NYSFAAA EXEC COUNCIL MEETING-DECEMBER 14-15, 2006

NEWBURGH, NY

Region2 Representative, Andrea Mason replaced Steven Dodds who resigned.-

Training Session: was held on Parliamentary Procedure making motions; follow-up, etc.

Statement by President- Dave Canaski:

Workload concerns: continue to streamline, be more efficient with volunteer’s time.

Leadership philosophy: review documents- do they meet the way we now do business; management versus governance (i.e. committees, but keep ex-officio in the loop.)

Executive Council Budget/Procedures: committee chairs responsible for their budget; President & Treasurer oversee, review and make suggestions for executive council items as ‘where do things go’; in response to attack on our industry, procedures will assist us in addressing the ‘political scrutiny’.

President’s Report: Dave Canaski

Conference 2007- budget presentation at Feb meeting.
Federal Default Initiative-efforts co-coordinated by President & Past President focus on retention.
SUNYFAP- opportunity for joint training; working with Warren Hoffman and Mark Schwartz.
**Future meeting sites discussed- cost versus mission/purpose/image. Will have meetings downstate despite higher cost.
EASFAA Conf- executive council meeting if needed at the Niagara Falls conference.

Governance Committee- Judi Miladin

Met twice. Mission statement must be in place first, then preliminary work on Long Range Plan (LRP), and then Constitution’s By-Laws to be in-line with LRP.
Mission statement pulled from our June meeting.
Bring to Regions for discussion with possible adoption at Feb meeting.

NYSFAAA is a charitable, volunteer professional association that promotes access to post secondary education for all students and conducts professional development and networking opportunities for its members and colleagues in related educational professions.

Government Relations- Jim Vallee/ Christine Sears

Coordinating our participation with the Legislative Forum, Feb 5/6, 2007 in Albany.
Coordinating the Legislative Training Workshop- late January or early February.
Plans to coordinate a NYSFAAA visit to Washington D.C

Treasurer’s Report- Marilyn Faller reviewed Internet Banking Bill pay via internet versus checks.

Development Committee- Katrina Delgrosso

Comparing 2005/06 to 2006/07 income stream, some vendors reducing contributions. Sponsors making choices where to spend funds- less on conference, more on annual sponsorship.
Sponsors listed in 2 locations on website- Schools & Lenders and Member Services
Instructions to regions to advertise the appropriate vendors and via the NYSFAAA listserv.

Finance and Budget- Dave, Marilyn and Brenda Wright will meet in late January to discuss how to assist the Treasurer with some of her duties.

Professional Ethnics and Standards Committee- Doug Schaeffer

1^st meeting 11/30 in Syracuse. Committee members in attendance: Jim Vallee, Dawn Langdon, Elaine Hughes, Jim Cirillo, Brian Levy, Mark Humbert and Doug Schaeffer. Dave Canaski and 2006 Conference Chair, Beth Turner, also attended.
Focused on developing recommendations for: Finance & Budget Committee on re-structuring the budget in the context of ethics & public image.
"State of current affairs"

strong accusations in the media regarding improprieties
Democrats in control, promising increased oversight (Kennedy’s proposed Sunshine Act).

Determined that steps should be taken to realign the financial structures of NYSFAAA as an organization, and the annual conference. The proposed realignment would better reflect the mission and purpose of NYSFAAA. Recommendations for review at December council meeting.
Council discussion: mentioned by H. McDonnell and A. Van Dekker- balance on committee needed based on feedback from regions. Doug is aware and is striving to re-enforce a balance. Will also advertise ‘open forum’. See votes on page 6 - end of notes.
MRU impacts the ‘appearance of colleges’-names of colleges are quoted in ads, publications, etc. Comment: FAO could provide ‘documentation’, i.e. how you prepare preferred lenders list.

Membership numbers: paid members 1236 YTD. Provided 10 year table for reference with breakdown of member classifications and unpaid invoice list. Advised the regions that they will need to host member-only training events in January and February in order to boost their numbers. These events need to be run through Events Management so Joan can send invoices and follow up on payments due.

Awards Committee – Kathy Flaherty ( report read by Dave)

Although frequent messages were sent to the NYSFAAA list(s) about nominations for the awards, and forms have been available electronically for several years, the applicant pool was small.
Need ways to encourage nominations .The committee may be taking a more active role in nominating regional members for awards.
Council suggestions – Council Reps should be pro-active on nominations; can some type of form/profile be placed on website for members to complete? Refer to Membership Committee.

