VASFAA Support Staff Training Committee

Report to the Board

November 5, 2007

 

As of November 5, the VASFAA Support Staff Training Committee has conducted three of our five fall workshops.  Following are the numbers of participants for each workshop:

 

Wytheville Community College in Wytheville - 23

Mary Baldwin College in Staunton – 4

Liberty University in Lynchburg – 27

 

We currently have the following registrants for the two remaining workshops on November 7 and 8:

 

Riverside School of Health Careers – 57

University of Mary Washington – 19

 

The trainings have gone very well and the presenters all did a terrific job and the participants seem to have enjoyed the workshops and learned good and helpful information.  We have gotten evaluations from the participants in the first three workshops and we have received a couple of suggestions for improvements, but by in large we have gotten extremely positive remarks.  All the facilities have worked out well and our contacts at the schools have been very helpful.  Each of the committee members has done a fantastic job in pulling his or her share of the load and we are asking the VASFAA Board to consider allowing us to provide this kind of training again in the spring, provided that we can once again do the training at no cost to VASFAA.

 

We received written and verbal requests at the workshops last week for debt management for students training.  Additionally, in light of the recent changes to the federal regulations, we may want to consider entrance and exit counseling training for Financial Aid staff.  Because this training is designed for people who do not usually attend the VASFAA conference, we think this training fills an important need in our association.  The following is a list of possible topics for the spring workshops:

 

How to Provide Debt Management for Students

  How to Give Entrance and Exit Counseling to Students

Filling Out and Filing the FAFSA

Scholarship Searches and Scams

Effective Presentation Skills

Basic PowerPoint Presentation Skills

 

Of course these are just possibilities for session topics, but we would be able to get trainers for these sessions at no charge to VASFAA.  The VASFAA Support Staff Training Committee is ready and willing to work on spring training if the Board approves it, and if so, we may consider having three sites for training instead of five in the spring if the Board likes that idea.