From: Leigh Fiorenzo
lfiorenzo@mandtbank.com
Subject: Region 1 Minutes from November 4 Meeting at Keybank
Message:
Please find
attached the minutes from last weeks meeting. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks! Leigh
Region 1 Meeting
Thursday, November 4, 2004
Keybank
Downtown
Submitted
11/9/04 by Leigh M. Fiorenzo, Region 1 Secretary
Attendance:
AFS Kristen
Carey
AMS Shane
Rauh
Bank of
Bryant &
Stratton Lori
Martynowicz, Carrie McCooey
Citizens Bank Jean
Fura
College Loan
Corp Jim
Morrison
D’Youville College Stephanie
Ed
Fifth Third
Bank Marc
Woolf
Keybank Kathleen
O’Connell
M & T Bank Leigh
M. Fiorenzo, Brian Levy
NCCC Kim
Buerger, Kathy Michalski, Robin Ray
Nellie Mae Abbey
Linsner
Nelnet Anne
DelPlato
NYSHESC John
Austin,
Sallie Mae Ithrene Cameron
St.
Bonaventure Mary
Jo Brockel
Teri Kelley
Robinson
UB Joseph
Alongi, Brent McEnroe, Carrie Newman, Jennifer Pollard, Kevin Ryan
Wachovia Karen
Blankenburg
Treasurer’s Report (Rachel Barker)
*Previous
Balance $2877.77
*No credits
*Debits: $112
to Auxiliary Services
(Refreshments
at September meeting at ECC South)
$250 Harry’s Harbour Grill
(Deposit for
*Current Balance $2515.77
*Samantha
Veeder from Hobart and William Smith College, Region 3, has taken over as
statewide treasurer for Mike McGraw from Tompkins Cortland Community College
*Regionally we are required to submit accurate quarterly reports, along with
our monthly bank statements due to a big push from Elliott Spitzer, NYS
Comptroller, to make sure Non- profit organizations are in compliance. Our books are looked at very carefully and
NYSFAAA has tightened up quite a few things over the last few years. We are in good shape at this point and we
want to keep it that way.
*Each region
is now required to have a policy in place for reviewing checks (Region I’s policy is: Exec
Council Representative, Region Chair, and Treasurer review the checks.
Treasurer
provides a report of the check number and whom the payment was made to, and
then they will all compare the report to the checkbook.) *Income from lenders
for regional events needs to be included (not a problem for us)
* Insurance
forms are now available for any school when hosting an event on campus. Please contact Samantha Veeder with plenty of
lead-time.
* W-9's are
required for any individually paid speaker.
(Not applicable if person is part of a corporation, etc.)
* Vendor
Sponsorship: Lenders can pick and choose
which statewide initiatives to sponsor.
A letter will
be sent out in April to lenders asking for sponsorship, so that the list is established
in time for new membership year.
Lenders should
know which events they sponsored and only participate in a lender/promotional
capacity at those events. Mike McGraw
stated that the lenders asked for this and should already be familiar with the
policy.
* Training
initiatives: Karen Price-Scott is the new statewide NYSFAAA Training
Chair. Please contact her whenever you
do any training in your region.
* $800 and $1000 training funds available for each region off the
bat. Additional funds available if needed, but you
need to make the request through your Exec Council member (Kevin Ryan) and
they'll ask to review your current treasury since training takes precedent over
parties, etc.
Website/Membership Reminder (Kevin Ryan)
*Once you
become a paid member you will get e- mail with your login ID and password. *Please make sure you go on-line to check
your profile (update profile once you get user name and password). Enter
membership area and update membership profile.
*You may also
change your password on-line to make it easier for you to remember. If you
forget your password go to member services to retrieve or make a change the
password.
*Please note
that if you don’t pick a region it automatically defaults to region 1 so make
sure you pick what region you want to participate in (lenders can pick more
than 1 region).
*Any vendor
who registered through the
conference
please make sure you verify profile on-line.
Committee Updates
School Counselor Workshops (Kathy Michalski)
*November 18 at
St. Bonaventure University with
40 counselors
registered and November 19
at
Classics V with 83 registered. All set
for volunteers and thanks to all who are assisting with the event.
CAAN (Kevin Ryan)
*Kevin will be
the new chair and will be meeting with Sherrie Sheppard to review the program.
*There is no
other update at this point other than he will be looking for volunteers so
please keep this in mind.
