REGION 2 MEETING
M&T BANK
Attendance:
Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES & MSLOSPN: Toni Greenlee
Chase Education Finance: Michael Woody
Citibank: Debi Mansour, Laura Worley
Fifth Third Bank: Marc Woolf
HSBC Bank: Sherrie
Sheppard
Key Bank: Kathleen O’Connell
M&T Bank: Tony
Goodwin
Nellie Mae: Katrina Delgrosso, Abbey Linsner
NSLP: Anne Barton
NYSHESC: Ed Gilbert
Rochester Business
Institute: Mark Stoll
Student Loan Xpress: Brian Levy
SUNY Brockport:
Nora Bell
USAFunds: Debra Eddy
Wachovia: Karen Blankenburg
Treasurer’s Report (Nora Bell):
§
Current
balance: $1,491.93
§
This includes
recent revenue sharing check of $815 for the region 2 membership in 0506.
Secretary’s Report (Katrina Delgrosso):
§
Minutes from last
meeting are on www.nysfaaa.org under
Regional News for Region 2.
Membership Report (Margaret Christian):
§
No update
§
Call Margaret if
you have any membership questions (585-475-4523). Margaret_christian@urmc.rochester.edu
Executive Council Update (Jerome St. Croix &
Katrina Delgrosso on behalf of Steve Dodds):
See minutes below these
Region 2 minutes. Other highlights
include…
§
In reference to
the section regarding Dave Canaski’s President-Elect
Report, should we pursue trade marking our logo? It apparently only costs about $200, but the
search is expensive (closer to $1,500?).
Maybe we could have law students in NY work on this as a project?
§
In reference to
the 2006 NYSFAAA Conference, the maximum registration
will be capped at 550 people. Also,
there will be a survey coming out to see if anyone is interested in riding a
bus from Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse.
HESC Update (Ed Gilbert):
§
Overture product
is still available to schools—HESC can provide this free of charge to schools
in NY.
§
See HESC Update
below these Region 2 meeting minutes.
Lender/Vendor Updates:
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Anne Barton: NSLP--Federal Deficit
Reduction Act web casts will be offered on 2/22 from
§
In addition, NSLP is offering a “Money Management Counseling” web cast
on 3/8 at
§
In addition, NSLP is offering a “Loan Consolidation and Money Management
for Students” web cast on 3/15 from
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Michael
Woody: Chase purchased Collegiate Funding
Services—CFS specializes in loan consolidation.
§
Debra Eddy: USAF offering 2
workshops in April. On 4/4 in
Committee Updates:
§
Support Staff
Workshop (Karen Blankenburg)—haven’t had their first
meeting yet. To be continued…
Next Region 2 Meeting and Training:
§
Training at the
Region 2 meeting on 3/29 will be on “Neutralizing Your Emotions”—ways to work
with stress. There will be a brief
regional meeting, followed by this speaker.
The Executive Council rep can request funds from NYSFAAA
for this training program (Steve Dodds, our Exec
Council rep, will need to propose this to Exec Council). The speaker’s cost will be about $400. The speaker is from the FLCC
Institute—Joanne Alibrandi.
Updates/Discussions:
§
Region 3 has
invited Region 2 to attend the June meeting, which will be the summer outing. There will be a great motivational speaker,
Steve Morgan, who will be doing a presentation from
Officer Elections—We Need Your Help!
§
The officer
positions of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are up for election for 0607
through 0708 (2 year commitments).
Executive Council is not up for reelection until next spring as that
election is on the opposite year as these other 3 roles.
§
Joan Shedd is not able to be the Elections Chairperson this
spring. Debi Mansour agreed to run the Election for nominations. We should aim for nominations by
§
We need to send
notification to the region to nominate people.
You should talk with the person you are nominating to make sure they
agree to run for the position.
§
There will be
online voting after that.
Trainings/Workshops:
§
Tax
training: 2/23 in
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Fiscal officer
training: register at www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/training/index.html
CAAN Update (Joe Bailey):
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East High School FAFSA review took place on 2/7. There were 20 people in attendance.
