Region 1 Minutes
Thursday, October 6, 2005
University at
Submitted by Leigh M. Fiorenzo, Secretary
Attendance:
ACS Education Services Nancy
Reynolds
AFC Kristen
Carey
AMS Shane Rauh
Bank of
BOCES Paula Oshirak
Chase/Bank One Mike Friedman, Michael Woody
Citibank Laura Worley
College Loan Corporation Vince Scalise
ECC Bernice
Anson,
EdAmerica Holly Zaglaniczny
Fifth Third Bank Marc Woolf
First
Hilbert College: Beverly Chudy,
HSBC Sherrie Sheppard
Keybank: Kathleen O’Connell
M & T Bank: Leigh Fiorenzo, Andrew Leardini
Nellie Mae: Katrina
Delgrosso,
Nelnet Anne DelPlato, Carrie Newman
NSLP Anne Barton
NYSHESC: Bonnie Evans, Jack Rafferty, Mike Williams
Student Loan Xpress Brian Levy
UB: Joe
Alongi, Lisa Cino, Roseanne Johnson, Kellie Kostek, Brent McEnroe,
Villa Maria Collage: Diane Kespysk, Sister M. Diane Miller
Wachovia Karen Blankenburg
Wells
*Welcome to everyone to the first Region 1 NYSFAAA meeting
of the 2005-2006 year
*Thank you to UB for hosting the meeting and the great
turnout
NYSFAAA Region I New Officers Welcome (Carrie Newman)
*Congratulations to our new Region 1 Officers who will be
taking over their position after the Conference in
Treasurer’s Report (Rachel Barker)
*Debits: $6.00 auto withdraw for image return fee and $2037
for Bison’s baseball summer outing
*Credits: $1020 for the contribution for the Summer outing,
$613.13 reimbursement from the Jim Brigg’s Tax Workshop, $875 for the final
2004-05 revenue share check and $63.66 return to the treasury for a check
issued to Wachovia which, was never cashed for last years support staff
workshop
*Current balance is $4562.74
Membership Report (Katrina Delgrosso)
*Katrina has been the membership chair for several years
now and she has been looking for a volunteer (s) to take over the role. Carrie Newman and Leigh Fiorenzo have volunteered
to co-chair the committee going forward
*Notice sent to list serv at the end of August to remind
region 1 list serv to do membership and another reminder sent out in
mid-September
*There has been some confusion with conference registration
- you have to do (2) separate transactions on-line to register for conference
as well as register for membership for 05/06.
*It is still not too late to become a member for 05/06. You need to pay $35 fee for one region (vendors pay $15
for each additional region you wish to add). Please
keep in mind that if you pay by 10/31 your region 1 list serv will not be
interrupted. If you are not a member by 10/31 you will
be dropped by both of the list servs. Please take care
of your membership by 10/31 to prevent any future problems and/or delays. There was some confusion on the list serv and member
paying their dues. Most people don’t tend to take
action until they do conference registration and membership dues combined so
previously you would be dropped off the list serv by the end of August. Therefore, an extension was implemented so that members
have until 10/31 to renew without being removed from the list serv. (It is
believed that this change is permanent).
*The current membership numbers are inflated due to the fact
that the total is still including the 2004-2005 members. Therefore,
we will have a better idea as to numbers after 10/31.
Committee Updates
School Counselor Workshop (Brian Levy):
*Two workshops are scheduled w/ the first one in
*If anyone is willing to send
Training Committee – (Leah Nicholson):
* If anyone new would like to join please let Leah know
that you are interested. There are several great ideas
for the upcoming year and a schedule will soon follow.
CAAN – (Sherrie Sheppard and
*
*John Smith has the FAFSA wrappers and if you need them for
the school counselor workshop let Sherrie or Kevin know
so they can contact John Smith to get a supply.
Mentoring Committee (Carrie Newman for
*The mentoring committee has not been working out as well
as planned in all regions across the state. Most
likely the reason it hasn’t been a success is that the new people aren’t being
contacted until several months after they have joined NYSFAAA. We are asking that the Directors of the
schools with new hires come forward early so that new people don’t miss out on
this opportunity.
*A suggestion was made to mimic an event that the Tri-State area uses: A lot of counselors were often hesitant to come to the meeting since they didn’t know anyone so in Tri-state they had (2) social events per year for the new people to get acquainted with the seasoned members. Seasoned members were encouraged to attend to meet the new members and a personal phone call was made to the new members to invite them to the event. Also, Vendors donated raffles and it was also pointed out that we have $500 available to each region (different from Region money) to use to recruit new members.