Training Committee (
*Training
Committee responsible for organizing today’s SAP presentation. Thank you to
*November 18: SFA Video Conference, “Delivery
and
Application” at ECC North from 1 – 3
(Please
RSVP to
Scott Weltjen at 270-5239)
(You may also
sign up for a web cast through the original e-mail that was sent out by the
Feds)
*The Mentor
Committee doesn’t have a list of new members yet but a sign up sheet will be passed
around for volunteers. List may take a bit of time to get to
* Contact
year.)
Support Staff Workshop (Abbey Linsner)
*Jeanie Russo
was in car accident after last meeting and is presently not working. Abbey and
some of the other committee have talked and they have decided to move forward
without her participation. Therefore,
Abbey is looking for a co-chair. She has approached someone and is awaiting a
response. Several lenders have approached here but she is still in need of
school volunteers. If anyone from a school wants to volunteer let Abbey know as
soon as possible since she would like to have committee by thanksgiving. Targeting early Jan for first meeting. Please contact Abbey
directly for Jeanie’s home address if you want to send her a card Regional and
State Committees (Carrie Newman) *There are many statewide committees who are
always looking for volunteers so I encourage you to participate. Currently, they are looking for volunteers
for the following
committees: early awareness, scholarship, and
communication. Kelley Kostak is our regions
representative on the scholarship committee.
You may view a
full list of committees at www.nysfaa.org/docs/toc_schools_lender.html
School and Lender News/Issues
*Abbey Linsner from Nellie Mae:
Congratulations
to the following from our area who received a statewide award at the
conference: Ann DelPlato,
Kelley Robinson, and Katrina DelGrosso. Also, the conference committee was very
pleased with the conference. Please complete
your conference evaluation, which is available on the web. If you complete it by 5:00 on November 12,
2004 you will be entered to win one of three American Express gift
certificates.
*Warren
Hoffman from
*Holly
Zaglaniczny from EdAmerica: She is back working in NY
State and encourages our members to sign up for the NASFAAA list serv to keep up to date on current issues/trends.
*
committee)
*Carrie Newman
from UB for
Citibank: The holiday luncheon will be held at Harry’s Harbour Front Grille on December 16.
There will be
a brief meeting at 11:00 and lunch will be served at 12:15. No pre-ordering is required and there will be
several entrees to choose from. The cost
is $10 per person, invitations will be mailed next week, and checks should be
made out to NYSFAAA and mailed to
HESC Update (
*Please see
attached notes:
HESC UPDATE
November 2004
E-MPN’S
Early reports
for 2004-05 have indicated that more than 68 percent of new MPN’s
filed were processed electronically, which is an increase of 28 percent from
2003-04. In order to save time and money
for your institution and your students, as well as decreasing the occurrence of
data entry errors, HESC has initiated an “E- MPN Exclusive” campaign. HESC
Regional Service Coordinators will be contacting all HESC customers to promote
this fast and efficient processing option, which improves cash flow and
eliminates time delays associated with paper applications. Interested schools
should contact their HESC Regional Service Coordinator for more details.
PLUS
Electronic MPN
HESC offers
parents of college students the option of filing electronically for a PLUS
loan. The electronic master promissory
note for PLUS loans replaces the traditional signature on paper and will save
parents and schools time, paper, and postage.
Details on PLUS credit checks will be discussed at the upcoming HESC
Administrative Workshops.
Additional
information about the Administrative Workshops is listed below.
LOAN PROGRAM
POLICY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE WEB
The HESC
Bureau of Program Policy has updated its most frequently asked FFELP Loan
Program Policy Questions & Answers Section on hesc.org.
A well-maintained, and topical Q & A section gives busy
financial aid professionals a quick way to find answers to student loan issues
by simply making a few clicks on your mouse.
To find the
revised “Q & A,” visit:
http://www.hesc.org;
go to College
Administrators
and
sbomeisl@hesc.org.
All questions will be answered quickly.
In addition,
one Question of the Month and the name of the author will be recognized and
featured in the HESC “What’s New' section.
If you need
to speak with a member of the policy staff, call (518) 473-3986 or toll free at
1-888-697-4372, option 2-2-3-2.
ED EXTENDS
REINSURANCE DATE RE: FFEL
CONSOLIDATION
LOANS
In Dear Colleague Letter FP-04-06, the
Department of
Education (ED) announced that reinsurance for FFEL Consolidation Loans which do
not comply with the Department's interpretation of the 'single-holder rule'
will be extended beyond September 1, 2004, as long as all Loan Verification
Certificates (LVCs) are sent to loan holders by the
date the HEA is reauthorized or September 30, 2005, whichever occurs first. If
you have any questions, please contact Bureau of Program Policy staff at (518)
473-3986.
