical. Profit was made even with low budget. Along with the official evaluation she has received many personal e-mails with positive comments.
• Final Conference Report distributed to council; report accepted by the President.

Conference 2007- Claire Jacobi

Discussed the 4 tracks of the program. Conference rate of rooms $209. Would like executive council to book their own rooms; was agreed to by council. Council suggested that the room availability be presented to council the day before the availability presented to general membership. Claire and Katrina will further discuss the details for sponsorship.Committee requesting a registration fee increase.

MOTION: to increase the registration fee to $285. McDonnell/Humbert.

MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

MOTION: to accept the 2007 Conference budget. Mihopolus/McDonnell.

MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

SUNYFAP Open Forum – Warren Hoffman, Mark Schwartz

NYSFAAA/SUNYFAP cooperative ventures . Purpose of discussion- to brainstorm and articulate ways in which these two organizations that share our members common goals, pool talent and resources to create training and other programs that will benefit our memberships. Brief history of SUNYFAP was given to council. Discussion on what type of training is needed/ sharing costs, how to enhance/promote volunteerism.

Ideas: Preparing current members to move-up (resume/interviewing skills), What you need to know about becoming a Director, promote networking, how to reach the younger generation/getting folks involved, establish joint fall training with SUNYFAP rather than with EASFAA.

Agenda Items: Mission Statement- Judi Miladin

Revised Mission statement sent prior to meeting. To be used broadly in publications and internally along with Statement of Purpose.

“NYSFAAA is a charitable, volunteer association of financial aid professionals advocating for, and promoting equal access to post secondary education for all students. NYSFAAA offers education, professional development, and networking opportunities for its members and for colleagues in related education, business, and governmental profession.”

MOTION: To accept the revised Mission Statement. Miladin/Humbert.

MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

Long Range Plan- Judi Miladin

Each region to nominate at least 2 people for committee and names given to Judi no later that March 8^th ; budget $21,934 to complete plan. Will be presented at Fall conference

MOTION: To accept Irv Bodofsky’s recommendations and adopt the $21,934 budget for the Long Range Plan. Miladin/Humbert. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

Agenda Item: Diversity Committee- Joan Warren

Proposed language distributed prior to meeting.

Purpose: (A) To encourage and support the active involvement and professional development of members from under-represented groups in the Association, and to assist these members in growth toward leadership positions within the Association. (B) To collaborate with other standing committees to ensure that the Association’s outreach activities reflects the diverse membership and under-served communities. (C) To ensure that the Association reflects the diverse membership, geographic regions, institutions, and students we serve in all aspects of the governance and activities of said organization.

Duties:

1- Work with Region Chairs & Regional Membership Chairs to identify under-represented groups within the region.

2- Develop outreach strategies to inform target groups about NYSFAAA activities and membership benefits.

3- Review demographic make-up of all NYSFAAA committees and make recommendations to the President/Committee Chairs for potential committee appointees that will enhance diversity

4- Collaborate with Government Relations Committee on diversity related issues.

5- Assist the Early Awareness and High School Relations Committees in identifying and reaching out to diverse and under-served communities.

6- Work with Conference Committee on developing diversity-related session.

MOTION: To amend the Policy and Procedure Manual as proposed. Warren/McDonnell.

Discussion: concerns on section B & C and #3 with regards to ‘how does a volunteer organization ‘ensure’ balance is met’; compromises President’s and Chair’s recruitment efforts.

MOTION to TABLE MOTION. Wright/McDonnell. 5 Ayes, 5 Opposed .

MOTION DEFEATED.

Friendly Amendment offered by Angel VanDekker

Revise ‘B’ under purpose to: To collaborate with other standing committees to assist the Association in reaching out to facilitate diversity and representation from under served communities.

And revise under Duties, number 3 to: Review demographic make-up of NYSFAAA committees and provide assistance and possible suggestions to the President/Committee Chairs for potential committee appointees which will enhance diversity.

MOTION To ACCEPT Friendly Amendment to original motion . Warren/McDonnell

5 Ayes, 5 Opposed. President voted to break tie.

MOTION DEFEATED.

Dave will ask Joan to form committee to re-visit language for further discussion.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING at 5:20 . Teodecki/Humbert

Training after meeting for those council members meeting with legislators on Tuesday, Feb 6^th. Jim Vallee and Dave Canaski provided the ‘Forum’ information packet and the NYSFAAA position paper.