IASFAA Business Meeting Minutes November 7, 2014
IASFAA Business Meeting Minutes
November 7, 2014
Meeting called to order by President Julie Haack at 8:10 am
Motion to approve minutes:
· April 11 Spring Business Meeting
· April 11 Special Committee Executive Council
· June 26 Summer Retreat Executive Council
· August 28 Executive Council Teleconference
· October 23 Executive Council Teleconference
· November 4 Executive Council
Tristan Lynn motioned to approve, Aaron Steffens seconded. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report –Tristan gave report for Bethany
- Profit/Loss-Attached at end
- $24,494.74 in income as of 11/4/2014. $350 of this is due to the collection of Spring 2014 and Drive-In Director’s workshop late payments in the month of July.
- $4,947.59 in expenses as of 11/4/2014.
- Given our expenses and income to date, we currently have a net income of $19,922.15.
2. Balance Sheet-Attached at end
- We currently have $102,514.24 in our money market checking account.
- We have 3 CD’s worth $44,876.83. We recently had one CD mature, so the funds from that were moved to the money market account. We will be reinvesting $15,000 in another CD soon. The Finance Committee has been working with Jason Henderson at Morgan Stanley to review options.
- Total Assets = $147,391.07.
Motion to approve-Tristan Lynn motioned to approve, Julie Dunn seconded. Motion carried.
Past President – Jen Sassman
1) In September the Finance Committee met to review and approve 2014-15 committee budgets.
2) The Finance Committee met in October to discuss investment options.
3) I attended the MASFAA’s Fall Conference October 11-15thas my last responsibility as Iowa’s state representative.
4) The NASFAA Training arrangements have been made as a pre-conference event. I sent a registration reminder through the listserv a few weeks ago. Julie Dunne sent a reminder for people to print the materials from the website. I followed up with an email to the listserv with the addendum attached because it was not included with the original participant handout. Thank you to electronic services for being so accommodating getting things on the website.
5) Just a reminder that if anyone needs help or just a sounding board with their committee work, please let me know. I would be happy to help where I can.
President – Julie Haack
In June, we held the Executive Council Retreat on the St. Ambrose Campus as our first official meeting as the 14-15 Council. We talked about the upcoming year’s plans and business and brainstormed on ideas for MASFAA. We also discussed budgets and upcoming events.
Also in June, Kristi Fuller, President-Elect and Tristan Lynn, Vice President attended the MASFAA Leadership Symposium. Both had a positive experience and Kristy said it was a nice follow-up to the NASFAA Leadership Conference held in Washington DC each March. (This event is paid for by IASFAA for the newly elected President-Elect, they will be offered the opportunity to attend again next spring.) MASFAA covers the registration costs for two individuals and IASFAA will pay for travel and lodging. If you are interested in going next June, please contact me.
In July I attended NASFAA in Nashville as the Iowa state representative. Again, we were informed of all the resources that are available to us as a state association and we are again using those resources by having a NASFAA representative and trainer at our conference and utilizing the NASFAA training materials covering Needs Analysis that was offered pre-conference on Wednesday. We are looking into offering NASFAA workshops in the future that would qualify our members to sit for the NASFAA credentials in various approved topics. Those that participate receive a voucher to cover the cost of the credentialing test. If there is a topic that NASFAA offers that members would like to see offered, please contact me or the Program chair, Julie Dunn.
I traveled to West Virginia for the MASFAA Conference in October. We held an “Iowa Dinner” on Monday evening of the conference with about 17 people attending. We were also there to support our own Aaron Steffens as he was passed the gavel as the 14-15 President. He was surprised by two special people who came to show their support, Lois Mulbrook and Barb Hoffman! They drove 10 hours to surprise him and to show his appreciation, he drove them home! What a nice guy!
Heather Gaumer was awarded the State Leadership Award and as always, we thank Heather for all she does for IASFAA and she will now be representing us as part of MASFAA as Treasurer-Elect, along with Amy Gaffney as Vice President and Gisella Baker as she chairs Local Arrangements for our conference in Coralville next October. Darla Palmer also served on long range planning committee and they received a Committee of the Year award.