MAPPING YOUR
FUTURE
Mapping Your
Future, a national public web site sponsored by HESC for students and families
with information on financial strategies, career options and college planning
is hosting a chat event on Tues Nov 9th from 7-8pm. Chat subject will be on
available loan forgiveness programs.
This chat event is a great way to gain financial aid and college tips
from the convenience of a computer. On Nov 9th logon to
www.mapping-your-future.org, click on chat Event and follow the instructions.
BLANKET
GUARANTEE
Meeting a
need expressed by lenders and schools, HESC recently added a new loan
processing option, Blanket Guarantee, to its extensive array of processing
options and services. For more information regarding HESC loan processing
options, schools are encouraged to contact their respective HESC Regional
Service Coordinator, which can be found by visiting www.hesc.org, and clicking
on 'HESC Directories' under the 'College Administrators and Lenders' link. The
Blanket Guarantee
bulletin
can also be viewed at:
http://www.hesc.com/bulletin.nsf/0/CA72A4E38F6C4
D0C85256F20005513DF?OpenDocument&a=SL
DEFERRED
PAYMENT NOTICE
As schools
are aware, Section 663–1 of New York State Education Law allows that up to 30
percent of Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) payments may be paid in the
following academic year, but no later than August first.
In order to
implement this requirement for the
2004-05
academic year with
the
least amount of financial hardship, HESC did not withhold any summer or fall
payments. HESC will withhold payments as
follows:
-
30% of the first two winter prepayments
- A
proportion of the first spring prepayment
not to exceed
30% of the value of the academic
year payments.
The
percentage of the spring prepayment to be withheld has not yet been determined.
As stated above, all monies withheld will be paid on or before August 1, 2005.
DATA EXCHANGE
TEAM
A new Data
Exchange Team is a customer service advocate team set up to handle all file
transfer issues. Clients will be setup with one of HESC's
file transfer methods, migrate from one electronic process to another, maintain
and provide technical/user documentation, provide electronic process testing
with our clients, resolve our client's problems as related to electronic data
transfers, and resolve or assist in errors that may occur during our clients
pre-processing of applications. If you have any kind of problem with data/file
transfer activities contact the Data Exchange Team at 1-888-697-4372, press
2-4-1-1.
-Reminder-
HESC Administrative Workshops
Registration
Required - Register online at www.hesc.org or by fax at
(518)
474-2839.
REGISTRATION
DEADLINE:
REGISTRATION
DEADLINE:
November 29.
Registration
begins at 8:30 a.m., training begins at 9:00 a.m. and
concludes at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Workshops to
be held at the following locations:
Nov. 22 – AlbanyHoliday Inn – Turf205 Wolf
RoadFree
Parking Nov. 23 – White
PlainsRenaissance Westchester Hotel80 West Red Oak LaneFree
Parking Nov. 29 - Long IslandHilton Huntington598
Broadhollow RoadFree Parking Nov. 30 and
Dec. 1 -
Millersport HighwayFree Parking Dec.
8 –
RochesterRIT Inn and Conference Center5257 West Henrietta RoadFree
Parking Dec. 9 – SyracuseDoubleTree Club6701 Buckley
RoadFree
Parking
Workshop
Agenda:
Processing:
We will review recent loans and Grants and Scholarships processing
enhancements, including the various processing options available for HESC
participating schools.
HESC Web: From
Start to Finish: Loans and TAP processing are available on the Web. We will
provide an update of transaction processing functions and reports and forms
enhancements that will help you with your daily operation for both programs. We
will provide a basic overview of Excel spreadsheet usage, targeting HESC's Reports and Forms for use as an example.
EFT/EFR: HESC
has made several key improvements to its Loans EFT and EFT process. We will
review the options and discuss what is the best way to
streamline your EFT. HESC will also review HESC’s
new “Empire EFT” disbursement option that HESC anticipates will be available
for the ‘05-06 processing year.
State and
Federal Update: An update of State and Federal programs governance issues that affect your operations.
Small Group
Forum: We will break into four smaller groups each facilitated by a HESC
trainer. You choose the topic area of interest to interact won a more focused
level regarding the day's topics.
Presentation: Are My SAP Practices in
Compliance???
Presenters:
Jeremy Weiss, NYS Education Department John Austin, NYSHESC
Moderated by
Janet McGrath,
If you would
like a copy of the slides from the SAP presentation please contact Leigh M.
Fiorenzo
at lfiorenzo@mandtbank.com
Next Meeting: December 16th, 2004
Harry’s Harbour Place Grille (on the