Award Committee (Mary Koehneke)
*Mary was pleased to award this year’s NYSFAAA Region 1
Service Award to
Support Staff Workshop (
*Sarah and Abbey co-chaired last year but if someone is
willing to volunteer they will continue to stay on the committee and assist the
new chairs. Please let them know if you are
interested. They will make the decision
at the November meeting and more about the Workshop will be decided at that
meeting as well.
Executive Council Update (
*Conference 2006 update:
For the Lake Placid conference (November 6–9, 2006) transportation will
be supplied by each region (or regions if applicable). (A
mutual location will be used if we are interested at no cost to members). We need to think about a location and let the
transportation committee know since they need to bet the contracts in order
A.S.A.P. It was suggested to meet at ECC North as we
have done in the past.
*The transportation committee is also looking at getting
shuttle buses from each overflow hotel at the 2006 conference running from 6:00
a.m. until 2:00 a.m.
*Conference 2007 at the
*Conference 2008 at the Turning Stone Casino from October
21-24
*Statewide: If you
would like to see some training at the statewide level please
contact Rachel Barker rbarker@medaille.edu
for Region 1. Also, statewide committees
are looking for volunteers if anyone is interested.
*Please see the attached Executive Counsel minutes provided
by
NYSFAAA
EXEC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
SEPTEMBER
22-23, 2005
SHERATON NEW YORK HOTEL AND TOWERS, NYC
MEMBERSHIP REPORT – Joan Warren
Statistics on website not correct; it’s currently double counting
0405 and 0506 members due to overlap in years.
Expiration date on 0405 membership year
is 10/31/05. As of 11/01/05, membership
statistics on website will be correct
We’re up 17% over last year. Joan pointed
out that having the website is tremendously helpful in recruiting new members
Discussion on outstanding payment
issues, including: #1.
Novice. There were
Novice participants hadn’t yet paid for membership they will be sent to Sam
(Treasurer) for collection. ATAC has a
Variance Report that tells us who attends events but haven’t yet paid
membership fee (as long as event is registered through the Events Planner, the
Variance Report will pick this up). #2 when people pay
membership fee at regional events, sometimes regions aren’t
communicating/forwarding membership information to Joan.
Joan stressed ongoing problem
with duplicate records/invoices; ATAC will try to do something to prevent this
Joan did an outreach (letter with membership brochure) to 100
NASFAA/EASFAA members; getting lots of inquiries on status of being able to
accept payment via credit card (right now we
don’t accept credit card payments)
There was a discussion about not being able to respond to regional
list serve without signing onto web site; Joan explained it’s a security
issue. Judi agreed that it does limit
discussion
HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR
WORKSHOP REPORT – Pat Johnson
Pat handed out list of regional chairs and list of regional
workshops/dates; HESC will resend school counselor/other mailing labels soon
Vince Scalise is coordinating FAFSA wrappers
EARLY
AWARENESS REPORT – Nancy Teodecki
Committee wrapped up bookmark project
for public libraries;
New project is wristbands, which were
given out at State Fair and
NOVICE
TRAINING REPORT - Lisa Simpson
Event was held on June 4th through June 10th,
2005 at
Lisa Simpson, Bill Mack and Heather McDonnell visited Cobleskill 2 weeks ago; goal is to get
Novice held in all regions; they liked Cobleskill and it’s more affordable than
Manhattanville
Proposed dates for 2006 are June 3rd through June 9th
Cobleskill can accommodate up to 175
people; we’d like to hold registration at 120.
Lisa also brought up idea of trying to
get past Novice videos transferred to DVD; suggested perhaps a college’s media
arts department could do this for no fee
HESC
UPDATE – Lisa Simpson for Mike Williams
Having great success with Anytime TAP-on-the-Web (reason HESC hadn’t put link
on their website initially was due to requirement that an official FAFSA EFC
has to be file on file). HESC has now
put the link to ETA, ChangeForm and RFI letters on their site
CUNY will no longer be processing TAP applications after 0506 year!
There are a few new scholarships for
Nursing and a special Flight 587 (crashed in
There’s a new
loan forgiveness for nursing educators
HESC received $21million in federal funds for NY Gear Up (6 year program that will cover
this year’s 7th graders, through high school, for those
participating)
CAAN
UPDATE – John Smith
John has the order form for wrappers so
members can email John if need any
John will try to get a statewide media event for CAAN coordinated; he emphasizes
that he feels we need a statewide, collaborative media event
STATE
FAIR EVENT – Sharon Karwowski
NYSFAAA volunteers participated and it
was suggested
we may want to consider doing a NYSFAAA giveaway (notepads, pens, etc) in the
future.