We will also have a MASFAA state exchange participant at our spring conference in Johnston. Val Meyers, Associate Director from Michigan State, will be attending and possibly presenting a session.
I want to thank the Program and Site committees for all of their hard work making this conference possible, and for everyone who has chaired, served, or volunteered on a committee or worked an event. No effort is too small to recognize.
President Elect – Kristi Fuller
In June, I attended the MASFAA Leadership Symposium in Columbus, Ohio where I met lots of MASFAA colleagues from the other 8 states and was also able to network with the MASFAA Exec Council. On July 24, I participated in the closing of the IASFAA books at Mt. Mercy in Cedar Rapids. I have also participated in some Finance Committee Conference calls. Due to a late change in the chair position of Professional Development, I have been helping Brian get that committee’s conference duties started and accomplished. In January 2015 I will be traveling to Indianapolis, IN to attend the Indiana State Conference as part of the MASFAA State Exchange. In December, I hope to have the IASFAA elections take place. I am currently waiting for an answer from a couple of people and then will hopefully have a full ballot.
Vice President – Tristan Lynn
1. Setting up conference calls for various committees.
a. Had a minor issue with the call in line, looking into an alternative for future years.
2. Reconciliation completed for July, August, and September.
Secretary – Mindi Bucklin
Please send me your reports if you haven’t already and let me know if you need anything.
Delegates – Todd Brown, Pam Perry, Carolyn Schwendeman
The Delegates are in the process of reviewing and updating the Fact Book
The Delegates are also in the process of updating the P&P manual.
Commission Report- Todd Brown
Reported during the General Session at conference. Here are the highlights:
• GEAR UP Scholarship
• Students matched to FAFSA: 3,220
• Paid fall 2014: 2,332
• 2nd GEAR UP Grant
• Thank you to colleges – in-kind support
• 7th year funding
• Once the districts have been oriented, will be reaching out to college partners (spring, 2015)
• College Access Challenge Grant
• Did not qualify last 2 years due to MOE requirements; qualified this year
• Exploring text messaging services to specific student audiences
• Plan to pilot a financial aid program
• Within the bounds of CACG regulations
• Survey
• Teach Iowa Scholar
• Graduate in the top 25% academically from postsecondary teacher preparation programs during a corresponding academic year;
• Secure full-time employment in an eligible teaching field (designated annually by the Department) in an Iowa school district, charter school, area education agency, or accredited nonpublic school that is recognized and approved by the Department.
• Application live October 28. Deadline November 26.
• College Application Campaign
• Fall, 2012 (pilot): 15 high schools
• Fall, 2013: 33 high schools
• Fall, 2014: 61 high schools
• FAFSA Completion Initiative
• Assists high school administrators in determining which students have not completed a FAFSA
• Encourage districts to implement targeted outreach and counseling for seniors with no FAFSA or an incomplete FAFSA
• Iowa Pilot
• Due to timing, released in May, 2014
• GEAR UP Iowa high schools
• 8 signed agreements, 4 submitted files of seniors
• 10 districts signed up for spring 2015 (more to come)
Awards Committee –Mary Jo Smith/Brittany Peterson
We presented 4 Retirement Awards and we honored many members for their years of service to the financial Aid profession with lifetime memberships.
Student Success Story award-did not receive any nominations for this award. Committee is going to change the timing of this to award to Spring instead of fall.
By-Laws Committee – Delegates
If the membership votes to change the by-laws at this conference, then the Delegates will be working on getting the by-laws updated.
Community Outreach Committee –Lisa Croat/Gary Adams
The Real Life Zone was held on October 22nd at West Central Valley Middle School in Redfield. We had over 15 volunteers and met with approximately 70 eighth graders. The students learned about budgeting, tracking their spending, and making difficult financial choices. The event was a big success, and couldn’t have been done without our volunteers!
This spring we will be working with the governor’s office to have February declared as financial aid awareness month. We hope to schedule it on the same day as the Director’s Drive-In Workshop, so we can get a good turnout for the signing of the proclamation.