Thank you to those who helped
out presenting:
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Nora Bell, SUNY Brockport
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Nancy VanZetta,
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Chris Alonzo, SUNY Brockport
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Amanda Carter,
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Andrea Mason, SUNY Geneseo
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Toni Greenlee, BOCES
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Andrea Mravlja,
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Joe Bailey,
Thank you to the vendors who
supplied pens, pads, etc.:
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Sallie Mae
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Nellie Mae
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Citibank
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First Niagara
Bank
Discussion:
§
Joe Bailey: There was an article in the Democrat &
Chronicle about a month ago regarding Paying for College. They advertised a service that charges fees
to complete the FAFSA—College Assistance Plus out of
§
Joe went to their
website and apparently, they franchise this business!
§
Debi Mansour went to one of
their presentations and they used scare tactics to get people to pay fees.
§
Susan Wisniewski
had issues at St. John Fisher last year because this group filled out FAFSAs and put student information in the parent section
and vice versa. Some of these families
paid up to $1,400 for this service.
NYSFAAA Webletter
(Laura Worley):
§
Posted today at http://www.nysfaaa.org/docs/toc_newadditions.html
Vacant Positions:
§
Today’s Training—Federal Update/Deficit Reduction Act Changes—moderated
by Tony Goodwin, M&T Bank:
§
We had a good
discussion regarding the Deficit Reduction Act and what this means to us in the
financial aid, lending and guarantor arenas.
All of us will be affected by these changes.
§
There was a
drafting error that needs to be corrected because the Direct PLUS loan interest
rate (fixed rate) was listed as 7.9%, but it is actually 8.5%, the same as in
FFELP PLUS as of 7/1/06.
§
The fixed
§
Special allowance
still in effect for lenders to pay back to the government.
§
Loan origination
fees will be phased out by 2010, beginning
§
Guarantee fee of
1% has to be placed in the federal reserve fund for
that guarantor. That fee can’t be paid
by federal funds. So if the guarantor
has other streams of income, they can afford to waive the 1% fee. However, guarantors won’t necessarily be able
to waive this fee long-term. For a state
like New York with so many schools/so much loan volume, this will be
challenging to some guarantors—additional pressure to them.
§
Graduate PLUS
loans—this will tremendously affect companies who only offer private loans and
no other products, because their potential graduate private volume will be
diminished as schools offer PLUS to their grad students as opposed to private
loans.
§
Loan limit
increase is not into affect until
§
§
In-school
consolidation is no longer available.
You will see a rush on consolidation by
§
Spousal
consolidation will no longer be available.
§
Single
disbursements available to schools now.
§
Smart Grant
program—Department working on more information for this.
§
Procedural
issues—how will your financial aid management systems be handling the reduction
in origination fees over time? On
§
Single holder
rule will continue—if a lender of record offers consolidation, the student
needs to consolidate with that lender.
§
Don’t forget to
participate in the web casts that NSLP is offering to
discuss the Deficit Reduction Act. USAF is also offering this.
The more information you can hear, the better.
NYSFAAA EXEC
COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
Present: Sue Aldrich,
Rachel Barker, Dave Canaski, Carolyn Corcoran, Steve Dodds, Clair Jacobi, Pat Johnson,
Bill Mack, Heather McDonnell, Janet McGrath, Sheryl Mihopulos, Judi Miladin, Lisa
Simpson, Nancy Teodecki, Angela Van Dekker, Sam Veeder, Joan Warren, Mike Williams, Brenda Wright
(Beth Post and Jim Vallee joined us on Monday,
January 30th)
Unable to Attend: Maria
Barlaam, Sharon Karwowski
SECRETARY’S REPORT – Carolyn
Corcoran
MOTION; To accept Janet
McGrath as new Region 1 representative to Executive Council (Rachel Barker had
to resign as accepted new job with lender); McDonnell/Van Dekker. MOTION APPROVED.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Sam Veeder
VP MEMBERSHIP REPORT – Joan
Warren
VP TRAINING REPORT – Heather McDonnell for Maria Barlaam
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Judi Miladin
EARLY AWARENESS UPDATE – Nancy Teodecki
NOVICE TRAINING UPDATE – Lisa
Simpson, Bill Mack, Heather McDonnell
STATE FAIR UPDATE – No update
SCHOOL COUNSELOR WORKSHOP UPDATE – Pat
Johnson
PRESIDENT- ELECT REPORT – Dave Canaski
o
Dave pointed out
that currently there’s no policy on membership management; discussion
began. Joan described what she currently
does when receives new membership registration; she notifies applicants via
email if they appear to be eligible for membership or not. Joan has ability to cancel the membership
application and suggested leaving the “unaffiliated” option on application
o
Dave presented a
new proposed new policy with the purpose of managing the membership of the
organization. The proposed policy would
mandate that “NYSFAAA will ensure that the membership
is limited to those individuals who are actively engaged in (or retired from)
student financial aid administration, and those others whose career interests
are consistent with the organization’s principles, values and goals.” Extensive
discussion followed and amendments were made to the proposed procedures to be
used for enforcing this policy. The following procedures were agreed upon:
o
The Vice
President for Membership is responsible for creating and maintaining a
membership application process/system that operates in a manner consistent with
the NYSFAAA constitution, by-laws, and this policy
o
All applicants
for membership shall be required to list their employer’s name as part of the
membership application process
o
Members are
required to notify the Vice President upon any change in employer. The Vice President will determine whether the
individual’s membership status is affected by the change
o
Membership is
limited to individuals employed at post-secondary educational institutions,
retirees from those institutions, or employees of other entities approved by
the Council.
