REGION 3 GENERAL MEETING

FALLBROOK LODGE

HOSTED BY SUNY OSWEGO

September 29, 2006

 

Attending:

Nancy Teodecki, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Judi Miladin, Cayuga Community College

Karen Blankenburg, Wachovia Education Finance

Theresa Gieseke, Next Student

Sheila Coolay, SUNY Oswego

Dan Dunn, Student Capital Corp.

Darcie Stephens, Bank of America

Annette Broski, Mohawk Valley Community College

Anne Barton, NSLP

Kathy Flaherty, SUNY Oswego

Bonnie Rooker, Cayuga Community College

Brian Levi, Student Loan Xpress

Tim O’Donnell, Syracuse Law

Kathleen O’Connell, M & T Bank

Sean View, Hobart & William Smith

William Cheetham, LeMoyne College

Jan Klotz

Abbey Linsner, Nellie Mae

Sharon Karwowski, TC3

Vince Scalise, College Loan Corp.

Anne DelPlato, Nelnet

Rose Hartson, Pratt MWP

Bill Cavin, HESC

Marc Woolf, HESC

Jack Rafferty, HESC

Kristen Carey, AFC

Debi Mansour, Citibank

Sherrie Sheppard, HSBC

Michael Rivera, Chase Ed. Finance

Stephanie Stock, Sallie Mae

Ambrose Price II, Citizens Bank

Cathy Patella, Wells College

Michael Williams, HESC

Rachel Barker, AFC

Holly Zaglaniczny, Edamerica

Larry Zaglaniczny, NASFA

 

WELCOME: Nancy Teodecki

Chair, Nancy Teodecki opened the meeting at 10:10 AM and thanked Kathy Flaherty for hosting and the caterers for the nice job they did. A few new faces were present so a round of introductions from everyone took place. Nancy mentioned that she is starting her fourth year as chair and thanked the region for their support and that elections will be held in the Spring for the regional offices.  On behalf of the region she also sent Rick Ross a card with our condolences on the loss of his father. 

 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: Sharon Karwowski

 

The minutes from the last Exec Council meeting were posted to the Web Site. A lot was accomplished in 2 days so the minutes are broken down into categories. Sharon highlighted a few of the areas for discussion:

·        As of June 30, 2006 there were 1,417 member of NYSFAA. That is up 17% from the previous year. Don’t forget to renew for this year.

·        Jim Briggs will be doing his tax workshop February 20, 2007 at LeMoyne.

·        Region I held a financial aid workshop for Admissions Counselors and it was very successful. We might want to think of one for Region 3.

·        Bill Mack said that Novice attendance is getting very large and they may need to set a limit. It will be held at Cobleskill again next year and if anyone has any thoughts or ideas please send them to Sharon.

 

There is still time to register for the Fall Conference in Lake Placid. The conference hotel is booked but there is still room at the overflow and shuttles will be available.

 

It was not listed in the minutes but President, Judi Miladin sent an e-mail to the NYSFAAA list serve outlining the list serve policy.

 

Please contact Sharon if you have any concerns about anything in the minutes or if she didn’t cover something.

 

TREASURER REPORT: Abbey Linsner

 

The balance is $3,641.74. A $300 donation was made to the scholarship committee. The balance is high because we were not billed for the speaker who couldn’t attend the June meeting. Abbey reported some information from Katrina regarding sponsors at the regional level and a discussion followed on the structure. There is a list of sponsors on the Web site.

 

  • Anne Barton spoke that the vendors will make an annual donation at the state level for certain programs and the money will be filtered down to each region for those programs. It is expected that regions should use funds in their treasury first, and then request additional funding from the state level.
  • Each region was to submit a budget for the upcoming year so that council has a grasp on the funding that regions will need for their programs.  Judi Miladin stated they will follow the funding structure guidelines which assists with audit trail purposes and therefore, would support our tax exempt status. Abbey didn’t feel it would cause a hardship getting funding from the state level.
  • Abbey will attend the Treasurers meeting at the conference and will bring back more information to the December meeting.

