The VASFAA Board Retreat was held this year at the Peaks of Otter on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is an isolated site where email and cell coverage is non-existent - Tom wanted everyone's undivided attention. He got it. He wisely got outside help from outside the association. Tara Telfair of the Leadership Program at UVA helped facilitate the retreat for the Board.

She started us out with a small group exercise to get the juices flowing and to build a sense of cohesiveness. (Personal Best Time when you were working in a volunteer organization when everything clicked.) The theme for the year is "Keep the Light Shining" using the symbol of a Lighthouse. Tom is an avid sailor which explains the direction in his theme. When next you see Tom, ask him more about it's significance to him and for VASFAA.

Some of the key highlights:

- Increase in mileage allowance to new federal rate for VASFAA volunteers

- New Sponsorship Policy

- New Goals and Objectives (See separate article)

- New Conference setup - One conference in the Spring

- Move Toward Junior Chairs for Committees

The Editor with input by Tara Telfair, UVA Leadership Program

Goal One: Promote VASFAA’s Vision, Mission and Purposes

Goal Two: Lead the SFAA’s in providing a comprehensive, ever changing array of continuing professional education opportunities for colleagues and awareness opportunities for students

Objective One: Make the annual conference a vehicle for professional development and training with keynote speakers of national prominence

Objective Two: Provide drive-in training, development and workshop opportunities across the Commonwealth

Objective Three: Provide an experienced professional leadership symposium as an annual event

Goal Three: Communicate effectively with our membership and others with mutual interests

Objective One: Maximize the use of technology (e.g., web)

Objective Two: Improve data management

Goal Four: Maintain financial stability

Goal Five: Increase membership and membership involvement in VASFAA

Objective One: Collect and use data to understand the profile and breakdowns of current VASFAA membership

Objective Two: Increase total membership to 450

Objective Three: Increase numbers of school members on committees to 50% of total committee membership.

Tom Morehouse, 0405 VASFAA President

The Information Services Commission under Commissioner Erik Melis from George Mason University and comprised of the Electronic Services Committee (chaired by Joe Dobrota, Regent University), Newsletter Committee (chaired by Gary Spoales, Bank of America), Photographer Committee (chaired by Gerene Carter, CitiBank) and Public Relations Committee Committee (chaired by Beth Parker, ECMC) was very active during the 03-04 VASFAA year. Here is a short list of some of the committees' accomplishments:

Electronic Services

- maintained and updated the VASFAA web site

- enhanced and simplified the file structure on the VASFAA web site server

- assisted with posting of the VASFAA Voice Newsletter to the web

- posted conference presentations to the VASFAA web site

Newsletter

- produced 3 excellent issues of the VASFAA Voice (one issue still to come for 04-05)

- established very successful new web format for newsletter instead of PDF format previously used

Photographer

- provided photographic documentation of various VASFAA events

- completed photo album for outgoing VASFAA president

Public Relations

- coordinated a very successful philanthropic event during the Fall VASFAA conference

- provided VASFAA Visions brochures for Awareness Summit and for new member packets at VASFAA conference

Submitted by Erik Melis, Commissioner

Secondary School Relations

- Secondary School Relations Committee had a successful year. Thirteen workshops were scheduled and 574 counselors across the state enjoyed them.

There were sites available in every region and the evaluations were excellent. Thanks for all your support. We are an awesome team.

Anita Aymer Secondary School Relations Chair

The 2003-2004 Organizational Services Commission Year-End Update

The committees comprising the Organizational Services Commission are Diversity Chair: Kerrie Roth, ODU, Membership Chair: Brenda Burke, Va. Tech and Vendor/Sponsor Chair(s): Tonya White, ODU (fall) and Michael Poma, Bank One (spring) were very active this year and accomplished most of the goals that were set by their respective groups. The following is a summary of each committee’s work:

Diversity
-sponsored and coordinated interest sessions for both conferences
-conducted diversity tools contest at conferences
-provided “diversity” sweet treats at conferences

Membership
-worked closely with Treasurer, Conference and Electronic Services to provide accurate information for the website, conference hotels and membership at large
-hosted new member breakfast at both conferences

Vendor/Sponsor
-secured sponsor and vendor patronage for the 2003/04 year
-conducted raffle for vendors/sponsors during the fall conference
-provided signs for specific VASFAA sponsored events
-worked closely with adhoc vendor/sponsor committee to re-write vendor/sponsor policies and procedures

Submitted by: Jolene Burke, Commissioner

Diversity Committee Highlights from 2003-04

DIVERSITY … IN TRANSITION… 2003-2004 was an exciting year for the Diversity Committee. We sponsored a Diversity Tool Challenge, hosted an energetic human resources speaker at our Spring conference, learned about population demographics through a ‘Trivial Pursuit’ type of game and sampled some sweet Diversity treats.

Submitted by Kerrie Roth, Chair

State Relations activities for 2003-04

- attended State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) meetings, special meetings called by the SCHEV Resources Committee, and SCHEV Financial Aid Strategic Team (FAST) meeting.

