Greetings from North Carolina!
We have had a great 2015-2016 year
in North Carolina and NCASFAA’s Executive Board has been hard at work. At
the transition meeting in June 2015, we set several goals for the year and I am
proud to say that we have met, or exceeded, each one. In an attempt to increase membership, the
board sent out surveys and asked the membership to share their current needs and
topics they would like to see in future training sessions. Using that
information, the Executive Board created their action plans for the year and
purposefully worked to demonstrate the value of a NCASFAA membership to the
entire state.
Several board members led the way
and served as project managers on the various initiatives and did exemplary
work. NCASFAA created and held three “Support
Staff Training Seminars” around the state in various locations and had 49 total
attendees. Multiple training webinars were
created throughout the year on the topics the membership deemed to be most
important, and our most recent one on “Verification” had 78 attendees. We have also held various other training
events like new aid officer training, intermediate aid officer training, and
will be having our second conference of the year in April 2016. All of the work from NCASFAA’s board,
committee chairs and committee members has been recognized by the membership
and led to NCASFAA having the highest number of active members in at least the last
decade at 642 members!
Our 2016 Spring Conference was held in
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The Program Committee worked remarkably
hard to create a training conference that began the yearlong celebration of
our 50th anniversary while incorporating our annual theme of “Serve with
Purpose”. The committee arranged for
exceptional training on federal compliance issues from both David Bartnicki and
Wood Mason, training from the North Carolina Community College System office,
brought in Jim Briggs, “The Tax Detective”, to discuss the intricacies
surrounding taxes and verification, requested both federal and state updates
from knowledgeable officials, brought in Dr. Michael Johnson, Senior Vice
President/Chief of Staff at SACS-COC, to be our keynote speaker and much, much
more.
In addition to the training efforts,
NCASFAA has selected two charities to support at our conferences this year as
we attempt to give back to the communities we serve. In the fall we selected Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen of Asheboro, North Carolina. Our
Daily Bread Soup Kitchen provides a daily meal to meet the nutritional
needs of those less fortunate or who have fallen on hard times. Due to the rise in local unemployment and the
overall economic climate, the numbers of those being served increased
significantly in recent years. In 2010,
the number of residents fed daily, increased fifty percent and in recent years
the numbers peaked to more than 10,000 meals served annually. NCASFAA was able to raise $2,250 at our fall
conference to help support their mission and donated 20 banker boxes of food to
help them create care packages for the less fortunate seeking assistance with
groceries. Our charity for this spring was
Children’s Home Society of North
Carolina. This organization has
placed more than 15,000 North Carolina children with adoptive families and
countless more in temporary foster placement. Lack of resources is the only
thing standing in the way of helping more children and families, and our simple
goal was to help them gain these resources and continue with our theme of
“Serve with Purpose!”
In closing, I hope you that all have
had a wonderful year and enjoyed your time at the 2016 SASFAA Conference in
Greensboro, North Carolina. We were excited to have you and we look
forward to potentially hosting you again in future years! Thank you, too, to Nathan and Mike for coming
to NC for our spring conference as representatives of SASFAA. Our states couldn’t
be as effective as we are without SASFAA’s continued support. It doesn't go unnoticed, and our members thank you.
Joey Trogdon
2015-16 President
North Carolina Association of
Student Financial Aid Administrators
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