Region 1 Regional Notes/Report

Notes/Report: DATE: October 1, 2008 - REGION 1 SEPTEMBER 2008 Minutes Minutes NYSFAAA Region 1 September 25, 2008 Bryant and Stratton College Attendance: 34 attendees B. McEnroe- UB, J. Russo – Bryant & Stratton, A. Murch – ITT Tech, E. Szczepanski – Hilbert, Sister M. Diane Miller – Villa Maria, D. Kasprzak – retired, L. Helmick – PNC Bank, P. Hart – Medaille, K. Miller – Medaille, M. Woolf – HESC, K. Michalski – NCCC, D. Hunter – Emeritus, Buffalo State, K. Owczarczak – Bryant & Stratton, L. Bean – Bryant & Stratton, K. Duffy – Bryant & Stratton, J. Pollard – Sallie Mae, K. Ryan – UB, L. Chilson – BSC, L. Morrison – BSC, W. Hoffman – retired, BSC, L. Bove – Great Lakes, L. Nicholson – BSC, J. McGrath – Trocaire, C. Gaume – Canisius, J. Rafferty – HESC, S. Hudson – D’Youville, M. Rizzo – Canisius, M. Koehneke – Canisius, J. Moss – Key Bank, M. Costello – Daemen, C. Newman – Nelnet, Holly Z – Edamerica, T. Martin – Houghton, T. Meidenbauer - Medaille Treasurer’s Report: Submitted by Brent McEnroe Balance as of 05/06/08: $4,685.85 Minus: 06/06/08 $2.00 Check Image Fee 06/11/08 $100.25 Sodexho Inc. & Affiliates (Ck 560) Region 1 Meeting at Buffalo State College May 2008 07/11/08 $2.00 Check Image Fee 08/07/08 $2.00 Check Image Fee 09/11/08 $2.00 Check Image Fee Total: $108.25 • Discussion raised – Brent will speak with First Niagara to ask if Region 1 can have the $2 a month check image fee waived. This would save $24 per year. Executive Council Update: Lynn Chilson -Complete report at the end of the minutes Highlights discussed during meeting: • Web communications – NY Buzz available • NYSFAAA instituted an Opinion Page • Review Professional standards and ethics – proposed NYSFAAA statement of principles – send comments to Howard Leslie, Lynn Chilson or Curt Guame • Donations are down – lender support used to be major portion of contributions. • Finance & Budget – every region must be more aware of attendance and documentation. • Business Meeting – Proposal to help with continuity of NYSFAAA Treasurer. Past Treasurer will do audit for year they were held position. • Conference – Current registrations as of 9/25 at 210 – Region 1 – be there! • Conference 2009 – Saratoga Springs • Novice Training was a success at SUNY Brockport with 85 participants • NYSFAAA Membership up YOY – don’t forget to renew membership. • College Access Challenge Grant – new grant available from HESC – Organizations can apply for grants for financial education of low income students. This is a Federal grant that HESC received – HESC will be requesting RFPs from organizations for workshops – NYSFAAA will apply for the grant to fund HS Guidance Counselor workshops – primary goal low income families. HESC will help NYSFAAA reach these families. $250,000 available for workshops and training – this is foundation and grant dollars. This could perhaps be used for College Goal Sunday – Lumina grant available for one more year. Will consider the College Access Challenge Grant for future years. • Gov’t Relations: Document being created to understand Sunshine Act & SLATE. NYSFAAA members are highly encouraged to submit reactions to H.E. Act Our reactions to HE Act & SLATE i.e.: transparency, lender relations. • NYSFAAA and Schools need to deal with Law even though regulations are not in place and the State Ed dept is not regulating this – no money in state budget and the regents’ board doesn’t want to take the enforcing of the regulations on. • AG reps did surprise visit at Sarah Lawrence to ask how to pay for school – AG rep in Western NY still speaking badly of the Financial Aid profession. • One HS Night in Western NY was closed down because presenters were afraid to speak in front of AG and give the wrong information. AG also went to H.S. in Rochester. • If anyone finds out about AG visit at H.S. or workshop make sure we share the information so we can show up at an event. • AG will be in Alleghany – Belmont, NY for an Admissions event. • Individual Campuses must make sure their websites are SLATE compliant. College Goal Sunday: February 8th 2009 – 2 sites: Buffalo & Jamestown. Letter from Ambrose Price, Buffalo CGS Coordinator at the end of the minutes NYSFAAA Conference: 10/21 – 10/24 Adams Mark Hotel – Buffalo! • Region 1 please register– conference hosted by Region 3. • Great program – very few repeat sessions from last year. • Wear red to the Thursday night banquet – in honor of 40th anniversary. • New this year: Awards banquet on Wednesday night and 40th Celebration Dinner on Thursday night. • Business Meeting – 10/22 General Session #3 12-1:45pm Grand Ballroom Committee Updates: • High School Counselor Workshop: Kathy Michalski: The budget for this event was cut 50% - each region has $417 for workshop. However, the College Access Grant from HESC can be used. – Region 2 has set two dates. Region 1 plans to use the College Access Grant and use HESC’s name instead of NYSFAAA’s name. Dates TBA – looking at December 4th & 5th. Email out to contact at St. Bonaventure for – Dec 5th and hoping for Dec. 4th at Classics in Buffalo. Workshops will not be using the $417 only using HESC money - $25K total, 16K used last year. Region 6 using Board of Education on Election Day. Volunteers are set, agenda set just confirming dates. • Kevin asked that members please volunteer as co-chair for committees as so few volunteers for so many committees. • Awards Committee: Region 1 Service Award – Kevin Ryan – way to go Kevin!!! • Membership committee: Pushing membership - passed around list to confirm membership. Former members who are no longer employed in the industry are given the chance to extend for one year. Karen Van Meter will be contacted to confirm how that membership can