Meeting Called to Order at 8:08 by President Jen Sassman

Fall 2013 Business Meeting
November 8, 2013

Meeting called to order at 8:08 by President Jen Sassman

Approve April business meeting minutes

• Motion – Bethany Rinderknecht motioned to approve the April business meeting minutes
• Second – Todd Brown seconded the motion
• Motion carries

Treasurer’s Report – Greg Geistkemper (supporting documents attached to end of minutes)

• Motion – Heather Gaumer made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report
• Second – Kristi Fuller seconded the motion
• Motion carries

Officer Reports

Past President – Heather Gaumer
I attended my last MASFAA Board Meeting as the Iowa Representative. It has been my pleasure to represent Iowa with MASFAA. As Past President I also serve on the IASFAA Finance Committee which has held two meetings and established committee budgets for 2013-2014.

President – Jen Sassman
A lot has happened since the Spring Conference 2013…I will keep it brief.

In April I attended Wisconsin’s Spring Conference as a part of the MASFAA State Exchange. The MASFAA State Exchange is where presidents from the nine states that make up MASFAA travel to another state’s conference. It was a great opportunity to hear some of their issues and learn how that state association operates.

In June the Executive Council met on Wartburg College’s campus for a planning retreat. The minutes are on the website if you are interested in the wide variety of topics that we discussed. I do want to mention today that at that retreat the Executive Council did vote to give three members lifetime memberships to the association; Don Duzik, Paula Mitchel and Debbie Scholz. Other than clarifying other IASFAA business, each of the committee chairs and co-chairs had an opportunity to together.

In July I attended the NASFAA Conference in Las Vegas as the IASFAA state representative. Various NASFAA resources available to the states were brought to our attention at the Regional and State Presidents Breakfast. We will take advantage of a few of those opportunities; 1) we plan to invite Craig Munier, the National Chair, to our Spring Conference, 2) we will encourage our 2014-15 president elect to attend the NASFAA Leadership conference next spring, 3) we used their NASFAA Training materials during our pre-conference, 4) we plan to look into an investment opportunity where IASFAA could invest in a sub-account of NASFAAs investments. Thank you to Gary Adams for the site committee for planning an “Iowa Dinner”.

Also this summer and early fall, a few members of the Executive Council had to resign their positions on the council due to career changes that took them out of financial aid industry. Therefore, I nominated and the Executive Council voted in favor of Kristi Fuller to fill the Delegate vacancy. Also Carolyn Schwendeman was appointed Newsletter Chair and Mary Jo Smith was appointed at Awards Co-chair. I would like to thank those three individuals for their continued commitment and service to IASFAA.

In August I attended the MASFAA planning retreat in Appleton, WI. That was a great opportunity to meet the state presidents and see how our regional association operates.

I traveled to Indianapolis for the MASFAA Conference in October. We held an “Iowa Dinner” on Monday evening of the conference. Thank you to Gary Adams for making those arrangements and allowing us to help him celebrate his 50th birthday! The conference itself provided some great insight for us to consider as a state. For one, I need to look into whether or not Iowa requires non-profit 501(3)c entities to have an external audit. More to come on that. As was announced earlier in the conference, four IASFAA members received significant awards from MASFAA. I think it is worth mentioning here again:

Greg Geistkempter was the recipient of the Outstanding New Professional Award

Amy Gaffney was recognized with the State Leadership Award

Debbie Scholz won the Award of Appreciation

And Arnold Woods was granted the Alan Purdy Distinguished Service Award

Since MASFAA’s past-President will be attending our Spring Conference, these individuals will be officially recognized at that time.

As you are likely aware, the electronic vote to amend By-Law Article III, Section 5 took place via the listserv October 4-October 14. The issue was with regard to a lower membership fee for student members. Of the members who voted, 93.24% (69/74) were in favor of the amendment, while 6.76% (5/74) opposed the amendment. The motion passed so a student membership fee to join IASFAA is now half that of a regular member.

Lastly, I have been amazed at the work of the site and program committees to put a fabulous conference together for us. They were tasked with coordinating training for Business Officers and Student Employment professionals as our pre-conference and did a phenomenal job; not to mention extremely informative sessions and a fun filled night of visiting local colleges. Thank you for a job well done.

President Elect – Julie Haack
Since taking the position of President Elect, my main focus was recruiting co-chairs for committees who will then serve as chairs during my term as President in 14-15. I want to thank those members who have stepped up and volunteered their time this year already.

