WASFAA 2011-12 Executive Council Quarterly Meeting

WASFAA 2011-12 Executive Council Quarterly Meeting

April 21, 2012

Benson Hotel, Portland, Oregon

Present: Kay Soltis, Jack Edwards, Sandi Guidry, Ashley Munro, Ashley Salisbury, Peter Miller, Wendy Olson,Mary San Agustin, Tracey Lehman,Nichole Doering, Adam Hatch, Tami Sato,Steve Herndon, Mindy Bergeron, Abril Hunt,Leonard Walker,Luhui Whitebear,Judy Saling,Breena Colin,Sun Ow,Jim White,Scott Nielsen,Darcy Keller

Guests: Pam Fowler and Justin Draeger from NASFAA

Not Present: Elizabeth Ziegelbein, Jennifer Zimmers, Bert Logan, Kevin Jensen, Laura Hughes, Katharine Baggett, Lynn Fox, Candice Wong, Kim Schreck, Neil Woolf

Call to order: A quarterly meeting of WASFAA’s executive council was held in the Benson Hotel, Portland, Oregon on April 21, 2012. The meeting convened at 1:03 p.m. with Kay, Soltis,President, presiding and Wendy Olson as secretary.

MOTIONApproval of agenda: Sun Ow moved to accept the agenda with modifications to assist those with responsibilities for the conference.MOTION CARRIED.

Conference Committee:285members are registered for the conference and the committee is pleased with the number; the 454 room nights meet our room block minimum.Tracey Lehman gave us more information on the charity we are sponsoring this year.

NASFAA Guests Report: Justin Draeger, President and CEO of NASFAA, mentioned that NASFAA just reached an 11-year high in membership. NASFAA has been making a concerted effort to get out to the regions and states as much as possible. The NASFAA investments in the last year have been flat, but they are comfortable with where they are. In October they were down, but now they are holding steady. It is a mid to long term investment strategy. NASFAA has an investment policy that bench marks the type and level of stocks/bonds investments. Kay Soltis sits on NASFAA’s financial affairs committee. Three regions are participating in NASFAA’s investment plan. After the end of their fiscal year in June, NASFAA may allow states to participate, though there will be some limiting factors.The NASFAA conference in Chicago should be a well attended conference.

TODOStates need to have a state representative at the state president’s breakfast at the NASFAA conference. NASFAA is sending out more items in print these days as members have said they like getting some printed items. NASFAA dues will stay at the same level again for this year. Finances have been reviewed to determine what is required of membership dues to cover the core operating expenditures (now at 98%). There will probably be a dues increase in 2013-14. NASFAA University has been rolled out this year. It is credentialed training, but not a certified training program. Those who are new in financial aid can go through training and then demonstrate that they have competency in 11-13 core concepts. There are five pathways to get a NASFAA credential. Experienced FAAs can take the test and get some refresher experience if neededprior to the test. The test will be rigorous and requires a 90% pass rate. All of the core competencies are based on NASFAA Core. Here are the five pathways to be credentialed.

• Demonstrate knowledge – with at least 5 years of experience and the test.
• Self-study guides – NASFAA core developed for independent study. Two guides are out thus far and 150 have been sold. PDF or printed versions are available.
• Completion of NASFAA facilitated on-line course – it is not self-paced or independent study but an on-line learning session with a live facilitator. The person must participate on a weekly basis. There will be six classes offered this year, 4-6 weeks long. Schools will be able to purchase bundled sets at the time the NASFAA membership is renewed.
• Completion of on-site training with NASFAA – this will be the more expensive option ($2000).
• States and regions boot camps – using NASFAA core content starting in 2013-14.

There will be a discount to NASFAA members who buy it by bundles, but not for non-members and individual sales. Credentials will be kept track of at NASFAA as a part of the career center and are awarded when a person completes the course. It is different than certification in that the process and the renewal steps would be through an outside agency (like CPA process) were it a certification.

Policy Issue –:The U. S. President will be pushing on theStafford student loan interest rate issue to keep the interest rate down for another year. NASFAA wants to see a long term solution, not a year-to-year battle. The NASFAA board will be talking through this. Concerns have been raised that the subsidized benefits are going to higher income families with children at high cost schools, all at the time Pell is being overspent.

MOTIONApproval of Minutes: A motion was made by Jack Edwards to approve the minutes of the February 29-March 1 meeting. MOTION CARRIED.

Nominations and Elections Committee: Nothing has happened since February other than ballots have been destroyed. Elections went smoothly and new officers begin in May. Sandi is grateful for people who were willing to run.