continue. • Admissions Advisor Workshop: took a year off in 2008. Financial Support will be provided in 2009 by the WNY Association of Admissions Directors. Admissions Advisors want us to have the workshop. Large part of the workshop will be the new FAFSA. Workshop at the end of June 2009, Kevin will continue to chair the event. Michelle Rizzo will co-chair. HESC Update: Marc Woolf See attached HESC update HESC Administrative Workshops: November 19th – Buffalo November 20th – Syracuse November 24th – Albany December 10th – Long Island December 11th – New York City Registration information available soon at www.hesc.org School, Lender & Guarantor News • Cindy Kohlman is the new Director of Financial Aid at University at Buffalo. She is the former Associate Director at St. John Fisher College and previously worked at Chase & SUNY Brockport. Welcome to Region 1 Cindy! • Lea Nicholson has a new position at Buffalo State College as Sr. Financial Aid Advisor. Lea is handling the loan program. • Yvonne Nagle was promoted to Sr. Financial Aid Advisor at Buffalo State College. • Janet Ganley and Warren Hoffman both retired form. • Rachel Barker is the new Assistant Director of Financial Aid at NCCC. • Holly Z. announced that National Education is coming back into FFELP very soon. Good sign that a lender is coming back in. • Sallie Mae introduced the Education Investment Planner www.salliemae.com\plan. An on-line tool to assist students and families to plan and pay for college. • NACAC College Fair was promoted – NYSFAAA will have a table at the event in the spring. Long Range Plan: Curt Gaume, NYSFAAA President Elect Curt presented a portion of the 5 year plan. Comments and reactions to the long term goals submitted to Curt under separate cover. The complete plan is at www.nysfaaa.org under “resource center” Minutes submitted by: Jennifer Pollard Secretary, Region 1 Jennifer.pollard@salliemae.com NYSFAAA Region I Meeting Bryant & Stratton Thursday, September 25, 2008 NSYFAAA Executive Council Report Lynn Chilson, Region I Chair September 15-16, 2008 – Saratoga Springs, NY • In reviewing old materials from past presidents, Heather McDonnell found a letter written in early 1990 to the president of NYSFAAA that reflected the same concerns and challenges we are facing today – increasing our membership, mentoring, and preparing members for future leadership roles. With the loss of many associate members, we must strengthen our organization so we can move forward successfully. • Web Communications – we will be instituting an “opinion page” that will be password protected for members and a “frequently asked questions” page. Make sure that you checkout and utilize the new “NY Buzz” – financial aid event resource for students, parents, teachers and counselors. • The Professional Standards and Ethics Committee were commissioned by the president to refresh the association’s statement of principles. The committee would like the regions to review and comment on the “Proposed NYSFAAA Statement of Principles”. The document can be found on the NYSFAAA website. Please send comments to Howard Leslie (hleslie@monroecollege.edu). • 2008-2009 NYSFAAA Donation/Development Campaign - Training, Outreach, and Scholarship have been the three main purposes of NYSFAAA since its inception. Please consider making a contribution to NYSFAAA. The form is available online at www.nysfaaa.org. • Finance and Budget – the audit of the 2006-07 year was completed. Several supporting documents were missing from the reports. Please keep detailed records and receipts of all functions to be submitted to the treasurer. Attached is a copy of the NYSFAAA Budget for 2008-09. • Council approved the proposal to the members at the Business meeting in October of creating both a treasurer-elect and Past Treasurer to offer more continuity to the management of our financial affairs for the association. We believe this is imperative going forward as we will be dealing with the administering of additional grants and reporting structures. • 2008 Conference – Adams Mark, Buffalo, NY – attendance is down from past years and we have a stellar program in place and would like to encourage everyone to attend and support our organization. As of 9/15, 210 registered and 14 vendors. • 2009 Conference – Saratoga Springs, NY – We toured the facility at the Hilton and Civic Center. • Novice – held in Brockport and very successful. 85 participants. Next year’s workshop will be in Brockport from June 7 – 12, 2009. • Professional Development – EASFAA/NYSFAAA workshops in the fall. Looking at 4 sites for the workshops. Topic: Student Eligibility. • Membership for the 2008-09 year is currently up from last year at this time but we need to encourage everyone to join our organization. One-year exception to extend membership eligibility to current members that are temporarily not employed in an approved financial aid related institution. • College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) - the new grant will be administered by Pre-College Services at HESC. They will be instituting a 3-tier approach: o Sub grants of up to $50,000 o REP application for grants up to $250,000 o Outreach activities - The outreach activities costs would be covered by the grant and HESC would administer the funds directly to the event site. No matching funds are required from NYSFAAA. The guidance counselor workshops would fall under the “Outreach Activities” tier. However, each site must invite counselors from the ‘target’ low income student population group. HESC will identify those schools and can provide any assistance if committee representatives are not successful with a positive commitment from any of these schools. Follow-up reporting will be required to HESC to