My co-chairs for 13-14 who will be chairs in 14-15 are:

Awards – Mary Jo Smith

Community Outreach – Lisa Croat

Exhibitor Relations – Kathie Aswegan

Federal and State Issues - Brandi Stone-Miller

Newsletter – Amy Norton

Professional Development – Marie Pleggenkuhle

Program – Julie Dunn

Site – Chad Olson

Prior to assuming the duties, I was privileged to be able to attend the NASFAA Leadership and Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. in March. I was able to meet an outstanding group of individuals from across the country to exchange ideas and learn from some of the best in NASFAA. The conference wrapped up with a trip to the Hill where I was able to communicate the needs and concerns of my students and students in the state of Iowa with staff from Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Dave Loebsack’s offices.

In October, I participated as a leader at our first gathering of the 13-14 Leadership Symposium. We have an awesome group and spent two and a half days learning about ourselves and others. And that’s all I can say about that!

My current objective is to select IASFAA members who will be willing to serve on the Executive Council in 14-15, which includes President –Elect, Vice President, Treasurer Elect, Secretary, and one Delegate position.

Vice President – Gisella Baker
Reconciliations of the books is underway. Going with allowing credit card payments online, has changed existing procedures for Treasurers and me so are working on revamping them.. I also facilitate telenets that any committee may need to schedule and could do anything that anybody would like me to help with.

Secretary – Sara Harrington
No report

Delegates – Todd Brown, Pam Perry, and Kristi Fuller
Two of the three delegates (Pam Perry and Todd Brown), along with the Treasurer-Elect (Bethany Rinderknecht), the Treasurer (Greg Geistkemper), and the President-Elect (Julie Haack), met on August 8 to conduct the review of the Treasurer’s books on behalf of the Association. There were no findings or inadequacies to report. A handful of recommendations were made to streamline future reviews. I have included our summary with this report for the Executive Council’s review.

The delegates reviewed and updated the IASFAA FACT Book, and requested it be posted to the IASFAA website.

The delegates are currently reviewing the IASFAA policy and procedure manual, and notating areas that may need to be updated.

ICSAC Report – Todd Brown
Report was provided for ICSAC update

Committee Reports

Awards – Elizabeth Minard and Mary Jo Smith
The Awards Committee was very busy and extremely excited to read the nominations for the fall conference! We had a total of 17 nominations for the four fall awards.

• John Heisner Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award, the recipient was Kristi Fuller, Drake University.
• Meritorious Service Award, the recipient was Chad Olson, Iowa State University.
• John C. Parker Distinguished Service Award, the recipient was Mary Jacobsen, ILINK.
• Student Success Story of the Year, the recipient was Aundrea Watkins, University of Iowa.

Thank you to those who submitted a nomination for the fall awards! Please take a minute to congratulate your colleagues who received an award this fall! Also, please start looking at the spring awards and start thinking about who you would like to nominate for a job well done. I would also like to take a quick moment to thank the Awards Committee. My Co-chair this year, Mary Jo Smith, Susan Ladd-Drake University, DeAnnKrutsinger- Waldorf College and Kacie Swanson- AIB College of Business. Thank you for your hard work this fall and I look forward to working together this year.

By-Laws – Delegates
The delegates made the changes to the student membership section of the IASFAA By-Laws subsequent to the vote on student membership fees. The updated By-Laws are available on the IASFAA website.

Community Outreach – Steve Loven and Lisa Croat
The IASFAA Real Life Zone was held on Thursday, October 17th at Ogden Middle School. Over 50 8th graders were able to go through in 3 different sessions. They really seemed to enjoy the experience, and it was very well received by the counselor and faculty that were present. Thank you to the 16 IASFAA volunteers that made it all happen.

There will be 3 webinars coming up later this fall: federal update presented by Tim Bakula from UNI, state update presented by ICSAC, and I will do a FAFSA on the web update.

Later in the year, I will be working with Julie Leeper to get the governor to declare February as financial aid awareness month. Then we will be presenting our annual Frieda aware at the spring conference.

Exhibitor Relations – Karen Snyder and Kathie Aswegan
We are grateful for the presence of eight exhibitors at this year’s fall conference. Thanks again to Discover Student Loans, Great Lakes, Inceptia, iLink, Iowa Student Loan, Nelnet, Sallie Mae, and Wells Fargo for their continued support of IASFAA by participating as an exhibitor.

These eight exhibitors plus AR Management and Iowa College Access Network (ICAN) took part in the Business Solution Sessions offered on Thursday morning. These sessions gave the conference attendees an opportunity to learn more about the products and services these organizations have to offer us and our students.

The Exhibitor Relations Committee invited twenty-five organizations to participate in the conference this fall adding six new companies to that invite list. If your institution works with a company that may be interested in exhibiting at future conferences, please contact Karen Snyder or Kathie Aswegan.

Electronic Services – Chris Ditter and Mary Jacobsen
We have worked with all the various committees to make updates to the website. Those updates include: scholarship application, conference handouts, conference registration, exhibitor registration, business solutions session, award nominations, membership application including the new Volunteer interest submission, Bylaws vote and update, updates for the new Exec Council, and the updated Fact Book.

