A PRESIDENT'S PAUSE

Shining On

by Tom Morehouse
2004-2005 VASFAA President

     Editor's Note: "The best leaders......almost without exception and at
     every level, are master users of stories and symbols."
          ~ Tom Peters, Business Writer, author ~

This is my first opportunity to write for the VASFAA Voice as the President of VASFAA. Let me reiterate that it’s an extreme honor for me to serve as the VASFAA President. I hope that we, together, can “keep the light shining” for those we serve.

I attended NASFAA’s Annual Conference in Minneapolis, and it was a wonderful event. Although there were many of our Association members in attendance, the sheer numbers of attendees precluded seeing everybody there, but I can assure you that our Association was well represented. We did not, unfortunately, get recognition for another of our wonderful programs that our Association, SCHEV and ECMC worked so diligently on last fall (The Awareness Summit). I also attended the SASFAA Transition conference in June and a SASFAA Board meeting in August.

The members of VASFAA Board and the Committee Chairs have been quite busy over the summer preparing for not only this year, but for the coming years, as you will read in Brad’s article. This will be a different year for VASFAA..

This year marks the first time in VASFAA’s history that the Association will not have two conferences during the year. Two years ago, the Board of Directors voted to hold an annual conference in response to a continuing budget crisis in the Commonwealth and shrinking budgets within individual institutions. In order to provide beneficial training opportunities, the Association is planning a myriad of training activities this fall to compensate for the elimination of our fall conference. These training opportunities will include NASFAA decentralized training at several sites in the Commonwealth during the fall, as well as support staff training. The highlight of the fall, however, will be the first VASFAA Leadership Symposium, to be held in Charlottesville on November 15 and 16. The symposium is by invitation to the institutional financial aid leaders and selected others, and is limited to 75 participants. Yvonne Hubbard is leading this effort, and please read more about it in her article.

Another first for the Association is the signing of contracts for the VASFAA Annual Conference for the upcoming three years. Traditionally, the President Elect has picked the sites for his or her conference, but in keeping with the idea of planning ahead, the board approved the location and hotel for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Annual Conference. We’re very pleased to have negotiated with the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hilton, which is a brand new luxury hotel scheduled to open around December of this year. This new facility, located on the oceanfront, offered the Association very competitive accommodations rates (within the Commonwealth’s per diem rate guidelines) for the next three years.

In other Conference news, your Board voted to host the 2008 SASFAA Conference in Virginia. Randy Craig will serve as the planning liaison to SASFAA for this effort. This, of course, means more that simply helping to find a location. There will be lots of opportunities to help as we get closer to 2008.

Several other items are new this year. The Association adopted a revised policy on Vendor and Sponsor contributions and appropriate recognition for contributions. To promote fairness and equity among our valued colleagues who support our Association with monetary resources, the Association will recognize them based upon contribution level and a lottery system of choice for sponsorable items. Sponsored items or events are given point levels and our partners are given points based upon their level of sponsorship. A lottery is held to determine the order in which sponsored items or events may be supported by the vendor.

As many or our fellow state organizations, and SASFAA, have transitioned to ATAC for web hosting and services, VASFAA will also be moving to ATAC for hosting and managing our web site, so look for a new and improved VASFAA web site soon! (www.vasfaa.org) Hopefully this will help ease the burden on Erik, Laurie and the electronic services committee.


In the realm of our regional association, we are all quite proud of the fact that the SASFAA President Elect, Guy Gibbs, and the Vice President, Zita Barree, are from Virginia. We also have capable and committed representation in the form of committee chairs, including Erik Melis, Electronic Services; Carol Mowbray, Special Projects; Karen Koonce, Budget and Finance; and Marie Bennett, Legislative Relations. That, coupled with our committee representation shows the commitment of the financial aid professionals in Virginia to SASFAA – SASFAA committee members include Jolene Burke, Conference; Liza Bruce, Diversity; Michael Poma, Membership; Gary Spoales, Newsletter; Mike Hawkes, Lender Liaison; Marilyn King, Federal Relations, and Michael Barree, instructor, NAOW.

I hope to see you at one of our Fall Training opportunities. Please keep visiting our web site for updated information. Thanks again for your support and commitment.

Submitted by Tom Morehouse, VASFAA President