"Continue the Momentum!". This is the way I
have been greeting GASFAA members on the first of each month at the GASFAA
Grapevine blog. Drawing from my most
recent interest in endurance sports (i.e., distance running, and sprint
triathlons involving swimming, biking, and running), I have learned the
importance of setting realistic goals and training properly to make for a
successful competition or race.
Sometimes, setbacks occur, as happened to me in September when I crashed
my bike in a race. Even through
setbacks, it is important to rest, recuperate, and re-evaluate the proper time
to re-enter a training program or race.
Then during the off-season, it is important to re-focus training on the
fundamental techniques of the sports so that next year's races and competitions
are more successful than this year.
I see many parallels to these experiences to the work we
accomplish in Financial Aid. We are
currently in our "off-season" (so to speak), so many offices are
looking ahead to the anticipated changes in 20013-2014 and training their
staffs appropriately. Sometimes setbacks
occur - like thinking we understood Pell LEU only to find out a week before
disbursement that our software did not necessarily handle it like we
thought. And we often find ourselves
fatigued and stressed out during the month of August, so we have to keep
reminding ourselves to live healthy to keep the momentum moving forward. If you would like to follow the
"Continue the Momentum" series, the articles are available from the
GASFAA website - www.gasfaa.org, and click
the link for the GASFAA Grapevine blog.
You might see what appears to be someone "walking on water."
GASFAA is continuing the momentum established by our
2011-2012 Executive Board which was led fabulously by Nancy Ferguson from the
University of Georgia. Nancy reminded us
of importance of legislative advocacy and she re-kindled our enthusiasm as an
association. She also prioritized an
emphasis on leadership development - for our offices as well as for
GASFAA. We are continuing the leadership
development focus this year.
GASFAA delivered the NASFAA Fall Training topic
"Direct Loans - The Rest of the Story" on November 1st, 2012 at the
campus of Central Georgia Technical College in Macon, Georgia. Additional basic training and leadership
development topics are planned for the winter and spring months.
GASFAA is also busy planning our Spring Conference, to be
held May 22-24, 2013 in Athens, Georgia.
The theme for this year's conference is tentatively scheduled to be
"GASFAA Celebrates 20 Years of HOPE" and will mark the 20th
anniversary of the first Georgia HOPE Scholarship Award which was made in the
Fall of 1993. We are hoping to recognize
some of the early state government leadership which gave birth to the HOPE Scholarship
program which has enabled over 1.4 million Georgians to attend college since
the program began.
Finally, GASFAA is eager to welcome SASFAA to Georgia for
the annual conference February 10-13, 2013 at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia in
Atlanta! We hope you are making plans to
attend this exciting conference marking SASFAA's 50th anniversary! We look forward to seeing you in February!
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