Report on Executive Council Meeting         January 29 – 31, 2006

Holiday Inn, Albany, NY

 

Region 1 Councilperson - Rachel Barker has moved to the lender side.  Executive Council welcomed Janet McGrath as the new representative.

 

Treasurer:

Credit card system ready to go. Novice will be the first workshop to accept cards.

Revenue checks have been held up for some regions because the Treasurer has not received the regions’ quarterly reports.

 

NYSFAAA Membership is a record high of 1304.

Region 6 membership is 434.  The largest membership in the state!!!

Region VI has 38 people who signed up for membership and have unpaid membership invoices.

An email reminder will be sent.

New Membership policy adopted:

An applicant whose employer is not on the approved list will provide a written request for approval, explaining “how the employer’s values and actions are consistent with those of NYSFAAA.

Approved List: Membership is limited to individuals employed at post-secondary educational institutions, retirees from those institutions, or employees of other entities approved by the Council.

The Council approved all current member lenders, agencies and servicers.  All primary and secondary schools are also automatically approved.

Members must notify the membership Vice President of job changes.

 

Tax Workshops

Tax workshops are scheduled for Buffalo, Albany, and NYC and reservations will be taken via the NYSFAAA Website.

 

Immediate Workshops are being planned:.

Regions 1, 2 and 3 are hosting an intermediate workshop at SUNY Brockport in March.

The workshop for Region 6 & 7 will be held on May 12th.

Region 5 March 31.

 

President’s Report:

Committee for College Goal Sunday is underway. Wayne Harewood will be the State Chair for this committee. The committee will work in conjunction with HESC’s Ken Storms to carry out the approved ‘exploratory’ grant. For the time being this activity will probably be part of CAAN.

The provisions of the Governor’s budget were reviewed and the President drafted a NYSFAAA position paper which will be posted on the NYSFAAA website.

NYSFAAA will be working with a consultant who will be identifying hotels that can accommodate NYSFAAA Conferences.  A Committee of Past Conference’s Facilities Chairs was created to develop minimum hotel specifications for future conferences. [ed. the members Bruce Woolley (chair),

Scott Atkinson, Linda Bridgewater, Janet Gray, and Lisa Simpson have already developed the specifications.]

Updated Statewide Committee Chairs:

Kathy Flaherty from Oswego is the new chair of the Awards Committee.

Earl Tretheway has resigned as Communications Chair.

Katrina DelGrosso is the new Development Committee Chair

 

Early Awareness Committee. Plan to reach out to Middle School Guidance Counselors providing informational packets and providing workshops. Exploring interest having a middle school counselor workshop at the same time as the high school workshops. Topics will address needs of both groups; i.e. 529 plans. Concurrent sessions could be specific to each group.

If this happened, regions will need more assistance to host an expanded event.

 

Novice Workshop is at SUNY Cobleskill from June 3 -9, 2006.

Registration will be limited to 120 attendees. Registration will open around April 1st.

Novice workshop will accept credit card payment

 

Conference 2006,” Mirroring Excellence” Lake Placid Nov. 6-9.  The primary hotel is the Crown Plaza.

There will be a panel of Presidents from the various sectors.  We will ask our regions for topics they might want addressed by this panel.

Conference 2006 program and budget was reviewed. Conference fee will be $250 with $50 late registration fee. A new late payment fee of $50 has been instituted.  See web for more information.

 

Conference 2007

(Sheraton Hotel New York City  Oct 14-17, 2007)

Bill Mack (CUNY) and Christine Falzarano (Pace Downtown) are the program chairs. Session time will be lengthened; at least one hour long. Sunday will be the pre-conference day. The official conference will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday morning and end on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Graduate and Professional Concerns

One half day symposium will be offered at the 2006 conference. A request that there be consideration to a health professions subcommittee was made.

 

Elections Committee

Need nominations for statewide officers (except President-Elect). Consider running or nominating a colleague for statewide office, i.e.,

Vice President for Membership,

Vice President for Professional Development,

Secretary

Treasurer

 

New fundraising/development policy adopted.

Fundraising is limited to NYSFAAA at the state level. Donations and/or support will be solicited and collected at the state level and processed through the NYSFAAA treasury.  This will allow the officers, and especially the Treasurer to ensure all fundraising is appropriate to the purposes of NYSFAAA in keeping with its tax exempt status, and allow for appropriate accounting procedures.

 

Regional chairs need to develop budget plan for the 2006-2007. This needs to be submitted to the Treasurer.

 

HESC update:

q      HESC “Loan Consolidation Center” is available with information about all aspects of consolidation, pros and cons.  www.HESC.org  then College Administrators and Lenders, then Transaction Support. http://www.hesc.com/bulletin.nsf/0/406087DFEF20B29D852570B9005F888F?OpenDocument&a=SL

q      “Military Corner” on the website for assistance to those on active duty and veterans. “Applying for Aid”, click on TAP, Scholarships, Grants…, then Military Corner.

q      Training Grants have again been awarded.

q      HESC pin number used for TOTW will also be used for ESignature for Stafford and Plus loans.

 

By Angela Van Dekker 2/24/06