Federal and State Issues – Tristan Lynn and Brandi Stone-Miller
waiting for report

Finance – Jen Sassman
The Finance Committee met twice via telenet in early fall. Once to to review budget proposals, and again to review committee income vs. expenses from the past and also to take a more detailed look at the fees associated with GoEmerchant, our credit card service provider.

The Finance Committee approved the submitted committee budgets. Budgets were updated in Quickbooks for each committee. It is our plan to have the Treasurer make contact with the committee chairs/co-chairs periodically throughout the year to keep them informed of their spending in relation to their approved budget. I want to thank the committees for making realistic budget requests.

The Finance Committee also discussed the maturity of our next CD which will occur in December. In mid-late November Greg, as Treasurer, will contact Jason Hendrickson, our representative at Morgan Stanley, to get some investment options for us to consider during our December Executive Council meeting.

I want to thank Heather Gaumer and Greg Geistkemper for the research they did to prepare us for our income vs. expenses meeting. IASFAA has always been very mindful to keep expenses down for our members, thus offering events at very low rates to self-sustain the event, but not make a profit. As expenses have increased primarily with food, mileage reimbursement and credit card fees we will need to thoughtfully consider event fees at a level that supports the event. A re-evaluation of the membership fee was also discussed.

On Tuesday of this week the Finance Committee presented information and proposed a membership fee increase to the Executive Council. After much deliberation, the Executive Council decided it was appropriate for this information to be shared with the membership for consideration. That information will be shared as new business during this meeting.

Newsletter – Carolyn Schwendemann and Amy Norton
The fall edition of the IASFAA Newsletter was published on October 4th. The committee would like to thank all who helped by submitting articles. We are planning to publish a winter edition of the newsletter sometime in January, so please be thinking about any articles you would like to send us.

Professional Development – Jennifer Schroeder and Marie Pleggenkule
Professional Development held the first meeting of Leadership Symposium October 15-17 at Camp Hantesa in Boone. The symposium has 9 participants this year. The group also participated in the Real Life Zone in conjunction with Community Outreach at Ogden Schools on October 17th.A big thank you to the Leadership Symposium faculty, Kristi Fuller, Julie Haack and Chad Olson for your hard work in putting the camp experience together. The group will meet again in January and again in April before the spring conference.

Program – Amy Gaffney and Julie Dunn
THANK you to the Program committee co-chair Julie Dunn, Loras. Thanks to all of those listed on page 4 of the program booklet. And a special thanks to Tara Kamin of Iowa Student Loan for preparing the program booklet!

1. Conference registrants = 126 full conference (little low, but hope we will be fine)

2. 10 business solution sessions, 2 of which are just doing the sessions, not exhibiting

4. 3.2 pre-conference workshops – NASFAA = 37; NSEA = 23?

5. Wed entertainment = 79

6. Evaluations for entire conference- - interest sessions and general sessions and over all conference, will be ONLINE. Message will be sent FRIDAY to registrants to ask they complete survey.

7. Fundraiser effort – scholarship is new. RESULTS =

7. Spring conference planning will begin in January 2014! Topic ideas are welcome—email to me or on survey.

Site Coordinating – Joan Meyer and Chad Olson
The Site Committee has been very busy the past couple of weeks communicating with the Grand Harbor Resort and Grand River Center about the upcoming conference. A flurry of emails sent this past week shoring up the final counts. Met with the staff there Tuesday before the conference kicked off to go over final work orders. Had a few late registrants so changed meal counts and room seating.Decided to move the vendors to the meeting hallway in hopes of more traffic for them. Once this conference is over we will start contact with Stoney Creek Inn in Johnston for our upcoming spring conference in April. Fall 2014 will be in Davenport at the Radisson. Spring 2015 back in Johnston and then Fall of 2015 we will be hosting MASFAA. Thanks to Gary, Chad, Kristi and Jennifer for all their hard "behind the scenes" work here in Dubuque!

Approval of Committee Reports

• Motion – Sara Harrington motioned to approve committee reports
• Second – Bethany Rinderknecht seconded the motion
• Motion carries

New Business – Membership Dues Increase Discussion
Finance Committee presentation by Heather Gaumer – Powerpoint attached to end of minutes
If after reviewing the information provided, please let Jen Sassman know if you have comments or questions.

Scholarship fundraiser drawing
For the Fall 2013 IASFAA conference, donations to fund a student scholarship were collected. Chad Peters’ name was drawn so funds will go to Mercy College of Health Sciences to be awarded to one of their students.

Meeting adjourned at 9:12

• Motion – Chad Olson made a motion to adjourn
• Second – Greg Geistkemper seconded the motion
• Motion carries

Respectfully submitted by Sara Harrington, Secretary