Past President’s Report: Serving on the NASFAA board last happened in November followed by lots of email and phone conversations. The next meeting will be in 2 weeks in Florida and the final meeting will take place at the conference. NASFAA policies are decided by the board. Sandi Guidry really worked to get the website cleaned up where she knew there were errors. The award recipient information is now accurate. She will send out one complete package of updates to ATAC after the awards are announced at this conference.

Strategic Planning Committee: Sandi Guidry has been working on getting the goals correctly positioned and the matrix data updated. Once the matrix is complete she will be sending out the measures tracking tool. She will be turning it over to Kay Soltis when she has finished updating the tool. Kay Soltis will need to determine what we need to do for a new plan. It will start with a phone conversation with Gayle Northrop to see what she recommends for the renewal of the plan. We may be able to get the assistance of a past WASFAA president for a lesser cost. The data collected and the plan has been really helpful in making decisions.

State Presidents’ Group: Just two state presidents attended the meeting today. It has been a bit of hit or miss this year. Mindy Bergeron did survey the presidents and they do think it is helpful to meet.

Alaska:The conference in March was pretty well attended despite being in the spring and a bit last minute.They have all of their offices filled.

Idaho:Idaho had a joint conference with Nevada this year and offered a clock hour break out focus for attendees. Nichole Doering sent a letter to NASFAA about how the membership costs are difficult for small schools. She received a nice response back, but the situation is still the same.

Nevada:Nevada provides limited services due to a limited budget. A new and full slate of officers is in place for 2012-13.

PacFAA:PacFAAhad their conference in March. Jeff Scofield and Adam Hatch did some pre-conference full-day training on verification for the Pacific Island schools, some of which have never had to do verification in the past. The training was well received and very helpful to the attendees. It was noted that the Department of Education has no money to support training for Pacific Island schools, but there is funding for audits.

Washington: – Darcy Keller was concerned for the WFAA budget, but the conference did well and the association’s budget goals have been met. Darcy Keller has created a check list to help the new officerstransition into their positions. WFAA focused on their website this year and better defined its purpose. They will be reviewing the Bylaws and Policies and Procedures to determine the focus of the website.

Arizona, California, Oregon:These states were not represented at the council meeting.

Rep at Large for Ethnic Diversity and Action: Luhui Whitebear reported that the entertainment for the president’s reception fell through. EDAC awarded 3 scholarships for the Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute. A representative from the tribe of Grand Ronde will be here for the conference to welcome conferees. Doug Severs did some training regarding changes to federal and state student aid as well as advocating for federal and state aid at the Oregon Indian Education Association Conference this year.

Announcement: The President’s Reception will be the time for the award announcements as well as the recognition of scholarship recipients

Rep at Large: Sun Ow had nothing to add to her written report.

Fiscal Planning Committee: The committee reviewed some of the action items from the last meeting. The purchase of a laptop is still in process. The incoming secretary and Fiscal Planning Chair will come up with a recommendation. The past attorney’s files have been scanned and have been given to the archives chair electronically and as hard copy. The paper documents should be securely held on to. An interview for the position of new-attorney-of-record took place with Becky Cady Rude during lunch today. She would be able to help us with reviewing contracts, etc. She will be reviewing the information and investigate what she can do for us. We are incorporated in California which may limit who can represent us. Sun Ow will send a suggestion for an attorney from California who may be a possibility. WASFAA’s NASFAA investment information was shared with the committee. We have had a modest decrease in our investment value. The committee suggests that we wait until the fall meeting so we have a full quarter of information. Peter Miller gave a verbal Treasurer’s report. We talked about the need to expedite the transition between Peter Miller and Mindy Bergeron, Treasurer-Elect because of the burden of his other responsibilities. May 1 will be the target. An external audit will be performed this summer. We need clarification for the voting rights of the Treasurer-Elect position. It does not appear to be specified in the bylaws. We may need a bylaws change. No budget expenditure adjustments were requested and there was no update to the historical archives’ asset inventory. Unfinished business for the committee is the completion of income tax forms and submission for 2010 & 2011. It needs to be expedited and finished by April 30. The committee is concerned about the penalties from the federal government for late submission. Some new business for the committee was SunOw’ssuggestions to increase funding. We will try to formalize them more with the new 12-13 committee. A second new-business item was reimbursement of expenses. It was proposed that we no longer use the GSA model for reimbursement of per diem costs, but rather use an actual expense model with a maximum of $10 for breakfast/$15 for lunch /$30 for dinner with receipts required. A missing receipt affidavit would be available for the occasional lost receipt. Meals that are covered by WASFAA will not be included in a request for reimbursement. Finally under new business, Nichole Doering shared that she will have a clock hour track for the Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute in 2013. 22% or more of our institutions in the region are clock hour schools and would benefit from this training opportunity as well as training through the Training Committee. There will be more schools using the clock hour calendar that will need this training as well. We may want to consider having a clock hour committee or representation for WASFAA in the future.The Fiscal Planning Committee was able to get its goals and activities accomplished. It was a great group to work with this past year.

