Trek Boldly Into New Frontiers
Captain’s Log – Supplemental
December 2006

As I sit here writing and pondering the VASFAA trek that we’ve undertaken this year, I find my mind drifting out into space…yes, the final frontier. I think that this is happening, not because I’m a longtime, diehard Star Trek fan, but rather because I discovered there are no ACG or SMART Grants out here in the calm of space. Anyone want to join me? I’m sure that the ACG and SMART Grant and the other HERA changes have been challenges for all of us this year and will likely continue to be into the coming year. We will face these together.

To further my belief that the Star Trek universe really does exists, I need only look at the calendar. How could it possibly be December already with the end of the year looming just around the corner and with so many items still on my to-do list unless I had experienced some warp in the space-time continuum.

VASFAA's own trek into new frontiers continues to move boldly forward… we’ve explored new worlds, changed some crew members, and have continued in pursuit of our galactic goals…

Due to a change in employment, VASFAA’s Secretary, Leslie Thomas, had to resign. She went back to her alma mater and is now an Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and at last report is doing fine. To fill this spot on the VASFAA crew, I appointed, with her gracious consent, our prior Secretary, Jeanne Holmes, to serve the remainder of the Secretary’s term.

The VASFAA Board had its Fall meeting in Williamsburg on Sunday, October 15th, immediately preceding the Fall training events for Experienced Aid, New Professionals, and Support Staff. Even though we are confident our By-Laws and P&P support the actions taken previously regarding MyRichUncle (MRU), the Board decided to look into strengthening the statements regarding membership in the By-Laws and possibly include explicit text regarding membership termination. Any proposed By-Law changes will be presented to the membership for consideration during the voting at the May 2007 conference.

Meeting one of our main goals for 2006-07, VASFAA conducted it’s first successful “consolidated“ Fall training event since going to a single yearly conference. Three training events were held concurrently at the College of William of Mary in Williamsburg on October 16th and 17th. The Experienced Aid Officer’s Workshop, titled “Trekking Back to our Roots,” focused on the history and processes of needs analysis, FAFSA simplification, verification, professional judgment, and financial aid trends in multicultural populations. The Support Staff Training Workshop focused on providing Financial Aid Client Services representatives with training in how to deal with difficult customers and how to celebrate the difference that the Client Services personnel make in a financial aid office. The New Professional’s Training Workshop focused on review the history of Title IV aid and provide information regarding the regulations and administration of Title IV aid. The Fall training event was a major success and has set the stage for a very successful year in professional development within the association.

Other noteworthy committee activities that are in progress include:

The Nominations Committee is well on its way to having a complete slate of candidates for the 2007 election. The goal is to have multiple candidates for every position and we are almost there. It’s still not too late to submit a nomination for someone or even yourself to be considered for a VASFAA Office.

The Awareness Committee has made great progress in planning for the 2007 Super Saturday events. The committee is also be actively involved along with State Relations in trying to secure the standing proclamation for Financial Aid Awareness Month in Virginia.

The Conference Committee continues to great progress in planning a galactic conference event for 2007. I personally can’t wait for may to get here to jump right in.

The Diversity Committee is working hard to set up sessions and activities that will emphasize the diverse nature of association.

The Federal Relations Committee is monitoring congressional activity in anticipation of some movement this year on reauthorization issues. There is also some work in progress to try to arrange for congressional visits in Washington, DC.

The Membership Committee is actively working to increase the VASFAA membership by sending periodic updates out to the listserv.

The New Century Fund President's Council is actively soliciting applications for the New Century Educational Endowment (Buddy) Awards.

The Newsletter Committee has already published three issues of the VASFAA Voice Newsletter filled with interesting, relevant and fun articles.

The Public Relations Committee has been hard at work promoting the exciting things that VASFAA is doing. The committee is also working with the President to send acknowledgment and thank you letters out to volunteers and their supervisors.

