VASFAA
BOARD - COMMISSIONER - COMMITTEE PLANS & REPORT FORM
(Add additional objectives and status reports as needed)
Jeanne Holmes, SunTrust
Hope Jackson, ECMC
Linda Mashack, ECMC
Margaret Murphy, Southern Virginia University
Paula Rafferty, Randolph-Macon College
Lynn Steed, Lord Fairfax Community College
Goal 1: Provide acknowledgement of VASFAA service and individual/committee accomplishments to supervisors and/or employers of VASFAA members.
Objective 1 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
The PR Committee will develop a letter of appreciation that will be mailed to the supervisors of all VASFAA volunteers and signed by VASFAA President Erik Melis.
Status Reports of Objective 1 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
A draft of the letter of appreciation has been written and the committee will make editing suggestions at our first committee meeting on October 3.
Date:October 13, 2006
Report: The committee decided that two letters need to be written. The first is the letter to the supervisor/manager of each VASFAA volunteer to express appreciation for the work of the volunteer as well as appreciation to the supervisor/manager for allowing their employee to volunteer. The second letter will be written directly to each VASFAA volunteer to thank them for their time, effort and dedication to VASFAA. One of our committee members has offered to write these letters with a fresh approach, and she will have drafts of these letters at our next committee meeting on November 29.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: Margaret Murphy has written a fresh, new letter of appreciation to supervisors of VASFAA volunteers, and she sent this to Erik Melis for his approval. We need to determine if Erik is okay with using an electronic signature for these letters or if he prefers to sign each letter individually.
Our committee also considered the idea of sending out a letter to the President of each institution whose staff volunteer in VASFAA to thank them for their support of VASFAA by allowing staff members to volunteer to serve on committees and we will need to have this idea approved by Erik.
Objective 2 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
The PR Committee will solicit the names and addresses of the supervisors of volunteers via email in order to create a database for the mailing.
Status Reports of Objective 2 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: An email will be sent out to each committee chair to solicit the names and addresses of each VASFAA volunteer and their supervisor/manager in November. Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: An email was sent to members of the VASFAA Board asking them to have their committee chairs contact their members and have them submit the names, titles and addresses of their supervisors. Numerous committees have returned this information prior to the January 31 deadline. Our committee will be calling committee chairs and board members who have not returned this information beginning February 1 in an effort to have every VASFAA volunteer recognized.
Goal 2: Work with VASFAA Committees to ensure appropriate media coverage is given to their events and activities.
Objective 1 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
The PR Committee will write a short Business Briefs article about each VASFAA Executive Board member and send it to their local newspaper (with each Executive Board Member’s prior consent and approval of the article).
Status Reports of Objective 1 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: The business briefs have been written and the proof will be sent to Board members in October. We will also ask Board members for the name of their local newspaper(s) and a press release will be sent to the appropriate newspapers in November.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: Our committee asked Board members for the names of their local newspapers and we contacted these papers to get the email addresses for their business section editors. We sent press releases to the papers located in areas where our board members live and work. We do know that at least one newspaper (Daily News Record in Harrisonburg) printed the business briefs we sent them. We did get several emails from newspapers with questions about the business briefs.
Two newspapers informed us that they publish only newly elected positions. Consequently we will either notify the newspapers of next year’s elected officers immediately after our May election or we will pass on to the new PR Chair information about submitting business briefs as soon after July 1 as possible.
Objective 2 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
The VASFAA PR Committee will send out an email to committee chairs offering to assist with media coverage for upcoming VASFAA events and for VASFAA accomplishments.
Status Reports of Objective 2 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: This email will be sent out by the end of October.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: We emailed the Awareness co-chairs to find out the publicity needs for the upcoming Super Saturday events. We were asked to send out press releases to newspapers throughout the Commonwealth. We sent out the Super Saturday press release to all applicable newspapers in Virginia. We have also sent the Super Saturday press release to the NASFAA daily electronic newsletter.
We have been in contact with the Awareness committee about publicizing the proclamation by the Governor for February to be Financial Aid Awareness Month if and when it happens.
We have been in touch with the Diversity Committee to get direction on publicity of the VASFAA Leadership Symposium and we will be sending out information to the listserv in mid-March, early April and early May.
One of our committee members will be working with the conference chair to determine anything related to the spring conference that would warrant outside publicity.
Goal 3: Utilizing the results of the 2001-02 Task Force for Understanding our Organization survey results, select items that need to be addressed with the membership and work with committees to educate the membership on them throughout the year.
Objective 1 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
Obtain the 2001-02 Task Force for Understanding our Organization survey and distribute it to PR Committee members prior to our first meeting on October 3. At that meeting, decide which items we will focus on during the 2006-07 year.
