THURSDAY, MAY 19,
2005
MEDAILLE COLLEGE,
AMHERST CAMPUS
Submitted by Leigh M.
Fiorenzo, Region 1 Secretary
Attendance:
AMS Shane Rauh
Bank of America Darcie Stephens
Buffalo State: Warren, Hoffman, Stephanie Kindzia, Pam Steffan
Canisius College: Mary Koeheke, Lea Nicholson, Michelle Rizzo
Chase/Bank One Michael Woody
ECC Sarah Izzo
EdAmerica Holly Zaglaniczny
Fifth Third Bank Marc Woolf
First Niagara Sandy Stevenson
Hilbert College: Beverly Chudy,
Houghton College: Troy Martin
Jamestown Business College: Diane Sturzenbecker
Keybank: Kathleen O’Connell
Medaille College: Rachel Barker, Karen Miller
M & T Bank:
N.C.C.C. Kim Buerger, Kathy Michalski
Nellie Mae: Abbey Linsner
Niagara University: Jennifer Garey, Martie Howell
Nelnet Marty Blind, Carrie Newman, Mark Schilmoeller
NYSHESC: Jack Rafferty, Ed Gilbert
Sallie Mae: Ithrene Cameron
Trocaire College: Janet McGrath
UB: Joe Alongi, Kevin Ryan
Villa Maria Collage: Diane Kespysk, Sister M. Diane Miller
Presentation: “Consolidation – It’s Red Hot Right Now”
Presented by Marty Blind and Mark Schilmoeller of Nelnet’s Affinity Marketing Department
*Please see the PowerPoint presentation attached to this e-mail
Treasurer’s Report (Rachel Barker)
*Debits:
Sodexho
$269.28 March Meeting
Pages $484.42 Tax Workshop
Kevin
Ryan $28.67 Reimbursement Tax
Workshop Houghton College $150.04 Tax Workshop
Sodexho $294.40 April Meeting
Wegmans $214.33 May Meeting
*Credits:
$460.00
$175.00
*Current Balance $2,538.91
*Rachel is going to check with Samantha Veeder regarding a check that was issued to Educaid/Wachovia February of 2004, which hasn’t been cashed. Rachel will see if Samantha wants us to put money back into account
*The region expects to get reimbursed for luncheon at Houghton (food, refreshments and catering). Rachel will submit receipts to Samantha.
NYSFAAA Region 1 Nominations and Elections (Mary Koehneke)
*Thank you to everyone who nominated someone and all those who are willing to run in the election
*The date is not available as yet but we will be voting electronically using our user ID and password for our NYSFAAA membership
*Nominations closed on May 6th
*Earl Tretheway has been contacted regarding the electronic voting process for our region
*You will have 2 weeks to vote and the nominees are as follows:
Rachel Barker and Kim Buerger (Exec Council)
Kevin Ryan (Region Council Person)
Brent McEnroe and Kathy Michalski (Treasurer)
*A suggestion was made that an e-mail be sent out prior to elections to forewarn people that they need their user ID and password to vote (Mary will send out an e-mail)
*Several members are having issues with receiving e-mail from the list serv
*It was suggested that these members go to “manage your subscription” to pick appropriate regions (this is a statewide issue) or use the contact information which is listed at the bottom of the web site for additional assistance
Executive Council Update (Kevin Ryan)
*See attached notes provided by Kevin Ryan
NYSFAAA
EXEC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
APRIL 7 –8, 2005
SARATOGA SPRINGS PRIME HOTEL
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
SET ANNUAL 05-06 STATEWIDE SPONSORSHIP AS THE 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
WILL
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.
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.
WILL
GRANDFATHER 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
A
Novice reunion is ‘pre-conference’ event
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
Discussion
followed on what we might want to add to our draft platform
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
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Judi Miladin
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.
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)
WILL
REGISTER NYSFAAA.COM, NYSFAAA.NET, NYSFAA.COM, NYSFAA.NET AND NYSFAA.ORG AS
OTHER DOMAIN NAMES.
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.
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.
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.