The Secondary School Relations Committee successfully set up 13 statewide high school guidance counselor training workshops which were held between November 14th and December 15th. Feedback from these, including the one I participated in at Northern VA Community College, indicates that all of these have been very successful.

The Site Selection Committee is actively evaluating potential sites for the 2008 VASFAA Conference. Our 3-year contract with the Hilton Oceanfront hotel ends with the 2007 conference.

The State Relations Committee continues to monitor legislative activities related to financial aid and higher education and is working closely with the Awareness Committee to try to get legislation introduced and passed establishing a standing proclamation for Financial Aid Awareness Month in the Commonwealth. The State Relations Committee has been working with Senator Frank Ruff to get him to act as a patron for the legislation to enact such a resolution.

The Support Staff Training Committee conducted two additional Fall Support Staff training workshops in Northern Virginia on November 28th and in Roanoke on November 29th.

The Training Committee has been hard at work planning multi-faceted, professional training opportunities for the 2007 conference. I understand it will make Starfleet Academy look like a pre-school.

The Vendor/Sponsor Committee has secured significant sponsorship funding for 2006-07 and continues to work on securing additional sponsorship.

I had the opportunity to attend the joint NCASFAA/SCASFAA conference in Asheville, NC in November and it was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed witnessing the two associations pool their resources and expertise to put together a great training event for their respective members. I would love to see VASFAA try, at some point in the future, to have a joint conference with one of its neighboring SASFAA states.

I also got to attend the second annual conference of the Virginia College Access Network (VCAN) in Richmond, December 4-6. At the start of the conference, it was announced that effective at that moment, the previous name of Commonwealth College Access Network (CCAN) was changed to Virginia College Access Network (VCAN). From a marketing perspective, the new name provides some great opportunities using “Virginia CAN” as the moniker. I had the pleasure of representing VASFAA at the conference and co-presented a session titled “Access and Affordability: Partnerships between Access Providers and Financial Aid Offices.”

I thought the conference was a great success. There were about 200 registrants for the conference, which I think is amazing for only the second conference. I got to see lots of familiar VASFAA faces at the conferences and some familiar faces from the high schools and access providers and got to meet a lot of new folks as well. One suggestion I made to the VCAN board is that I’d love to see a future conference done jointly with VCAN, VASFAA, and even VACRAO. What a meeting of the minds that could be.

I think continuing to build on the partnership between VCAN and VASFAA will not be problematic at all. One needs only to look at the makeup of the current VCAN Board of Directors to see why I’m confident in this. The current VCAN board is comprised of the following individuals (see any familiar VASFAA names?):

Attending the conference was a very enlightening experience for me and I would encourage anyone else who has the opportunity to attend the VCAN conference next year to consider doing so.

A number of VASFAA crew members have retired or are retiring from the financial aid profession this year including Linda Miller from James Madison University, Perry Carroll from Mountain Empire Community College, Larry Ewing from Virginia Western Community College, Eugenia (Deanie) Hickman from Virginia Wesleyan College, Phenie Golatt from Virginia Union University, and Michael Barree from Longwood University. There may be others as well that I’m not aware of and I apologize if I’ve left anyone out. The VASFAA Board is working on revising its’ procedures in this area to try to make sure we properly recognize all those that are retiring from the profession who have given so much of their time and energy to VASFAA and the Commonwealth and it’s students. In the meantime, I know you’ll join me in wishing all these folks well in whatever the future holds for them. As Mr. Spock would tell each one, “Live long and prosper!”

I cannot give enough thanks (but will continue to try) to all the board members, committee chairs and, especially, all the members that have stepped forward as volunteers on various VASFAA committees. None of this voyage on which we’ve embarked would be possible without the amazing dedication and commitment of all of those who have agreed to give their time and resources to serve the association. You are truly an amazing crew and I am ever so proud and fortunate to be serving as your captain for this trek.

I am very excited about VASFAA has already accomplished this year and we are looking forward to everything yet to come. Let the voyage continue, or as Jean Luc Picard would say, “ENGAGE!”