One
of the many blessings (and there are many trust me) of serving as your SASFAA
President this year is the opportunity to represent our association at various
meetings and most importantly to be able to visit with many of you at your
state conferences. I have been somewhat
tardy in updating you on my earlier travels in 2014 so I wanted to get caught
up today. Hopefully, those of you who
saw my post to the SASFAA listserv this past Saturday can agree (as Ralph Waldo
Emerson said) that we should not dwell too much on our prior lapses but should
look to begin each day with a brand new outlook!
That
being said, I have provided a summary below of my travels on behalf of SASFAA since
the beginning of this calendar year. It
is a little lengthy (and believe me I could write much more about each) so I
divided it by meetings/conferences so you can choose to read only those that
interest you the most if you don’t read the whole thing – I won’t mind – smile!
Regional
Presidents Meeting at NASFAA – January 17
I
traveled up to DC on Thursday, January 16 for a first of its kind meeting the
following day that Justin Draeger, President & CEO of NASFAA, convened with
all 6 of the regional financial aid association presidents; the current,
incoming and past NASFAA chairs and several NASFAA staff. The meeting was an opportunity for the
regional presidents to share successes and challenges we face in our respective
associations, for NASFAA to solicit input from us on various current and proposed
initiatives and finally to explore ways that NASFAA might be able to offer
assistance to the regions. One such
example that is already in place is the ability for states and regions to
participate in the same investment advisory services that NASFAA does. Other examples will be shared with the SASFAA
Board at our Transition Board meeting in June for their consideration. The meeting was very worthwhile and I am
happy to report that SASFAA is experiencing more successes in the past few
years than challenges but that does not mean we can’t find ways to be even
better at what we do for our members so any opportunity to share experiences
with others is very valuable.
SASFAA
Annual Conference – February 12 to 19
Due
to Winter Storm PAX, I ended up leaving a day earlier than scheduled to make my
way to Jacksonville, FL for the annual conference. Amy Berrier, Conference Chair, left a day
before me to make sure she could get there in time to make sure all the various
details were in place. There were 531
people registered this year which is the second largest attendance since 2008,
only behind last year’s conference in Atlanta which was our 50th
anniversary. Our theme was “Hitting our
Stride by Celebrating our Strengths” and we did just that with great sessions,
wonderful networking opportunities and a fabulous banquet night including a
SASFAA’s Got Talent show! We also raised
over $4,000 for WHAS Crusade for Children, our selected charity.
Joint
Hill Visits in DC – February 27
We
partnered again this year with EASFAA, Tri-States (DC, MD and DE) and MASFAA
for Hill visits. Felicia Ailster (GA),
Amy Berrier (NC), Nancy Garmroth (SC), Philip Hawkins (GA), Shelley Park (KY),
Chad Sartini (VA), John Snow (FL) and I were the representatives from SASFAA
and Philip Hawkins and Amy Berrier worked very closely with the other
associations to coordinate the day. We
arrived in DC on Wednesday, February 26 and had a dinner to go over the details
of the day and then we had a debriefing dinner after the visits on Thursday and
we traveled back home that Friday. All
together, a total of 45 participants met with approximately 45 legislative
staff and we talked about the importance of the Federal Pell Grant, new ideas
for expanding the use of Pell, streamlining the consumer information
requirements, campus based funding and Reauthorization issues.
NASFAA
Board Meeting – March 17 to 18
I
serve as an observer on the NASFAA Board of Directors this year and Jeff
Dennis, SASFAA Past President, serves as SASFAA’s voting member. We are also very fortunate to have 3 other
SASFAA members on the NASFAA Board this year – Ron Day, Past National Chair;
Brent Tener, 3rd year Rep-at-Large and Lisanne Masterson, 1st
year Rep-at-Large. We met in Annapolis,
MD and covered a lot of ground over those two days, including an update provided
in person by Jeff Baker with the Department of Education.
SCASFAA
Conference – March 30 to April 1
I
was able to visit with the wonderful people of SC in Myrtle Beach for their
annual conference. They had a fantastic
President’s reception that Sunday evening with a photo booth, balloon art,
yummy food and a great view of the ocean.
On Monday, I presented a concurrent session on Cost of Attendance in the
morning followed by the SASFAA Update at the luncheon. I was sorry to have to leave them prior to
the end of their conference but want to thank Katie Harrison, SCASFAA President
for helping my plans to attend the conference so easy and to her and all the SC
financial aid folks for making my stay with them so inviting.
NCASFAA
Conference – April 13 to 16
I
traveled with my husband, Michael, to Wrightsville Beach where we enjoyed a
fabulous dinner with the NCASFAA Board and Conference Committee on Sunday
evening, I attended several great concurrent and general sessions throughout
the conference and provided the SASFAA Update at the banquet on Tuesday evening
(where we also danced the night away) and then we headed back home on Wednesday
morning. Rachel Cavenaugh, NCASFAA
President, did everything she could to make me and my husband feel welcomed and
I thank her and all of the NCASFAA members for showing us their great
hospitality.
Upcoming
Visits
Next
up is the AASFAA conference in Mobile, AL – I leave this Wednesday for it,
followed by the Mississippi, Virginia and Florida conferences in May. These will be followed by our SASFAA
Transition Board meeting in St. Pete Beach, FL will be June 8 – 11, the SASFAA
New Aid Officer’s workshop at University of South Carolina – Upstate in
mid-June and the NASFAA Board Meeting and Conference in Nashville, TN from June
27 – July 2. I will be sure to follow up
with you on these remaining travels on a monthly basis from this point forward.
Finally,
I am looking forward to Nathan Basford, SASFAA President-Elect, taking over as
President, unofficially at our Transition Board meeting in June and then
officially on July 1st. He
has some great plans already in place and I know he is going to represent
SASFAA extremely well and do a great job for all of us. Don’t forget to volunteer to work with him
next year by going to this link http://fs19.formsite.com/SASFAA/Volunteer2014-2015/index.html
if you have not already!
Here’s
a quote for you today (because that’s my thing):
I’ve learned that people will forget what you
said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you
made them feel. –Maya Angelou
Zita Barree
SASFAA President
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