Dear SASFAA Members & Friends:
I want to share with
you a brief update on last week’s travels of our Immediate Past President (Zita Barree), our President-Elect (Amy Berrier), and me as President.
It is very difficult, and impossible at times, for a SASFAA
representative to be able to attend all of our nine states’ conferences. This past week was a fine example of such
when we held three state conferences that overlapped each other:
Florida,
Georgia, and
Mississippi.
I had planned to attend both the Georgia and Mississippi
conferences, and Zita was scheduled to attend the Florida conference. We know that change is something to which we daily adapt as financial aid
professionals. Due to FASFAA honoring me
with the Distinguished Service Award,
I felt that I should try and attend that Association’s meeting. Before making the final decision, I received
support from Zita and Amy letting me know that they would help in any way
needed to ensure that each state conference was covered by someone to give the
SASFAA update as well as to present sessions.
I would like to extend my appreciation to Zita and Amy for
the support, dedication, and commitment to SASFAA.
Hearing about how many of you came together to attend the
conferences last week makes me proud to be in this profession: a profession that positively changes lives
every day.
Below are my comments about each conference and its theme
from last week.
FASFAA Conference
St. Augustine, Florida / May 19-22, 2015
Honoring the Past, Shaping the
Present, and Treasuring the Future
As members of our associations, we must make sure that we
honor our past and are grateful to those who worked with commitment and
dedication to create each of our associations.
They may have not done everything right,
but, in most cases, their hearts were in the right places—just like our hearts
and minds today. By shaping the present,
we create, we improve, we influence in a formative way. We do this by thinking
outside-the-box and look at new ways for our association to move forward. We must continue to treasure the future. Cherish it, and hold it dearly. As members of our
associations, we must strive to keep the history while we cherish the present,
and ensure the future is filled with many treasures for those after us to build
on and share.
Georgia Conference
Peachtree
City, Georgia / May 20-22, 2015
Lights, Camera, Action, GASFAA!
Sounds like we are making a movie, and, in many ways, we are. We deal with students and their families,
daily, on issues and the concerns that they present to us: How can we afford to send our child to your
institution? Where do I get the money? Are there scholarships available? We pull out our script: the state and federal guidelines, institutional
policy and procedure manuals, our methodology of awarding financial aid, and
begin to look for the right scene that will solve this chapter so that the
students and families can complete their movie by achieving their educational
goals. Each of us must continue to be a
part of the action that allows our students to achieve their educational goals,
and then hold to that action ‘til the goal is reached.
Mississippi Conference
Biloxi, Mississippi / May 19-22, 2015
Turning the Tide!
When you hear the word
tide, what is your first thought? I think of the beach. As the tide comes in,
it washes away our foot prints or the sandcastles we have built or the names of
our special loved ones written in the sand.
As the tide goes back out, we rebuild our sandcastles. We make our
footprints in the sand again, and we write our loved ones’ names in the sand
once more—proving that things are good again.
Can’t we relate to this image in our workplaces? Yes, we see students rush in at high tide—wanting
questions answered, documents reviewed, and funds disbursed. In getting these
requests completed, we sometimes encounter waves that will cause us to have to
go out and seek additional information in order to complete the student’s high
tide request, but we do. We find the answers. We explain what needs to be done,
and then we see the tide begin to go back out—all is calm. I encourage each of us to continue to be a
part of
Turning the Tide. You may ask yourself how it can be done. We help turn the tide by riding the waves
that we may encounter—those waves being the students and families who seek
information to achieve their educational dreams. We can provide correct and
valuable information on what financial aid is available while ensuring the
process is completed and that the students achieve their educational dreams.
Final
Comments
As you can see, I may not have been at your specific conference in
person, but I was there in spirit and in full support! I appreciate all that each of you do for your
state as well as for SASFAA.
Because of
each of you, we continue to Uncover our
Purpose, Power, and Passion.
SASFAA
President, 2014-2015
