Regional Minutes

Bryant & Stratton-North Campus

January 21, 2005

 

Attendance: Karen Blankenburg, Gerald Christie, Sheila Cooley, Anne DelPlato, Kathy Flaherty, Jean Fura, Renee Jakaub, Pat Johnson, Brian Levy, Scott Lewis, Abbey Linsner, Nancy Pawlak,  Michael Rivera, Kelley Robinson, Kristin Shea, Lisa Simpson, Gina Soliz, Keith Stevenson, Sam Veeder, Sean View, Michael Woody

 

Welcome: Nancy Pawlak

 

Nancy thanked the staff from Bryant & Stratton for hosting the meeting. Notes of thanks and best wishes were sent to Pierre Alric and Michael Wilton on their departure from HESC.  A note was sent to Jennifer Best with thoughts and wishes from the region.

 

Treasurer’s Report: Abbey Linsner

 

The revenue sharing check has been received. The current treasury balance is $2,270.31

 

Executive Council Update: Nancy

 

There has been no Executive Council Meeting since the last regional meeting. The next Council meeting will be in February. The group had no requests for Sharon at this time.

 

State Update: Lisa Simpson/Gerald Christie

 

As Lisa makes the transition to her new assignment she and Gerald Christie, our new representative, will be sharing regional assignments. On Friday, January 28th, there will be a farewell party for Pierre in Albany. Dr James Ross, former president of CICU has been nominated to succeed Michael Wilton. His appointment is pending Senate approval. Corinne Biviano has been appointed to replace Pierre as the Executive Vice-President of HESC.

 

Gerald continued with an update on TAP processing: February 18th will be the closeout date for 2003-2004 processing. TAP On the Web (TOTW)  is not required for those students who received TAP last year, as they will be covered under the multi-year application process. The deadline for the HESC Training Grant applications is January 28th.

 

As of now there is no link from the HESC Website to TOTW. An applicant may complete TOTW if they have a valid EFC, reported themselves as NYS residents, and reported at least one NYS College on the FAFSA. Postcards and emails have been sent to students advising them about TOTW processing. Lisa has a PowerPoint presentation available on TOTW processing.

 

The HESC hotline is now available for school use. Nancy will put any last-minute announcements out on this line. The new HESC website became active today. Enhancements have been added to make the website more user-friendly. HESC also has suggested text on the eMPN processes available for school use. Contact Lisa or Gerald for this information.

 

Committee Reports

 

Support Staff Workshop: Gina

 

Attendance was lower this year than in the past: 32 vs 50 last year. This was possibly due to a later workshop date. Feedback was positive. New committee members are welcome. A suggestion was made for a speakers’ bureau. Each region would not have to research and gather information on speakers for such occasions, but rather could share data. It was also recommended that this be done on a statewide basis. Gina offered to bring to the May meeting a proposal for next year’s workshop, allowing time over the summer for the committee to organize the workshop. This would also allow for an earlier workshop date.

 

Nancy began a discussion on implementing a procedural manual for each committee. She has a template for each committee to examine. Keith suggested a regional email to solicit committee participation. Committee chairs could provide estimates on the time commitments and timeline for their committee, which would help in recruiting volunteers.

 

Guidance Counselor Workshop: Pat Johnson

 

The final evaluation provided good feedback. The room used at the Fairground site was popular. Keith observed that the novice session could have used more time than what was allotted in a break out session. This committee is also looking for new members/chairs. Pat not only was asked to fill in as regional chair, but also as state chair.

 

Mentoring: Nancy

 

This committee is getting off to a slow start. We are hoping to get some guidance from Judi to see how the regional committees will fit into the state structure. Any suggestions can be sent to Nancy, Debi Mansour or Tami Eiklor.

 

CAAN: Nancy

 

Eileen left a phone message update. The workshop in Utica hosted 130; at LeMoyne, about 100 and in Elmira about 53, despite bad weather. There seemed to be little publicity for the email event. Keith questioned whether the effort put into that event was worth the little use it got.

 

 

 

 

Novice Training: Lisa

 

Novice training is set for the week of June 4th at Manhattanville. Registration will be available on the NYSFAAA website shortly.

 

Training Committee: Nancy

 

There are currently four members who have volunteered for this committee: Vince Scalise, Scott Lewis, Sean View and Kathy Flaherty.  Nancy is looking for regional input on how to handle this committee. A suggestion was made to coordinate regional training with state training events to avoid conflict with dates and topics. Sam suggested that this be done through NYSFAAA’s Vice-President for training. Some workshops such as the one Jim Briggs provided should be negotiated on a state level. Gina recommended that the committee look at topics of interest to all sectors of the membership.

 

February Meeting

 

The February meeting will be held at LeMoyne with Bill Cheetham presenting information on loans. There are four modules of information available, each about 2 hours in length: loan limits, loan periods, borrower eligibility issues and disbursement issues. Since the topics will have to be reduced to fit into the meeting schedule it was suggested that Nancy contact the membership via the listserv to see what areas are of most concern. Bill will tailor the presentation to the questions generated from membership response. Some expressed an interest in disbursement issues and PLUS denial for loan eligibility.

 

Early Awareness

 

Nancy passed out bookmarks that are being circulated to public libraries with information about this program.

 

The business portion of the meeting concluded at 11:15.

 

Training Topic:

 

“Custom Loan Center” by Sam Veeder

Sam presented information on how Hobart and William Smith Colleges are able to reach their students through the creation and use of an on-line Custom Loan Center.

 

“Student Web Access” by Kathy Flaherty

Kathy showed the on-line access that students at SUNY Oswego have to their financial aid and student account records and information. SUNY Oswego uses the Banner Web for Student product, which they have customized to allow for “guest” access. They also link this product to their webpage for documents and information.