NYSFAAA Executive Council Meeting

NYSFAAA Executive Council Meeting December 13^th – 14^th, 2007

Report to Region III, Submitted by Gina Soliz

Treasurer’s Report

We are at risk of a negative cash flow. A motion was passed to move funds, up to $60,000, from the reserve to meet our financial obligations for the upcoming year.
In November 2006 the Executive Council had raised the annual revenue sharing amount to $20 per member (received bi-annually $10 per June and $10 per January). The June 2007 revenue sharing only allocated $5 per member in each region instead of $10 per member. A motion passed to fulfill the June 2007 payment that was due, but to limit the January revenue sharing payment to $5 per member in each region.
The 2007 conference may have a $40,000 to $50,000 loss. All receipts have not been received. It was expensive in NYC (ex. A/V costs were over $39,000).

Professional Development

Advanced Training Workshops (Jim Briggs) will be in NYC on 2/19/08 (location TBA) and in Albany on 2/20/08 at Citizens Bank.
EASFAA Leadership Training (Topic TBD) will be in Albany on 3/13/08 at the Citizens Bank, at SUNY Brockport on 3/20/08, and in New York City (date and location TBD).

Novice Training

The dates for 2008 will be June 7-13, back to the Saturday to Friday schedule
SUNY Brockport put in a bid and may be chosen as the site

Conference 2008

The 2008 Conference Theme is, “A Celebration of Education”
The dates are Tuesday, October 21 – Friday, October 24^th
It will be the 40^th anniversary conference, held in Buffalo NY, but is hosted by Region III. Bill Cheetham and John View are co-chairs.

Membership

As of December 10, 2007 membership was at 1,263 (compared with 1,224 in 12/06)
Reminder that meetings and training require participants to become members (however, you may invite a guest to regional meetings, but then they would be expected to become members to attend future meetings)
Our Regional Membership Chair is Kathy Flaherty of SUNY Oswego. Our regional membership total is 182 (down 9% from last year’s 200 members)

Mentoring

Dan Hunter and Dick Oboyski are co-chairs of the Mentoring Committee. They prepared a Power Point presentation to serve as an orientation to the concept of mentoring. It will be presented at Novice.
Each region will be asked to find two members of their region to become co-regional mentoring committee members. They will be asked to contact up to five new members of their region and personally invite them to the next region meeting or training event and continue to do so throughout the year.
Region II set up an info pack of the names and email addresses of regional leadership to give to new members. Region III may want to consider the same to give to new or prospective members?

Communications

As you may have noticed, the website was not down in November or December for upgrades. Instead, a proposal has been made to redesign the NYSFAAA website. Key issues of website redesign include: better navigation, make the site the primary communication tool for NYSFAAA services, provide links and information for people to make donations to NYSFAAA, create a visually appealing design that meets our needs, have a homepage design that is dynamic and has space for changing content, have an “Events” area that lists chronological order of monthly events, ability to produce audio/video podcasts, host live webinars and webcasts, and a blog.
Council felt that some of the upgrades are urgently needed and can’t be postponed until a new site design goes live.

Early Awareness

Laura Burns from Wells College accepted co-chair due to Anne Barton moving to the Development Committee.
NYS Gear Up calendars were mailed in January.

High School Outreach

The high school counselor workshops were held in the fall. Region 3 raised the issue of requesting some of the funds collected by the Attorney General to fund future counselor training workshops.

Development

Anne Barton is the newly appointed chair (replacing Katrina Delgrosso). She is working with Tom Dalton to determine outstanding accounts that need to be paid.
The Next Generation Committee will be recommending two additional members to be added to the Development Committee.
Anne sent a state-wide email out before the end of the year reminding members that donations are tax-deductable

College Goal Sunday 2008 Update

Heather McDonnell sent another request for volunteers to the Listserv in January.
LaSonya Griggs is the Region 3 site coordinator
It be held Sunday, February 10, 2008, 1:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Fowler High School in Syracuse. Volunteers are needed between the hours of 12:00 pm. and 4:30 p.m.

Governance

The Constitutional Amendment passed.
Discussion of Associate Member as part of council with voting rights was discussed. Curt Gaume will take the issue back to the Governance Committee. Reminder that all members, active and associate, are welcomed to attend Council Meetings.
This spring elections will be held for state officers of the association for the next two years. Each Region must provide Curt Gaume with the name of a regional representative to serve on the elections committee.

Government Relations

Christine Sears and Jim Vallee have been monitoring state and federal legislation and have been posting updates on the Listserv.
Legislative Forum is set for the first week in March. Jim and Christine will develop “talking points” that will be used to bring consistency to the meetings with various legislators. Jim and Christine will organize and present the Legislative Training Workshop for legislators and their aides a week prior to the Forum.

Scholarship

Donations in 2007 were around $7800. Income from the tee-shirts and paperweights at the conference were $1,010, but the cost of purchasing the shirts was $965.

Next Generation

There is no age limit to volunteer for this committee (NGC).
NGC is meeting with other committees to inject new blood and new ideas.
After the annual conference, an email was sent out to NGC members asking to confirm if they would continue to serve on the committee, what project they would like to work on (website, technology, mentoring, intermediate training).

President’s Report

The presence of the AG at regional meetings was discussed. Heather sent an email to the Listserv. A brief quote from that email: Many of us have been subjected to the inflammatory language used by the Attorney General and his staff. Once again let me emphasize that the rhetoric is all about getting media attention. It has nothing to do with helping students and their families navigate the financial aid process. It has nothing to do with answering important questions about financing a college education. Please keep this in mind every time you are faced with this linguistic assault. I ask that you continue to rise above the media and demonstrate our highest standards of professionalism whenever this issue is raised. I have yet to meet or hear about a student or family express concern over our behavior.
SLATE Summit: Since the conference, NYSFAA has provided a SLATE compilation of answers to Joe Frey’s questions. That compilation was given to Mr. Frey on 12/3/07. Heather offered the services of the SLATE summit group should he want another face-to-face meeting. A first draft report is expected in early March 2008.

Other

Jenn Dwire reported on the “Market Place” initiative.
The idea of a “Regional Chair” Listserv was discussed to help come up with training topics and to share ideas.
Discussion on “Event Management” on the web. There are costs involved. A standard template may be created.
A motion passed to allow credit card payments only be utilized for donations, membership, conference, and novice.
The Graduate Concerns Committee still exists as a sub-committee of Membership.
A focus group will investigate “Certificate of Education” units that might be available through Onondaga Community College for financial aid training.
The membership brochure will be revised. Recommendations can be given to Gina who will pass them onto Angela VanDekker by January 30^th.