Professional Development Committee

Jim Briggs week confirmed (as reported in Sept minutes)
EASFAA training in the Fall. NYSFAAA will not participate in Spring EASFAA training.

Communications/ Website Committee:

Webletter: Laura Worley (reported by Nancy)

**Requests if each region can designate a representative that would forward regional information or articles from that region for the web letter. This would assist her with contacts in each region and hopefully provide a flow of information to her for each publication.

Communications: Ideta Daniels (reported by Nancy)

Working with The Legislative Gazette for NYSFAAA’s Special Report to be published in the February 5^th issue. Some tentative topics: The future of Higher Education for low-income students, With the new Congress what will be the effect on Higher Education, 2006 Scholarship Winners, Highlights from Annual Conference, Loan Consolidation While Enrolled in School – It Could Still Happen, Thank you to the Legislators for STEP Increase, HERA NegReg Areas of Interest for the Graduate and Professional Community.

Questions for council

1: Council agreed with the suggestion that they pursue an online survey to the membership using tool such as “SurveyMonkey” http://www.surveymonkey.com/ to solicit feedback on how they use the website and ideas for improvement.

2: Could each of the Regional chairs secure officer pictures that are missing on the website?

High School Outreach: Karen Taylor & Linda Bridgewater

Investigating the development of two databases to be added to the NYSFAAA website. One would be a list of Financial Aid Nights to be held across the state
The second database would be an interactive listing of all school counselors in the state. School counselors would log into the NYSFAAA website and update or add information. Enables School Counselor Workshop sub-committee to get information out to the high schools much earlier.
Linda working with Ken Storms and Wayne Harewood on College Goal Sunday.
CAAN -They have decided not to change anything until after the activities for the current year. Joint letter put out by NYSFAAA and HESC (the CAAN letter) updated and available in January. Updated Financial Aid Fact Sheet which will be included with the CAAN letter mailing along with the Student Financial Aid Wall Chart and the newly published‘ brochure “What You Need to Know About: Using College Planning Services and Consultants” is being published.

College Goal Sunday- Ken Storm’s report read by Nancy

Grant application completed and submitted over the summer; the 3-year/$150,000 grant was approved by the Lumina Foundation, and the first-year funding of $65,000 has been received by the NYSFAAA Treasurer.

13 sites have been identified, and NYSFAAA Site Coordinators are completing logistical details and organizing volunteers. Estimate 20-25 volunteers needed for each site. Encourage your Region to participate. Wayne sent Executive Council members a Regional list of Site Coordinators so you can direct volunteers to them.

The NY CGS Web site is starting up and will be an important resource for students, families, and volunteers. We hope to develop this as a management tool for the state-wide program.

Individual student mailings have begun, announcing the CGS events to targeted, local populations. Further marketing to the target groups will include communications from the school counselors, community organizations, and additional personal mailings.

The State Task Force& Site Coordinators met on 12/11 to continue planning & preparation.

Early Awareness: Cathy Patella & Anne Barton (report read by Nancy)

Conference call with N. Teodecki on 11/ 20 to review current project status, committee structure, and future projects. Planning conference call will be in late Dec.
Positive feedback received from Regions 1 & 3 on the Middle School brochures. Region1 mailed to over 70 middle schools, and requests for additional brochures have been received. Nancy sent a special ‘thank you’ message to be read at their Dec12th meeting for their support over the past few years.
Region3 distributed brochures at the counselor workshop and will continue to mail to schools that did not attend. Although the number of middle schools attendance was low, many high schools work with the middle schools, so those counselors took the brochures on their behalf.

Subcommittee: Gear-up- Cathy Patella

By the end of December 12,500 packets will be delivered to NY GEAR UP students. The three-hole pencil pouch includes the Early Awareness Middle School brochure & a mood pencil that changes from green to yellow. Samples provided to council if the representatives would like to share with their respective region. Cathy also thanks the many regional members who assisted in the “stuffing of pouches and mailing preparation”.

Regional Reports: Due to time constraints at meeting, regional reports were forwarded to the Secretary for inclusion in the minutes:

Region 1- Janet McGrath

Kevin Ryan and Brent McEnroe were mentioned for their significant contributions and informed the regions that we will be discussing Kids to College Program by Sallie Mae at the next Executive Council meeting.
High School Counselor’s Workshop was held November 16, 2006 at the Classics V. A request was put out for volunteers for College Goal Sunday.