Status Reports of Objective 1 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: The PR Committee members have the survey and the survey results. At our first committee meeting on October 3, we began to review the survey results. We addressed one topic very thoroughly, and from our discussions we identified a number of issues that we can address in various ways. We will continue to review the survey and address other topics that could benefitVASFAA, and we will discuss the best way to utilize the results to better our association.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: After reviewing the results of the survey, we found that two comments were frequently mentioned by VASFAA members. These were:
Not sure what direction the board is going
Discussion session on different aspects of VASFAA
In response to these comments, our committee wanted to find a way to address them in a public forum. We thought that the best way to address these would be in a session at VASFAA. Because we also wanted to work with the incoming President to stress volunteerism within our association and to ensure that VASFAA members know about the responsibilities of various committees, we have asked President-Elect Pat Kelly to conduct a session at VASFAA to address these comments, as well as to promote volunteerism within VASFAA and also in SASFAA, especially because VASFAA is hosting the 2008 SASFAA conference. We thought having a concurrent session would be a great idea for our members to know what they can expect from Pat and from the association and to hopefully address prior concerns of members and get people excited about volunteering.
Additionally, we would like Pat to consider sending out an email to the VASFAA listserv in the spring that would inform VASFAA members to the benefits of volunteerism which would include the following:
Benefits of Volunteering in VASFAA
Many veteran members of VASFAA have been to the meetings and trainings over the years, but have never volunteered to work on a committee. Listed below are benefits in having veteran members actively participate in VASFAA.
Benefits to VASFAA:
Benefits for the volunteer:
Goal 4 (Proposed): Promote VASFAA and VASFAA members within our association, our communities and our profession.
Objective 1 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
Solicit personal Financial Aid histories (VASFAA Vignettes or similar name) from VASFAA members and post to the VASFAA listserv and on the VASFAA website.
Status Reports of Objective 1 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
A draft of the email to VASFAA members soliciting their personal histories has been written and this will be distributed to committee members at our October 3 meeting for comments.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: The committee will send out this email to the VASFAA listserv to begin soliciting VASFAA Vignettes.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: One of our committee members will email the solicitation for VASFAA Vignettes (and headshots if available) in early February, and we will begin to post these to the VASFAA listserv upon receipt.
Objective 2 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
Create a traveling scrapbook that includes all VASFAA Vignettes (previously called Financial Aid Survivor stories) and photographs whenever possible that can be put on the registration table for viewing at all VASFAA events.
Status Reports of Objective 2 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: One of our members will spearhead the creating of the scrapbook and our goal is to find or design a template for the vignettes and photographs that will be used in the scrapbook.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: One of our committee members is creating a template for the vignettes and photographs that is uncomplicated so that future PR Committee members will be able to work with easily.
We have checked with Angela Long about the possibility of the PR Committee having space at the spring conference to have a table, and she informed us that she could make space for us. At our table, we would like to display the VASFAA Vignettes Scrapbook. We would also like to have information about each VASFAA committee and volunteer sign up sheets if this is okayed by Erik Melis and Pat Kelly.
Objective 3 (HOW the committee plans to achieve the stated goal):
Distribute VASFAA promotional and membership information to prospective and new members at VASFAA trainings and events and through mailings.
Status Reports of Objective 3 (Please report your progress toward achieving the stated goals – this is where the committee provides updates to the Board, including any suggestions or modifications to the goal and/or the Strategic Plan):
Nothing done as of yet.
Date: October 13, 2006
Report: Our committee will review the VASFAA informational packet/brochure that was created under the leadership of JoAnn Carreras a few years ago and determine which sheets in the packet need to be updated and reprinted. We will have these pages reprinted if possible and mail the packets to prospective members.
Date:
January 29, 2007
Report: Our committee decided that it would be best to bring the VASFAA informational brochure that was previously created before the Board and ask the Board to determine if this is something that they want to continue publishing. There are numerous changes that need to be made to the brochure, so reproducing the brochure would not be inexpensive. Additionally, we would need to determine where the brochures would be used. In light of the fact that this information is now available on the VASFAA website, we did not feel that updating and reprinting the brochure was the best use of VASFAA funds.
However, because the VASFAA website is now the main source for sharing information about VASFAA to our members and to external sources, we are concerned about keeping the VASFAA website current and up to date. One of our PR Committee members contacted the website committee about updating the site to delete information about the 2006 conference and replace it with information about the 2007 conference, even if it was only to say stay tuned for more information.
Additionally, our committee discussed the fact that the VASFAA website is often not as easy to navigate as it might be, and we wanted to be certain that those searching for committee information could easily access it. Our committee would like to get the Board’s approval that members of the PR Committee could work with appropriate people within VASFAA to suggest changes to the website that are more user friendly and also to assist in developing a navigational tool to help people maneuver more easily on the website. We want to be sure, however, that if there are costs involved, there is money to pay for making these changes. We would like to discuss with the website committee the possibility of adding a link to the VASFAA home page navigationals on the left that would link to volunteer opportunities.
BUDGET
Item (Broad general categories) Cost
Board Approved Amount:
Date:
(Use separate sheet if necessary.)