o
The Vice
President shall maintain a list (database) of all employers meeting the above
criteria
o
An applicant
whose employer is not on the approved list shall be asked to provide the Vice
President with a written request for approval by the Council, which shall
include an explanation of how the employer’s values, goals and actions are
consistent with those of NYSFAAA. The Vice President will distribute the
request to the Council by the following Council meeting, where discussion and a
vote will occur.
o
Any elected
member of the Council has the right to petition for a re-evaluation of a
previously-approved employer. The
Council member shall present to the Vice President, a written request for
re-evaluation by the Council, which shall include a detailed explanation of why
the Council member believes the employer’s values, goals, and/or actions are
inconsistent with those of NYSFAAA. The Vice President will distribute the
request to the Council by the following Council meeting, where discussion and a
vote will occur.
o
MOTION: To
approve the policy as written, with amendments; McDonnell/Veeder. MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.
o
MOTION: That
Council approves, under the new policy, all of the existing lenders, agencies,
and servicers, as they exist in the current
membership database. All primary and
secondary schools not in the current database are also approved; Canaski/McDonnell.
MOTION APPROVED.
o
Discussion on
Joan’s list of “consultants” to determine if there’s a problem with their
services being inconsistent with NYSFAAA
mission. There was extensive discussion
on the process to be used for agencies to present how their services compare to
mission of NYSFAAA
o
MOTION: To
approve the following entities under new membership policy: American Credit Alliance Inc., Overture, SCT, College Board, CICU,
Financial Aid Services, Inc., Adrienne King, MJS
Associates, Noel-Levitz and The Spelman & Johnson
Group; Canaski/McDonnell. MOTION APPROVED.
o
Reference back to
December 2005 meeting discussion on fundraising and issues involved related to
our tax-exempt status and our mission/purpose;
fundraising going on at regional level is problematic and in violation of
current policies and procedures; it was clarified that neither are regions or
committees allowed to fundraise.
Brainstorming/discussion on the budget process that should be used for
committee and regional budgets and how they currently get their funds
o
Sam predicted
that it will be painful for Regional Chairs to have to go out and plan a budget
a year in advance
o
Sam pointed out
the other concern is giving appropriate credit to the vendors for their support
o
It was agreed
that we need additional thought on budget process
o
MOTION: To
accept, as amended, the amendments, Sponsors and Vendors, Tax Exempt Status,
and federal tax return; McDonnell/Dodds. MOTION APPROVED.
o
Dave announced
that he needs Council representatives to solicit from their regions for
volunteer to serve on statewide election committee; the goal is to solicit
support for people to run for statewide offices
o
Dave also
encouraged Council rep’s to get their regional meetings out on the NYSFAAA website calendar as he’s trying to arrange to visit
regional meetings in each region and if they’re on the calendar, it’s obviously
easier to arrange
CONFERENCE 2007 REPORT – Clair Jacobi
GRADUATE CONCERNS UPDATE – Patrick
Ziegler
COLLEGE GOAL SUNDAY UPDATE – Ken
Storms, HESC