- met with other interest group representatives including Virginia Deputy Secretary of Education, General Assembly Joint Subcommittee on Higher Education Funding Policies Technical Advisory Group, Virginia21, and Virginia Business Higher Education Council.

- proposed changes to Unfunded Scholarship restrictions in the Code of Virginia which was signed into law and becomes effective July 1.

- monitored legislative issues related to financial aid and provided information to association members via the VASFAA listserv.

Submitted by Melissa Collum Wyatt, State Relations Chair

Membership Committee

I would like to welcome all new members to VASFAA this academic year. The spring conference new member breakfast was standing room only! For the 2003-2004, you are among 400 other individuals that chose to become members in this great organization. Membership on a whole increased for this year. I encourage ALL members in VASFAA to become active in the organization to make it YOUR organization.

Brenda Burke, Membership Chair

VASFAA Commission on Association Development

2003-2004 – Last year proved to be an aggressive year for the committees under me.

Secondary Relations Committee conducted 13 Guidance Counselor Workshops around the state during the months of November and December. Attendance was impressive at 490 total and counselors looked forward to this being ongoing.

They also created a powerpoint presentation to be used by guidance counselors for their high school night events.

Awareness Committee helped to create an Awareness Summit sponsored by ECMC, SCHEV and VASFAA. This was well attended by high school and junior high school sector and as a result an outreach partnership has started to all the volunteer/sponsored college awareness organizations in Virginia. There will be a web-based community forum to publicize current events and outreach across the state.

Awareness also held a phone-a-thon on Channel 12 for the purpose of answering questions on financial aid from parents and students across their viewing audiences.

Super Saturday was held in February where families came to get help in filling out the FAFSAA forms. There were many volunteers in sites across the state for this successful event. The Governor also proclaimed January as Financial Aid Awareness Month.

The Federal Relations committee monitored the positions and proposals of NASFAA and of upcoming Reauthorization proposals. Their guess was that there will not be a final reauthorization till after the elections in November. Actually, it was noted this was a quiet year.

The State Relations committee attended bimonthly SCHEV meetings and also meetings by their Resources Committee. Also attended SCHEV Financial Aid Strategic Team meetings. They also met with several higher education interest groups including the VA. Deputy Secretary of Education, General Assembly Joint Subcommittee on Higher Ed Funding Policies Technical Advisory Group, etc. This committee also proposed changes to scholarship restrictions in the Code of Virginia. They monitored legislative issues related to financial aid and provided information from our association to legislation members about financial aid issues.

Submitted by JoAnn Carreras, Commissioner

The Information Services Commission for 2004-2005 will still be under Erik Melis of George Mason Unviersity as commissioner but will have new committees in its make-up. Returning committees include Electronic Services (currently no chair designated), Newsletter (chaired by Gary Spoales, Bank of America), Photographer (chaired by Gerene Carter, CitiBank) and Public Relations (currently no chair designated). Committees new to the Information Services Commission are State Relations (chaired by Melissa Wyatt, Virginia Commonwealth University) and Federal Relation (currently no chair designated).

Some of goals for these committees include:

Electronic Services

- maintain and update the current web site

- work to transition the VASFAA to a commercial host/maintenance site with ATAC Corporation

- assist with posting the newsletter to the current web site

Newsletter

- produce 4 issues of the VASFAA Voice (the first of which will likely be posted to the existing web site)

- work with Electronic Services and the Information Services Commissioner to transition the design and posting of the newsletter to the new ATAC-hosted web site

Photographer

- provide photographic documentation of various VASFAA events for the newsletter, web site and archives

Public Relations

- work with the commissioner and the board to ensure that news about VASFAA is disseminated broad inside and outside of the association

- work with the Awareness Committee to help disseminate information about the Awareness activities including the Super Saturday event and Financial Aid Awareness month

State Relations

- work to maintain and build legislative contacts for the benefit of the association and constituency at large

- keep VASFAA apprised of pending state legislative/SCHEV issues

- solicit input from VASFAA board and membership, where appropriate, to provide feedback to the legislature and SCHEV about issues of concern

- work with Federal Relation on issues of reauthorization that might impact state policies or regulations

- continue to initiate, foster, and maintain relationships and partnerships with the Virginia legislative staff, SCHEV, and other parties with vested interests in the administration of student financial aid, including coordinating a VASFAA Board Legislative Day during the 2005 session of the General Assembly.

- continue to monitor legislative and regulatory issues; develop and foster association positions for consideration by the VASFAA board and/or membership; and advocate members’ involvement in communicating individual and/or institutional positions to the appropriate authorities.

Federal Relations

- work to maintain and build legislative contacts for the benefit of the association and constituency at large

- keep VASFAA apprised of pending federal legislative issues especially related to reauthorization

- solicit input from VASFAA board and membership, where appropriate, to provide feedback to the federal legislature about issues of concern

- work with State Relation on issues of reauthorization that might impact state policies or regulations

Submitted by Erik Melis, Commissioner and Melissa Collum Wyatt, State Relations Chair

Diversity Committee Plans

The Diversity Committee will ‘Keep the Light Shining’ during the 2004-2005 year. In keeping with President Morehouse’s goals we intend to provide speakers of national prominence to facilitate our Diversity training efforts. In addition to a speaker at our annual conference in May 2005, expect some drive-in training opportunities during the year. These opportunities may take the form of trainers and hands-on sessions.