satisfy that the guidelines of the activity have been met. • Government Relations: Heather and Curt have charged this committee to construct an understanding of Sunshine and Slate and the differences to assist the membership. SLATE was not accepted by the “Board of Regents”, in that this item was on the agenda and not discussed. Therefore, the law continues to remain as originally written. A suggestion was made that each campus may want to reach out to their legal counsel to review their school’s website. • Topic for training: Loan forgiveness – this has been passed on to the Professional Development Committee for review and recommendation. • HESC Administrative Workshop – November 19, 2008 in Buffalo, NY – registration information will be available at www.hesc.org. College Goal Sunday – New York September 2008 Update Dear Region I Greetings and salutations. I hope all are in good health and spirit. Planning for the 2009 College Goal Sunday event is already underway and I wanted to provide a brief update and solicit your support. The College Goal Sunday steering committee met over the summer to discuss the future of our program. Efforts are underway to seek out funding sources as this is the last year of our Lumina Foundation grant. Our partnership with NYSFAAA offers opportunities to pool our resources and network in the community. The website is being revised with updated information. College Goal Sunday offers free assistance with completing the FAFSA and TAP applications. This will be the third year that New York has hosted this event. In Region I, our Jamestown event will be co- chaired by Debbie Mauro (debbiemauro@mail.sunyjcc.edu) and Liz Yager. I am honored to once again serve as the Buffalo site coordinator (ambrose.m.price@citizensbank.com). In Buffalo, City Honors School which graciously hosted the 2008 event is currently closed undergoing renovations. We’ve identified a new location and are taking steps to make finalize arrangements. We are also grateful for the continued support and assistance from the Buffalo Public School System. We need your help and ask that you please consider volunteering your time and talents to help with the continued success of the program. We need greeters, registration assistants, presenters, general helpers, and financial aid professionals. For Jamestown, please contact Debbie or contact me if you are interested in the Buffalo location. The 2009 event will be held on Sunday, February 8, 2009. With your support we look forward to an exciting and successful event. Sincerely, Ambrose CGS Buffalo Site Coordinator HESC Update September 2008 Identifying College Savings EFT Disbursement Files In response to requests from our school partners, HESC has implemented a change to clearly distinguish the College Savings disbursement file from the FFELP disbursement file. Previously schools received separate disbursement files for the College Savings Program and the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the files had the same Form ID, ASM424. Effective September 22, 2008, for only College Savings files, the Form ID will change from ASM424 to NYSSAV. The NYSSAV files can be identified as follows: • Web File Transfer - NYSSAV_MMDD_XXX.dat, where MMDD is the month and day that the file was created and XXX are random characters. • CAM FTP – HESC_NYSSAV-XX-DOE_736-YYYYYY, where XX is the encryption type (01 or 02) and YYYYYY random characters. Please direct questions or comments regarding the use of HESC electronic products or services to Priority Services at priorityservices@hesc.org. Direct any technical problems with HESC’s electronic services to the Help Desk at 1-866-431-HESC (4372) and follow the menu prompts. 2008-09 TAP & Grant Application Processing • As of mid-August, over 468,000 applications have been processed. 89% of these have been processed electronically. • Almost 100,000 student corrections have been received. 83% of these have been processed electronically using HESC’s secure, on- line system. 2008-2009 NYS Veterans Award Update All NYS Veterans Award recipients who have applied for payment for 2008-09 have been recalculated to reflect the increased award amounts (98% of tuition or $4,287.50 whichever is less for full time students; part-time awards prorated by credit hour). The certification of part-time awards for this program will change in 2008-09 and be similar to the process used in the Part-Time TAP program; using credits instead of a PT indicator in the certification transaction. 2008-2009 Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Update During the first week of August, HESC began processing awards for 2008-09 for the Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) Scholarship. Almost 4,000 records were updated with scholarship program identifying information. The new program codes for LOT are: • 41 ($1,000 annually for students awarded prior to the 2007- 08 academic year). • 42 ($1,250 annually for students awarded in the 2007-08 academic year or after). Students holding this scholarship appear on a 200 series roster which is non-prepay. Students who hold the Scholarship for Academic Excellence (SAE) as well as the LOT will have their SAE awards appear on a Consolidated Scholarship Roster. EFAN ID Agreements As a reminder, schools and lenders can view or update EFAN agreements via HESCweb. You may change your password, your own or your institution's e-mail only recipients' contact information or change your challenge question. Authorizing officials can also view or update staff access to HESCweb or revoke a user’s access. This feature can be found under the General Functions tab within Transaction Processing in the College Administrators or Lenders portion of www.hesc.org. POSTED BY: Kevin Ryan