 

HESC UPDATE: Joe Rafferty

 

Bill Cavin has been appointed Director of HESC marketing unit and will be visiting schools and setting up a school data base.

Joe distributed a HESC update. One of the highlights is a new WEB site that will be rolled out soon. It is more user friendly and there are financial literacy tools available for download. Darcie asked about getting a tutorial disc that shows screen available to borrowers and Mike Williams will look into it.

 

SUPPORT STAFF WORKSHOP: Annette Broski

 

Annette reported that the Support Staff Workshop is scheduled for October 24th at the Craftsman Inn again and this year there will be no charge. There are around 25 registered so far. Dave Canaski, NYSFAAA president elect, will speak about general changes for next year such as increase in the loan amounts.

 

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR WORKSHOP UPDATE: Nancy for Kate Bellefeuille

 

Nancy and Kate have had some discussions on the structure of this committee and it is suggested that for the future that this committee definitely needs co-chairs. It has become a larger event since our region agreed to include the addition of the middle school counselors.

Kate thanks Laura Burns, from Wells College and an Early Awareness committee member, for all her assistance.  Laura is handling the invitations and registration for the middle school counselors.

Syracuse workshop will be 11/16 at the Fairgrounds. The Binghamton workshop had to be rescheduled to 11/1. Invitations will be sent the week of October 1st.

They would like to present a ‘mini-needs analysis’ session which would tie into the Financial Advisor session. A suggestion from the group was the presentation that Kent McGowen presented at the Region 1 Admissions workshop and is on the WEB if someone wants to use it. Please contact Kate or Nancy if you are interested in presenting.

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Nancy asked if any schools are going to do an application workshop. Annette Broski is holding 3 separate types of sessions this Fall and will have reps from 2 and 4 year public and private schools. Nancy asked Annette to give her the particulars so this can be passed onto the guidance community at the workshops.  Bill Cheetam said Sharon Halpin is working on something at LeMoyne but attendance has been declining so they’ll be considering whether to move forward with the workshop.

 

Rachael Barker spoke about College Goal Sunday. It will be February 11, 2007. It is geared towards disadvantaged students and is funded by the Lumina Foundation. They need a site in the Syracuse area with computer labs and accessible parking.

 

Tammy Oliver was the Region 3 winner of a conference waiver and will work on a committee for the 2008 Conference.

 

Nancy said the Early Awareness Committee will be looking for volunteers from the region to distribute brochures to any middle school that was not represented at the Guidance Counselor Workshop.

 

Kathy Patella is looking for help to stuff 12,500 packets for “Gear Up” in the next 2 weeks. She will contact everyone through the list serve.

 

Mike Rivera asked for contributions to the 3rd annual Silent Auction to be held at the conference. He will send out the information on the list serve.

 

Larry Zaglaniczny gave a brief federal update. He said that HR 138 extended the reauthorization to June 30, 2007. He encouraged people to vote in the November 7 election and be sure to get an absentee ballot if you will be at the Conference.

 

2006 ROBIN JAYCOX SERVICE AWARD PRESENTATON

 

Kathy Flaherty, the 2005 winner, thanked the committee and then proceeded to present the 2006 award to Nancy Teodecki. A standing ovation was held for Nancy and Kathy read a nice congratulation note from Nancy’s boss, Irv Bodofsky.

 

CONFERENCE 2008: Bill Cheetham

 

The conference will be at the Adam’s Mark in Buffalo and we will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of NYSFAAA. He passed out planning calendars and committee lists. We will hold meetings in conjunction with regional meetings, as well as, utilize e-mail. He would like to involve as many people as possible so contact him if you haven’t signed up to volunteer yet.

 

The next regional meeting is October 26th at Ithaca College. All the meeting dates are listed on the NYSFAA web site.

 

The meeting adjourned at 12:20 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Bonnie Rooker

Regional Secretary