Our committee membership has grown, but we are always looking for new ideas and members. If you are interested in becoming a part of our committee, then please contact Kerrie Roth at (757) 683-4530 or kroth@odu.edu to sign up now!

Submitted by Kerrie Roth, Chair

2004-2005

The Diversity Committee has lofty goals and objectives to accomplish this year, as noted in their separate article in this issue.

The Awareness Committee is also very ambitious in their goals and is expressed in their article below in this issue.

The Membership Committee is somewhat optimistic as to carrying out their goals for this year. You may see those take affect at the Spring Conference next year and throughout the year impacting techniques in payments, membership forms, etc.

The Secondary Relations has a full agenda of goals in accomplishing their workshops in twelve sites throughout the state. They also want to develop templates for presentations for the guidance counselors’ high school nights so that there is uniformity throughout Virginia.

In all of these endeavors, it cannot be accomplished without the help of volunteers. We have a handful, but need YOU. Whatever your forte’, bring it to us, help us in accomplishing goals for 04/05 and help make VASFAA the leader in all the FAAs.

VASFAA Awareness Committee for 2004-05 Call for Volunteers

One of the goals of the upcoming Awareness Committee is to have the name of VASFAA on the tongues of every college-bound student, parents of college-bound students and anyone else who works with college-bound students in the Commonwealth of Virginia. To reach this goal, the Awareness Committee will host a vendor booth and offer to provide a session presenter at conferences of various educational organizations. For example, on August 27 – 28 we will host a booth at the Virginia Home Education Association (VHEA) conference at the Science Museum of Virginia, in Richmond. The VHEA is a statewide organization advancing the interests of the diverse homeschooling community. They have even asked someone to serve on a panel to address the issues of college and homeschoolers.

Next we plan to participate in the Virginia Counselors Association conference planned for November 3 – 5 at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, in Roanoke. They are looking for someone to discuss with their members the services available to them through VASFAA and to explain, in layman terms, the financial aid process. We plan to be an exhibitor at this function as well.

The Awareness Committee also plans to expand Super Saturday to at least 10 locations throughout the state, including the Eastern Shore, Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. Our goal is to host it in January in conjunction to Governor Warren’s declaration of January being Financial Aid month. We will conduct financial aid informational sessions and offer assistance to students and parents in completing the FAFSA on the web. We want to make sure each participating student meets the priority deadlines established by Virginia colleges and universities. Assistance will be available to traditional as well as non-traditional students.

The Awareness Committee plans to design and distribute a pre-printed pocket to Virginia students to be used to store their financial aid information. The pocket will provide a place for the student to record the federal PIN, school and lender identification number and offer tips to successfully maneuver the financial aid process, as well as other pertinent information the student can access at their fingertips to make the college admission and financial application process smoother.

Finally, the Awareness Committee will offer to provide a financial aid informational booth at some of the college tour locations hosted by the Virginia Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (VACRAO). VACRAO hosts college nights in various locations throughout Virginia. This will offer VASFAA an opportunity to be introduced to students and parents in every region of the Commonwealth.

As you can see, the Awareness Committee has a lot of goals, and we need volunteers who share our vision. Maybe you can help design an exhibit display. We need you! Maybe you enjoy giving financial aid presentations, or want to provide incoming freshman with debt management skill. We need you! Perhaps your school has a state-of-the-art computer lab, ample free parking and an interest in hosting Super Saturday. We need you! Perhaps you possess the organizational skills needed to pull all of this together. We need you!

If you are interested in helping out with any of the plans for the Awareness Committee, whether it is to join the committee or to assist in some other manner, please contact Linda H. Woodley, committee chair, at lwoodley@ecmc.org or 1-888-775-3262, ext. 8024. VASFAA is our organization and we all should be committed to spreading the news of all we have to offer the citizens of Virginia.

Submitted by Linda H. Woodley, Awareness Committee Chair

2004-2005 Vendor/Sponsor

The coming year will prove to be an interesting one for the Vendor and Sponsor Committee. In 2004, the VASFAA Board voted to change the way events and activities are sponsored in order to create more “single source sponsorship” opportunities. Our Vendors and Sponsors will have the opportunity to select sponsorable items via a point lottery system.

So what does this mean for you? More than likely you’ll get a cool conference/beach bag to take home with you and a few other goodies as well! Seriously, the change will mean increased revenue for the association and more individualized sponsorship opportunities for our sponsor partners.

So in keeping with President Morehouse’s theme “Keep the Light Shining,”
the Vendor/Sponsor Committee will make our sponsors shine by recognizing and promoting their organizations throughout 2004 and 2005!

Submitted by Jolene Burke, Vendor/Sponsor Chair