GOVERNMENT
RELATIONS UPDATE – Judi Miladin for Jim
Vallee/Beth Post
A group of members went to
POLICY
AND PROCEDURE MANUAL UPDATE – full Council
Began read-through of most recent
update and continued to edit; we’re approximately half-way through the document
TREASURER’S
REPORT – Sam Veeder
Reviewed/distributed balance and budget
sheet
Renewed insurance policy with St.Paul’s Travelers; we no longer have
separate policies for separate events; all events are covered under one policy
Scholarship recipient checks have been
sent to scholarship winners
All items for new audit have been sent
to Chett
Regions
1 and 2 were randomly selected for regional treasury audits
There will be a meeting at the annual
conference for regional treasurers and regional chairs and exec council
representatives will also be invited
Distributed revised/updated mileage
reimbursement forms
Continued with
discussion on accepting credit card payments. Joan has been inundated with inquiries about
our ability to accept payment via credit card; short discussion on costs;
decision was to get more information (from EASFAA) on credit card costs and try to make a decision at December 2005 meeting.
DEVELOPMENT/TRAINING
REPORT - Tony Thompson for Karen
Price-Scott
Tony read a proposal from Karen in
regard to forming a Development/Training Committee (this same proposal had been
earlier e-mailed to Exec Council members in
June 2005)
Council members did comment to Judi via
email in June 2005; Judi indicated that she was envisioning having a major
discussion about where we want to go with statewide training. Judi expressed discomfort in not having Karen Price-Scott present today for the discussion
Sentiment/comments made about the
importance of on-going tax training and lots of discussion followed; consensus
was that we do not want a
Judi proposed that the training issue
be discussed at regional level; Exec. Council reps.
need to get comments from regional members so that it can be discussed further
at December 2005 Council meeting
CONFERENCE
2005 REPORT – Gail Drapala
Have 471 full conference registrants as of 9/19; 561 total registrants
Everything should be ready to go!
CONFERENCE
2006 REPORT – Sue Aldrich
Conference logo is out
Next meeting of steering is set for
Oct. 26, 2005 at
Various committee have been meeting via conference call format
CONFERENCE
2007 REPORT – Clair Jacobi
Tony Olivera is Clair’s conference
Co-Chair
There will be two evenings ‘on your
own’ with cocktail hours on those nights
Committee chairs won’t be organized
until after 2005 Conference concludes
PRESIDENT’S
REPORT – Judi Miladin
Will request adding two more
EASFAA/NYSFAAA joint training (Compliance topic) sites, one on
Received letter from NASFAA about their
“Financial Aid Fundamentals”; asking if we
want to be a “state partner”; our members would pay $306 vs. $340 to use this
financial aid training tool for new staff members
Judi was reminded by a member that this
year’s conference is taking place during a Jewish holy day so Judi encouraged future conference committees to be conscious of these
dates
NYSFAA.org is owned by some other
entity that has a link to fafsa.com (not good obviously); they’re not willing
to sell their ownership of the site. Our
attorney, David Myers, is investigating
whether we have any recourse for legal action
Has had contact with John D’Agait’s
staff and they’ve indicated there will be senate education committee meetings
coming up; hopefully TAP Reform will be a part of agenda
NEW
BUSINESS
Sam commented on the fact that some committees (especially conference) are using
iLink for conference calling for meetings.
It was decided that NYSFAAA would pay for any committee, regional or
statewide, for conference call meetings.
Earl brought up the fact that we’re
getting job posting requests from non-members
(schools that have a job opening but no members at that school); consensus was
to NOT post those job openings
OLD
BUSINESS
Earl has made contact with Paula at
ATAC and he will be getting lists to the regions of which members are on which regional list serves
HESC
Update (Jack Rafferty)
*Please
see the attached notes provided by Jack Rafferty
HESC Update
NYSFAAA ~
Region I
September 2005
Grants and
Scholarships Update
As highlighted in HESC Financial
Aid Services Bulletin 2005-019 (8/5/05), HESC
now offers a TAP
Change Form and Request for Information on
the Web.
Students whose TAP applications
were processed beginning in August will receive e-mail notifications advising
them of this new online way to change and/or submit application data.