MOTIONAshley Munro made the motion that we no longer use the GSA model for reimbursement of per diem costs, but rather use an actual expense model with a maximum of $10 for breakfast/$15 for lunch /$30 for dinner with receipts required. A missing receipt affidavit would be available for the occasional lost receipt. Meals that are covered by WASFAA will not be included in a request for reimbursement. MOTION CARRIED.

Original receipts should be mailed in, but can be faxed to the Treasurer to get things going.

Treasurer’s Report: Peter Miller mentioned that the NASFAA investments went down for the March statement, but the first quarter for the Vanguard account was up. The full report will be on Tuesday at the WASFAA Annual Business Meeting.

Awards and Scholarships: Breena Colin passed out the certificates she created for the volunteers that served on committees. Scholarships for the Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute will be decided next week.

Bylaws Committee: Jack Edwards reported that not much has been going on but the committee will review the bylaws and minutes to look for necessary changes.The requirement that elections and by law changes voting must be by mail will be reviewed.

Policies and Procedures: Jack Edwards updated the Policies and Procedures to now use the name Communications Committee and not Newsletter Committee.

TO DOReview the Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute section of our Policies and Procedures to make sure that the ethnic scholarship information makes sense and is properly located.

President-Elect: Jack Edwards willparticipate at NASFAA’sboard meetings as an observer for the May and July meetings. State presidents for 2012-13 must keep Jack informed about what is going on in their states so that he can share the information at the national level.

Electronic Services and Historical Archives: Ashley Salisbury stated that besides her regular daily processes to maintain WASFAA’s website, an updated version of our Policies and Procedures was posted, the scholarship application process was opened and closed, and registration pages were put into place as needed. WASFAA will now be able to accept Discover cards on the website. She has also been working on a manual for using Go2Meeting. She ordered new ribbons for the conference. Ashley Salisbury also researched how long the Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute has been in existence. 2014 will be the 30th anniversary. The first summer institute was at Notre Dame College, in Belmont, California. WASFAA may want to consider having the 30th anniversary at that site.

Federal Issues Committee: No chair was present to report.

Fund Development: Sun Ow has raised $37,750, with 22 vendors participating at our conference. We have a number of new vendors joining us this year. There has been a change in policy on sponsorships by vendors to financial aid organizations so conference meals can be sponsored by a donor. Sun Ow suggested we consider making business solution sessions available during our future conferences and perhaps offer a silent auction and a large-item raffle (like a vacation cruise). Sun Ow is also looking into grant writing to foundations. More specifics will be given at the next meeting.One new vendor, FAME, provides software for clock hour schools. Nichole Doering requested that we be sure to say thank you to them. During the breaks,cookies will be on each vendor’s table. Raffles are limited to a $10 maximum value.

Grad Professional Committee: Subsidiesfor Stafford loans are going away July 1 for graduate students. The committee will be sponsoring a round table discussion for one of the sessions.

Membership Committee: Membership has peaked at 722 for the 2011-12 year. That is a 30% increase over the prior year. 91 of the new memberscan be attributed to participation in a training event. There will be a newcomerssession tomorrow starting at 11 a.m. with EC members and NASFAA guests participating.Abril Hunt submitted an article for the newsletter and year-end statistics from ATAC were included. Inactive members were sent a special message about the conference. We now have QR codes, for cell phone apps, that will be on the WASFAA table. It will take them directly to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for WASFAA. Abril Hunt’s ongoing goal is to clean up the database. She needs to give access to members of her committee so they can help clean up the records.

TO DOAshley Salisbury will have ATAC give access to Membership Committee members to the data base.

TO DOInvite high school counselors and ILP (Independent Living Program) people to be a part of WASFAA.

Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute: The 28th annual Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute has 54 beginners and 11 intermediate track participantsregistered currently. Jim White asked state presidents to send out a message about it to their state members. Participation goals are100 for the beginners track & 25 for the intermediate track.