Part of my responsibility as SASFAA President is to submit a report to the NASFAA Board providing an update on SASFAA activities. While this report does not encompass everything that is going on in SASFAA right now, it provides a brief overview of some of the things that have taken place. You will receive more information about what transpired during the NASFAA Board Meeting from your President-Elect, Jeff Dennis.
NASFAA Board of Director’s Meeting
November 6-7, 2011
The new SASFAA year began July 1st and a lot has taken place, with much more to come. With elimination of FFELP and the economic recession SASFAA made several sacrifices over the past few years in order to maintain the financial viability of the organization. Like other associations, much of our revenue stream had been eliminated and/or reduced and we were still obligated to contracts for conferences and meetings that were signed years in advance in some cases. The decisions over the past few years to eliminate these items were difficult to make, but they were necessary and I am proud of the way the past SASFAA Boards responded to these financial challenges without depleting our reserves. The work of those boards helped put us in the financial position we are in today.
The 2011-12 SASFAA year presents us with many opportunities since we entered this year without any long term contractual agreements. Therefore, at the request of the board, we have proceeded in finding ways to add back some of the items that were eliminated during leaner times. Those items include:
· The SASFAA President and his/her designee will begin traveling to the state conferences again
· A November face-to-face board meeting
· A third night at the June Transition Meeting
· For the first time in 30 years finding a new location for our June Transition Meeting…one that is more affordable and frees up money for other items
Many of the budgetary changes made this year also allow us to proceed with other initiatives, as well make changes that will reduce SASFAA expenditures over the long term. Some of those highlights are:
· The February 2013 conference will celebrate SASFAA’s 50th Anniversary, so we are able to dedicate funds from this year’s budget to be saved for next year knowing that we may want to spend more during the 50th anniversary conference than our regular conference budget would allow. Being able to do this eliminates the need to use our reserves next year.
· Through the work of our Legislative Relations Committee, SASFAA is partnering with EASFAA on two joint legislative events to be held in Washington D.C. The first is in October and the second is in February. Approximately 10 SASFAA members will be joining a host of EASFAA members to speak with legislators and their aides/staffers about issues related to financial aid.
· We renamed our Newsletter Committee the Communication and Outreach Committee. That committee is currently working with our Electronic Services Committee to create a blog which will replace our newsletter and listserv. The blog will be called the SASFAA 9 News. Policies and procedures are being written on how this will be implemented and managed. The newsletter has outlived its usefulness in this day and age of instant communication. It has become more of a reporting of past events than anything else. That history is retained in the reports submitted at the board meetings and posted on our website for the membership to review. Eliminating the newsletter will also reduce costs associated with this committee.
· In 2012-13 SASFAA will be moving from ATAC to Wild Apricot to host our website. The Electronic Services Committee is currently working on the migration, with a plan to go live in the 2012-13 year. This move will significantly reduce SASFAA’s website costs, while still providing the functionality needed for our membership.
· The Vice President is planning an FSA Debriefing event for SASFAA members to follow up on information discussed at the FSA conference. This will allow those in attendance at FSA to receive the regulatory information needed to stay in compliance, and then discuss the implementation issues with their colleagues once they get back to their campuses. NASFAA Board members Sandy Neel and Brent Tener are scheduled to be the facilitators for this event.
SASFAA has held true to a very conservative investment plan over the past several years (decades), which has served us well in protecting our assets and providing a steady stream of income in a higher interest rate climate. Economically, it is likely to be a long time before rates on certificates of deposit increase again. While our Vendor/Sponsor Chair has done a phenomenal job finding new sources of support and increasing the sponsorship contributions more than we could have anticipated in the current economic climate, the board realizes that a change in our investment strategy is necessary for the long term viability of SASFAA. For that reason, the board voted to accept NASFAA’s invitation to utilize Lepercq Lynx Investment Advisory, LLC for some of our long term investments. We have since established that relationship and made an investment of $150,000 into our portfolio with them. Additionally, we are moving away from certificate of deposits for our cash on hand to avoid tying up our money in the instruments that are paying very little in interest. We are utilizing other interest bearing accounts that provide more liquidity than a certificate of deposit.
In the process of reviewing our budget some questions were raised about the amount we had allocated in our Accounting line. In response to that I contacted the other regional presidents to learn more about how they file taxes and/or any tax liabilities they had over the years. The responses I received were helpful, and through more discussions with Brenda Hicks, RMASFAA President, we raised some questions with the firm who has been doing our taxes. In the end, the firm responded to our inquiry admitting that they simply overlooked a rule related to “unrelated business income” (UBI) as it pertains to advertising dollars in volunteer organizations. Simply stated, we had paid unnecessary taxes for the past few years. Our accountant has filed amended tax returns and we are expecting to receive over $11,000 in tax refunds, in addition to eliminating our estimated tax liability for the 2011 year.
Many other activities are also taking place:
· Our 2012 Annual Conference Committee is busy planning our conference that will take place February 26-29 in Greensboro, NC. The theme of the conference is “Focusing on What’s Best For Our Students.” The agenda is coming along nicely and it looks like we will have great representation from the Department of Education and NASFAA, including taking advantage of the NASFAA Trainer program.
- The 2020 Committee is developing a resource guide to assist financial aid administrators with identifying funding options, financial plans, and support for veterans, as well as creating sessions for the annual conference that focus on completion strategies for first generation, non-traditional, disabled, and economically disadvantaged students.
- We are in the process of evaluating sites for our June 2012 New Aid Officer’s Workshop (NAOW), and hope to have a site selected during our November Board Meeting.
- Our Membership Committee is taking the reins for October 19th Financial Aid Day and has communicated information about this to the SASFAA membership.
- Site Selection has done a magnificent job finding new locations for our November Board Meeting and June Transition Retreat. Since we no longer have old contracts holding us to certain locations, the work of this committee has picked up as these sites, and the location for the June 2012 NAOW event needed to be found. Another positive with Site Selection is our work with IMN to secure our 2013 Annual Conference site. Our experience with them has been very positive, so much so that we signed on for another year to use them in securing a site for our 2014 conference. There is no cost to the association or our members for this service.
In closing, SASFAA is in great shape. I am extremely appreciative to all of the volunteers, elected officers, state presidents, and committee chairs for the work they have already done to get us off to a great start, as well as the work they have planned for the rest of the year.
Brad Barnett
2011-12 SASFAA President
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