HESC anticipates elimination of
paper award notices as well as change forms and RFIs in the near future for
students who have valid e-mail addresses.
The online Change Form and/or the RFI can be accessed on HESC’s Web site by
selecting:
“Managing your Loan or Grant”, then “Your Account.”
Students can follow the instructions on the TAP Award Status page to view
their award information. If they wish to proceed to
the Change Form or RFI, they can use the link provided to continue.
Students will then be asked to provide their HESC-PIN to be
allowed to view their application data. If
they do not have a valid HESC-PIN, they will be given the
opportunity to create one at that time.
The Change Form allows students to change application data on file with HESC. However, changes that would create application errors will
not be allowed.
The RFI displays messages indicating which data must be corrected or supplied
to complete the application process. Students will be
instructed if additional documentation must be submitted to HESC.
In most cases, the data submitted
within these pages will be processed within 24 hours.
Tap on the Web Link
HESC's website has been updated to
include the student link to TOTW as an option under “Applications
On-Line.” To view from our
homepage select “Applying
For Aid,” then click on “Applications.”
Students will answer yes/no questions to direct them appropriately.
New Nursing
Scholarship/Loan Forgiveness Program
HESC recently announced the signing of new
legislation creating 2 new programs to increase the number of educators
and adjunct clinical faculty teaching nursing in
- Senator Patricia K. McGee
Nursing Faculty Scholarship Program
-
For more information on these new
programs, including eligibility requirements, please refer to Financial Aid
Services Bulletin 2005 – 016 which can be viewed on hesc.org’s “College
Administrators and Lenders” link.
Flight 587
Memorial Scholarship
Governor
George E. Pataki recently signed into law a bill creating a new scholarship
program for the spouses, children and financial dependents of victims of the
November 2001 American Airlines Flight 587 plane crash. This
program, like the
American Airlines Flight 587 crashed shortly
after takeoff from JFK airport, in the Belle Harbor section of
In the
spirit of the World Trade Center Memorial Scholarships, the Flight 587 Memorial
Scholarship program will cover the cost of attendance at any State University
or City University campus, or will provide an equivalent amount toward the cost
of attendance at a private college or university located in New York State. This will enable students to pursue any approved
undergraduate program in the State’s public and private higher education system. This memorial award program is expected to benefit nearly
150 eligible children and spouses over the next 20 years.
The statute
allows for payments retroactive to the 2001-02 academic year, and does not
require students to meet
Eligible
students and families should contact Mike Reynolds or Rita McGivern in the
Scholarship Unit at HESC 1 - (888) 697-4372 to obtain information and apply for
payment.
A Consolidated Scholarship Roster, as summarized in HESC Scholarship Modernization Bulletin
2005-021 (9/8/05), has been created based on requests from school
officials.
Please note that Scholarships previously paid manually will be included on the
new Consolidated Scholarship Roster (CSR), as will awards for students with multiple
scholarships. Each scholarship or award assigned to a
student is listed under the student’s name and also provides
schools with an itemized list of each scholarship paid by program. The Consolidated Scholarship Roster (CSR)
layout is similar to the traditional TAP roster.
More information regarding the
Consolidated Scholarship Roster, including future enhancements, will be
discussed at the fall NYSFAAA Conference.
Loan
Processing Issues/Update
Recent HESC Financial Aid Services
Bulletin 2005 – 022 and 2005-013 provided highlights on HESC’s
September 8th Loan Subcommittee Meeting and Loan Web
Improvements:
PLUS Credit Check Pre-Approval
Responding to many requests, HESC
will implement the PLUS credit check pre-approval process and an automated credit
approval process, and it is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2006. A detailed bulletin describing the new process, including
pre-approval procedures and other features will be sent shortly.
Alternative Loan Focus Groups
As promised, HESC has formed focus groups
to explore the alternative loan system for passing data between lenders and
schools. We met with schools and produced a list of
options that they wanted. HESC is reviewing all the
feedback and will schedule more discussions. For more
information, contact Lisa Simpson at or (518) 473-0482.
Total Enrollment Reporting Process (TERP)
The Total Enrollment Reporting
Process (TERP) is a service offered by the National Student Clearinghouse,
providing a single, reliable source for student enrollment information. The clearinghouse collects, checks and distributes data to
guarantors and their lenders and servicers.
During the subcommittee meeting, there was overwhelming support for HESC to
join the Clearinghouse TERP process. We will keep you
informed as we move forward with this.
