August SASFAA Board Meeting Review
The SASFAA Executive Board met August 3rd – 4th for our
first official Board meeting of the 2013-14 year in Jacksonville, FL, site of
our 2014 Annual Conference. If I had to
sum up our weekend in a quote, it would be “None of us is as smart as all of
us” by Ken Blanchard. The Board had a
few challenges to face but we did so by working together as a team and by
appreciating and considering all input provided.
The following is a summary of some of the highlights from the
meeting. This is not an all-inclusive
list of everything that was discussed.
You will be notified when the minutes from our meeting are posted to the
SASFAA website and they will contain all the details about our discussions as
well as all actions taken by the Board.
·
Based on a recommendation from the Nominations and Elections
committee, the Board approved deleting the sentence “The electronic voting site
shall be staffed continuously by members or designees of the nominations and
elections committee during the posted times.” from section 6.13.3 of the
current SASFAA Policy and Procedure Manual (see page 34 online at http://www.sasfaa.org/Resources/Documents/Governing%20Documents/Policies%20and%20Procedures/SASFAA%20PP%20-%20090313.pdf ). The committee was charged
this year with evaluating the most
recent elections process and determining if it would continue going forward in
the same fashion. The process that was
used for the 2013 election was voted on by a prior Board as a one-time trial. This will mean the elections process will go back to how it was
executed the year before last with voting being opened 10 calendar days prior
to the initial business meeting at the annual conference and will close at 3 pm
on the last full day of the conference.
The Nominations and Elections chair will report the results of the
election at a business session at the conference following the completion of
voting.
·
The Board reviewed reports from the various SASFAA committees
regarding their work so far and plans for the near future. Our organizational chart for 2013-14 can be
found at: http://www.sasfaa.org/Resources/Documents/Governing%20Documents/SASFAA%202013-14%20Organization%20Chart.pdf. In addition to the customary ad-hoc
committees, I added an additional one this year called Technology Assessment
and Integration which will be reviewing all of our communications as well as
our website and making recommendations to the Board throughout the year about
how we can more effectively keep in touch with our members.
·
The Board approved a budget for the 2013-14 year which includes a
$25 increase to the annual conference registration fee (from $250 to $275) due
to increased hotel/food expenses but also allowed for $31,500 to be transferred
from assets to the current year budget to help offset part of those additional
expenses. SASFAA uses a zero-based
budgeting model which means our expenses in any given year cannot exceed our
projected revenues. That being said, the
Board recognized that SASFAA has now made up for the money lost during the
financially challenging years and that our reserves more than meet the
requirements set forth by our P & P Manual.
Therefore, it felt very strongly that part of the revenues that have
been collected above expenses in the prior year should be used to benefit our
members this year. Additionally, a
Leadership Workshop or Management Institute is being discussed for this year which
would also be partially subsidized by SASFAA.
·
The Board approved a location for our November Board meeting – the
Embassy Suites near Brier Creek in Raleigh-Durham and a location for the 2014 Board
Transition meeting to be held June 8 – 11 at the Tradewinds Resort in St. Pete
Beach, FL.
·
Eight of
the 9 SASFAA states provided a report to the board of what is happening in
their states and with their associations.
The state presidents will also be working on a joint project this year
to help better prepare state presidents-elect for their year as state
presidents on the SASFAA Board by evaluating the state presidents-elect workshop
coordinated by the SASFAA President-Elect at the annual conference and the
Board transition meeting agenda to see if there are any opportunities for
enhancements. They will also be
producing a handout to be shared with incoming state presidents-elect to inform
them in advance of their SASFAA responsibilities.
·
The Board also approved committee members for the 2013-14 year as
well as goals that I added to those that had already been recommended by last
year’s Governance and Strategic Planning (GAP) committee.
The Conference Committee
met during the same timeframe as the Board and ended their meeting on Monday,
August 5th. Amy Berrier has
posted a SASFAA Nine News article dated September 10th outlining all
of the tentative plans for the 2014 annual conference and we anticipate that
the conference registration process will open sometime in October. Our theme this year is “Hitting our Stride by
Celebrating our Strengths.” We hope you
will be able to join us in Jacksonville, FL February 16 – 19, 2014 at the Hyatt
Regency Riverfront for what I know will be a fantastic conference!
If you are not already
receiving e-mail notifications from SASFAA Nine News, you can subscribe by
going to www.sasfaa.org and clicking on the
SASFAA Nine News box on the right hand side of the page. Then enter your e-mail address in the box in
the upper right hand side labeled “Receive Updates by Email” and submit. Additionally if you belong to Facebook and
have not liked our page yet, please search for us at Southern Association of
Student Financial Aid Administrators (SASFAA) – we update our status frequently
and also post photos of many SASFAA, NASFAA and state association events.
One of the quotes I use
often is from T.S. Eliot: “Only those
who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” The SASFAA Board is here to serve you so please
let us know how we may help you and SASFAA find out how far we all can go!
Zita Barree
SASFAA President