Region 2- Andrea Mason

Membership Committee is starting a new mentoring group involve new members.
A new Training committee has been created to make the Regional meeting more informative and worthwhile.

Region 3 – Sharon Karwowski

12/6 business meeting in Skaneateles discussed the Statement of Principles and provided a training session on Diversity. I shared the emails I had received from Bill Cheetham, John View, and Irv Bodofsky. Dave Canaski expressed the need to obtain membership feedback. We reviewed the new budgeting process for funding Regional level and revenue sharing increase per member. We will continue to submit annual budgets for what our regional activities will be. Bill was very concerned about the $2,500 minimum regions would have. He seemed to feel that the Executive level of NYSFAAA was trying to micro-manage regional business.

Guidance Counselor Workshops 50 attendees. John View has spoken to schools in the Binghamton Area to encourage their help at next year's workshop.
Syracuse site had 160 attendees and was held at the NYS Fairgrounds.
Support Staff Workshop held Oct 24th in Fayetteville. 55 attendees. There was no registration fee. No NYSFAAA state sponsorship was requested. The cost to the region was $2,499.38.
January meeting will discuss proposed changes to both the Statement of Principles and the budgets.

Region 4- no written report received

Region 5- Heather McDonnell

· Only activity was 2 guidance counselor workshops that are reported by the GC.

Region 6- Angela Van Dekker

53 members attended 9/28 meeting at Barnard College. . In addition to general updates, there was a presentation on ACG and Smart Grants by Sandy Santana and Angela Van Dekker.
Several important discussions took place: Discussion on need for volunteers, increasing membership attendance at meetings and participation in general. Outreach to increase participation of CUNY members. Members not receiving emails -List serve and regional mailings. Requested that an email reminder be sent to members to make sure they understood that they needed to check the regional list serve in order to receive regional news.
Both the current and original NYSFAAA Statement of Principles, as well as, the Proposed Statement of Principles were distributed and discussed. Many members were upset with the tone of the proposed document. A significant and heated discussion followed. A summary of the comments and those from a follow-up email to the region were forwarded to the governance committee It will be discussing the principles further.
High School Guidance Counselor Workshop November 16th at Fordham University – Lincoln Center. 143 counselors attended the workshop.
Training Survey was sent to all region VI members. At this time 48 members have responded.
December meeting and holiday reception held on 12/13 after the HESC training. Approximately 89 registered. Registrations had to be closed because of capacity issues. At the meeting, a series of updates were made. Members brought up the statement of principles from the last meeting, as well as feedback from other regions. Strong feelings have been expressed. A very brief summary of the first ethics committee meeting sparked a discussion and concerns were voiced. The region feels that it is important that meetings be held at least close to the city. They want to have a stronger voice. They have requested that regional representation and voting be more closely linked to the number of members in the region. Members will continue to explore their options.
Tri-Regional planning has begun. We have volunteers from each region and have contacted the members for potential sites for the following: May 3, 4, 10, 11.

Region 7- Sheryl Mihopolus

Meeting 10/13: a discussion of how we balance the needs of staff, students and their families, and our Colleagues within the Aid Office itself. We discussed the following: Office set-up, physical layout - what's good, what's not so good, what we'd like to see in an ideal world. Work assignment and structure - providing customer service balanced with getting the volume of work done. How incoming calls are handled. How job assignments are made - who handles the "counter" - appointments vs. walk-ins. How we manage staff to keep on task.
The EASFAA Verification training was conducted by Clint Hanson and was held on October 27 in Farmingdale. We had 60 attendees; total of 65 were registered, but we had 5 no shows.
Meeting 12/8- roundtable discussion: 2006-07 changes and additions to the federal programs, need analysis formulae and packaging/administrative changes. Legislative Update about lending issues NYSFAAA proposal about ethical principles. Looking ahead at 07/08.
The January 12 meeting (Adelphi University), featuring a professor from the Adelphi School of Social Work, will focus on government benefits. One of the laws governing federal financial aid changed this year, and expands certain eligibility criteria for applicants who have already met a "means test." (Includes supplemental security income, food stamp program, free and reduced price lunch program, TANF, and the WIC program for women and children.). The focus will be on: What kinds of people are eligible, what the benefits provide, where people go for assistance, how long the benefits last, and general questions of that nature.