PLUS Credit Check Web Screens
HESC has added new fields to existing screens to display information about
a borrower credit check when the credit check is performed by HESC.
Access to Web Screens by
Student SSN
For PLUS loans, school and lender/servicer
access to loan Web screens is now available by student SSN.
Standardized Reports
HESC has added two new reports, HESC Performed
Credit Checks - Daily Credit Results Report, which displays the results of the
HESC credit check. APP718 is the lender report and
APP719 is the school report.
Customized Reports
The two new reports can be found under the
Reports Tab. Misc.
Select “MPN Data – Schools”, or “MPN Data – Lenders” to
display master promissory note (MPN) data including where the MPN is stored and
the borrower signature date. It will also display MPNs
that do not have any loans.
Select “Pending Data – Schools” or “Pending Data – Lenders” to display loans
that are pending for a school. Loans are pending for
missing or incomplete information.
HESC also enhanced the customized report for Guaranteed Loan Volume for Lenders
and Schools to produce the reports by “Program Type”.
Empire EFT
Contracts and Manuals
As a reminder, Lender and school
contracts for the Empire Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) program, including
school and lender manuals, are available electronically on hesc.org to download
and use.
NYGEAR UP
Update
HESC has received $21
million in federal funds that will allow the State to continue its
successful six-year NYGEAR UP program that helps thousands of at-risk students
prepare -- both academically and financially -- to attend college.
Nearly 7,000 current
HESC is pleased that NYSFAAA will
also be participating in NYGEAR UP activities.
HESC Loan
Symposium
HESC's inaugural Loan Symposium,
held in
HESC Staff
Changes
Robert Butler, a 30-year HESC manager who most recently was HESC’s Chief
Operating Officer, retired recently, but will continue as a part-time
consultant to HESC. Leonard G. Sippel,
who has worked as a financial expert for several colleges and universities,
will replace
Sippel worked as executive vice
president for finance and administration at
He was also the vice chancellor
for finance and administration at the City Colleges of
June F. McQuide has been hired as the Director of the Audit and Quality
Assurance Division
to direct a staff of seven who audit HESC’s
operations and the agency’s outside vendors.
McQuide has extensive experience
with large and small private companies and a major national accounting firm. She served as a team leader in
McQuide has served as the
executive director of the University Heights Association in
McQuide, a Certified Public Accountant, also owned an accounting firm in
School, Lender, & Guarantor News
*Nellie Mae would like to welcome Sales Support Coordinator
– Jennifer Pollard who is responsible for the
*Nellie Mae would like to announce Katrina Delgrosso’s
promotion to Senior Vice President
*UB would like to welcome Connie Cook as the new Director
of Student Response and Advisement Staff
*College Loan Corp would like to welcome Sean Rafferty as
the new Region 1, 2, 3 and 8 representative
*Chase, Mike Friedman would like to encourage anyone who is
able to contribute to this year’s silence auction at the NYSFAAA conference. The auction forms are due to Mike Friedman by next Monday. Last year we raised over $2500.
*Canisius Leah Nicholson is looking for a roommate at the
Conference if anyone is interested please contact Leah at nicholsl@canisius.edu
*Citibank – 0% loan origination has been launched
nationwide
Group
Discussions:
*Region
1 meeting Dates: Kevin has reached out
to several schools and he is waiting to hear back from those that have been
contacted. If you wish to volunteer
contact Kevin at kryan@buffalo.edu
*Jim
Briggs tax training is scheduled for January but date needs to be confirmed
(members only if not a member you will need to pay dues). Registration
is required in advance. E-mail will be coming out soon
so you can set your calendar.
*Christmas
luncheon has been tentatively scheduled for December 15 with Laura Worley
planning the event
Training
Events
*Thank
you to Leah Nicholson for coordinating the training committee throughout the
years
*Committee
has several ideas for this year:
Suggestions made at today’s meeting include: business etiquette seminar, presentation
skills, relaxation techniques, wellness topics, plus processing
(guarantor/lender flow), HEOP/EOP, Legislative Training, Re-cap
of HESC Symposium (forward any other suggestions to Leah at nicholsl@canisus.edu
Statewide
committees
*Reminder
that statewide committees are always looking for volunteers. The
statewide committees are as follows:
·
Committees
·
Awards
·
Budget
·
CAAN
·
Graduate
Professional Concerns
Next
Meeting: SUNY Fredonia
Thursday,
Nov 17, 2005