Exhibitor Relations –Kathie Aswegan/Michele Dunne
There are 9 exhibitors at the conference. Thanks to all of those who have participated.
Electronic Services Committee – Chris Ditter/Mary Jacobsen
Mary and Chris act as a tag team and share the tasks and duties of the committee. They act as the liaison between IASFAA members and ATAC. Some of the things we have worked on since the spring conference include membership registration, updating executive council, registration for fall conference and exhibitors, posting of handouts for the conference and any other requests from members. If you have issues, concerns or suggestions for the web site, please contact Mary and Chris.
Federal and State Issues Committee –Brandi Stone-Miller/Sarah Harrington
Demonstrated the new website information that has all of the state/federal legislative contact information. IASFAA by the numbers is going to be updated as well.
Finance Committee – Julie Haack
The Finance Committee met on August 15th to approve budgets for the Special Committees which are:
Professional Development
Federal and State Issues
Awards
Exhibitor Relations
Community Outreach
Thank you to committee chairs/co-chairs who supplied their requests. Budgets were approved and added to QuickBooks. Committee chairs have access and are encouraged to see where they stand periodically during the year. If anyone needs guidance on accessing QuickBooks they can contact myself or Bethany Rinderknecht.
To help clarify expenses in Associate Representation, we created a new sub account for MASFAA Leadership . We also approved creating a new line item for Hospitality under the Program account. This expense has been randomly placed in the past but is a recurring expense due to offering the hospitality suite at conferences where all members are welcome.
We had a CD in the amount of $15,000 mature in September and it needed to be re-invested according to our Investment Policy. The finance committee met on a conference call on October 2nd and compared the offerings available to us at that time. We decided as a committee to recommend to the Executive council reinvesting the funds in ALLERGAN, INC. Some time had lapsed since our last meeting and markets have fluctuated. We received an updated listing from Jason on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The original listing from September 30th showed ALLERGAN, INC. exceeding the rating required in our investment policy and providing a high yield of around 3.154%. Based on our last investment, this bond will perform similarly. With market changes, as of the morning of November 4th, 2014, the price of the bond dropped from $101.18 down to $97.788, pushing the yield to 3.799%. A rough calculation of earnings would be $236.00 semi-annually, or approximately $472 annually. That would equate to earnings around $1900 over four years. We again recommended ALLERGAN, INC. to the Executive Council as our investment choice. We voted as a group and the motion passed. Morgan Stanley was directed to invest our funds in ALLERGAN, INC.
The way bond funds work, at the maturity date, the company is expected to pay back the principal (face) value. Our representative from Morgan Stanley, Jason Henderson, has informed us that with any bond investments, there are varying risks, but overall these are good investments, and a little more aggressive than the CDs we have purchased in the past. This bond will mature on 9/15/2020, which stays in line with our investment policy.
Newsletter Committee –Amy Norton/Renee Armentrout
No Report
Professional Development Committee -Brian Eben
1. Jen Sassman has organized the NASFAA Training for the fall conference. She has worked with Steve Lovan and Tim Kremer as presenters. All NASFAA Training documents are available online. It was very successful.
2. The Fall Conference Scholarship was posted online in early October. We had four applications for the conference. The four recipients are: Nathan Davis, Kristin Look, Emily Anderson, Susan Brown.
3. We had 15 newcomers sign up for the conference. All have been assigned mentors.
4. The Director Drive In workshop has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday, February 5th. Tristian has volunteered to host at AIB.
Program Committee –Julie Dunn/Karen Snyder
Recognized all of program committees. Special thank you to Sheena for coming up with the Mystery Auction idea it was very successful. Conference evaluation will again be online, I will send a message early next week for completion. Spring Conference planning will begin after the first of the year. Committee welcomes topic ideas!
Site Coordinating Committee –Chad Olson/Joan Meyer
The Site Committee has been working with the Program Committee on the Fall Conference.
We have been looking at sites for Spring 2016 and beyond. Some discussion for potential sites in the future. All of the future known dates are listed out on the IASFAA site. Thanks to everyone who helps!
Approval of Officer and Committee Reports