Region 1 Summer Outing (Carrie Newman for Laura Worley)
*Buffalo Bison’s game, Thursday, June 23
*Meeting and lunchtime may vary from the original time scheduled
*Invites will only be sent via e-mail and there will be a nominal fee
*Members will be in the party deck in right field
Committee Updates (Committee Chairs)
*Early Awareness (Kim Buerger)
Group focusing on 7th and 8th grade, brochures provided at state fair, bracelet tie die for young kids with “I am going to college” logo and web site listed on the bracelet
*Jet boat outing (Stephanie Kindzia)
Last Friday of July tentatively planned for the outing (July 29, 2005)
HESC Update (Jack Rafferty and Ed Gilbert)
*Please see update attached provided by Ed Gilbert
HESC Update-May 2005
SUNYFAP Conference
HESC staff, including Acting
President Jim Ross and new Executive Vice President Cori Biviano, presented
several sessions at the recent SUNYFAP Conference in Glens Falls.
Session topics included administrative updates and processing highlights of the
many agency programs, including grants, scholarships, loans, and savings.
The general HESC Update session opened with a short video describing some of
HESC's new initiatives for serving New York's higher education community. To
view HESC’s short video presentation, visit hesc.org’s “College Administrators
and Lenders”-
What’s New link or click on the following:
Training Grant Update
Many financial aid professionals
are attending state workshops, conferences and other events, including the
recent SUNYFAP Conference; as a result of HESC’s pilot training grant
initiative. Developed in cooperation with HESC’s college financial aid office
partners, more than $636,000 in financial aid training grants were awarded to
165 HESC participating schools. HESC training grants are helping colleges pay
to send financial aid and bursar office staff to professional training programs
offered by HESC, the U.S. Department of Education, and other approved
organizations.
State Waives Insurance Fee
For the seventh year in a row,
HESC is removing the insurance fee students. New York State is waiving a 1
percent insurance fee on student loans for one year starting July 1, saving
college students and their families a record $25 million this year.
Since 1999, HESC’s actions have saved families more e than $100 million in
fees.
HESC Supports “Regents Review
Live”
For the sixth year consecutive
year, HESC is supporting a television program and a Web site to help high
school students prepare for the rigorous statewide Regents exams in June.
Students and parents can go to the HESC Web site at , click on “What’s New,” then click on "Regents Review
Live!" for a schedule of the helpful and entertaining programs being shown
on public broadcast stations around the state.
The “Regents Review Live!” programs and the Web site give students instruction
and guidance for taking the 13 Regents exams in subjects ranging from math to
world history.
HESC Testifies at D.C. Hearing
to Simplify the Financial Aid Process
Bob Butler, HESC’s Senior Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer, appeared last month at a hearing
conducted by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, where he
testified that Web processing simplifies the system for students, families and
employees. The committee advises Congress and the secretary of education on
student financial aid. This hearing explored ways to simplify and streamline
the financial aid application process.
As an example, in a few months
HESC’s computer technology will allow students to change information on their
aid applications on the Web using a new state personal identification number
(PIN). As part of this unique program, HESC will also e-mail grant award
certificates to students, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in printing,
postage and labor.
HESC Unveils New Mission Statement
Acting HESC President James Ross
recently unveiled the agency’s new Mission Statement:
HESC Mission Statement
We Help
People Pay for College
Values
Our Employees
We are committed
to teamwork, excellence, initiative,
personal growth and responsibility.
Our Customers
We never take
our customers for granted.
We ask, we listen, and we respond.
Our Products and
Services
We are committed
to high quality, dependability, and
continuous improvement to meet the changing needs of our customers.
*Bonnie Evans was promoted so we now have a new Region 1 representative. Jack Rafferty, previously in the loan processing area, will be taking over for Bonnie. You can reach Jack at 518-408-3748.
School, Lender, and Guarantor News
*Starting in September, Villa Maria will have a 4-year program in Interior Design
*Rob Locontos is the new Northeast Manager and Jennifer Dwyer is the new New York Manager, AVP at Keybank
*Darcie Stephens from Bank of America announced the
following benefits which borrowers are eligible as of July 1, 1002: Bank of America Stafford borrowers will now receive an immediate 1% principal
reduction when they enter repayment, enhanced repayment benefits for Stafford
and PLUS, Stafford and PLUS borrowers will also have the opportunity to receive
up to a 3% principal reduction during the first 36 months of repayment. Please
contact Darcie for more details and any questions
Next Meeting:
*Summer Outing: Buffalo Bison’s Game, Bison’s vs. Norfolk Tides, Thursday, June 23
Meet at 11 a.m., Lunch at 11:30 and Game at 1:05 p.m.