Region 8- Kerry Lubold

Conference 2006: The final report to Executive Council will be available for the February meeting. Conference evaluations were very positive overall. We expect to have a positive financial gain from conference revenue.
The region was polled for interest in having a bus available for transport to NYC for conference 2007. Bus was not desired. Jefferson Community College expressed interest in a bus, but only if it was leaving from the Watertown or Syracuse area.
Policy & Procedures Manual: The region was polled on suggestions for changes/updates to NYSFAAA’s policies & procedures manual. A few region members responded:no suggestions.
School Counselor Workshops November, 2 sites 74 attendees. very well received and interactive.
December Holiday Meeting was held on December 8^th at the Lake Placid Resort, dinner followed at the Mirror Lake Inn. A raffle was held to raise funds to be donated to the Crary Foundation.
Future Training: The region will be polled for future training workshop topics.

HESC LIASION REPORT – Patti Ronan Thompson and Brian Matthews

· New TAP reporting requirements- new state law requires an annual report to governor & legislature by February 2007. Report will include the number of students: receiving TAP in each term, granted waivers by their institution, decertified for not meeting good academic standards; also will include credits earned by recipients. HESC will need to collect data from schools for credits earned. School will receive file during the week of 12/18 of their undergrads certified for each term of the prior year.

· Recent web cast had technical difficulties so reverted to conference call which was successful.

· Jeremy Weiss hired to work on TAP manual. Jeremy will invite members to participant in a focus group in early 2007 for input on manual. Dave sent out to list.

· Governor- elect E. Spitzer has met with the HESC Budget Representatives

· A presentation was made to Judi Miladin by Brian Matthews on behalf of HESC for her years of service to the corporation during her presidency.

ITEM: Kids to College

MOTION: to refer to the Early Awareness Committee for review & recommendations as to our level of involvement. McDonnell/Karwowski. MOTION approved unanimously.

ITEM: Recommendations of Ethics/Standards Committee:

Committee’s Goal: make recommendations that would allow for transparency in the relationship that is shared between NYSFAAA and member partners in the industry with regard to how funds are generated allocated and ultimately spent.

1- Finance and Budget Committee Recommendations:

MOTION: To Accept Recommendations of the Ethnics Committee with regards to the Finance and Budget Committee. Faller/Wright.

Discussion: Does it fit our needs financially? Report classified revenue into 2 categories, operating & donated, and committee functions as administrative or missions driven.

TABLE MOTION : To refer these recommendations to Finance Committee to review.

McDonnell/Van Dekker.

TABLE MOTION unanimously approved. Note to Regions- if there is a member in your region to assist on finance committee, contact Brenda Wright .

2- Conference Committee Recommendations:

Discussion on items, in particular bullet #5 (NYSFAAA acting as intermediary in purchase of gifts, drink vouchers, etc). Recommendations may be too prescriptive versus global and questions on how to police.

Refer these items to Conference 2007 for discussion and possible implementation for 2007, or future conference committees.

ITEM: Redesign of Budget to Align with New Committee Structure/Committee Recommendations:

MOTION: $2500 budget to Ethnics Committee (currently no budget had been

designated) Faller/Wright . MOTION unanimously approved.

ITEM: Statement of Principles/Mission Statement/Values Statement

MOTION: To charge the Governance Committee to develop a mission statement and statement of principles; to proceed with the development of a new long range plan; and to subsequently review of all of our governing documents to ensure congruence with our mission. Miladin/Karwowski

Discussion: committee consists of all past presidents. Suggestion for younger member participants. Committee had already discussed this idea; take to regions for further discussion.

VOTE on MOTION - 6 aye, 4 opposed, 1 abstained. MOTION APPROVED

ITEM: Creation of Diversity Committee- Reconsideration of Council Action at Sept meeting H. McDonnell stated that she voted on a motion, and later upon review of the motion in the minutes, realized she cast her voted incorrectly.

MOTION: to reconsider our September motion. “That Diversity Committee be reconstituted and added to the responsibilities of the 1^st Vice President”. McDonnell/ Faller VOTE ON MOTION to reconsider the Sept motion: 6 Aye, 5 Opposed. MOTION DEFEATED – creation of diversity committee stand.

Conference 2007: Jim Murphy - Program sessions will be designated into categories to assist participants with selections. Possible speaker Governor-elect E. Spitzer. Discussion will occur at their January meeting on possible increase of Registration and Booth fees.