Editor's Embelishments

by Gary Spoales, Bank of America
VASFAA Voice Editor

What a Fall!  We’ve had virtually every type of weather already and as I write this it is only the second week in December.  We have had hurricanes, tornados, snowstorms, thunderstorms, floods, and earthquakes – yes earthquakes.  Welcome to East California – they had wildfires and our area had arsonists. 

By the time you see this, you will have celebrated a variety of December holidays and New Years’ Eve to welcome in 2004.  The Newsletter Committee would like to extend our sincere wish to each of you for a very Happy and Prosperous 2004. 

Welcome to the second edition of the newsletter for 2003 - 2004.    We hope you enjoy the content and again welcome your suggestions for future issues.  Send any comments, suggestions or submissions for publishing to me at: gary.a.spoales@bankofamerica.com or call me at 301-879-8008 with questions.

In this issue, there are articles of special interest to stimulate your thinking as you continue planning and implementing your 2004-05 office strategies.  SASFAA is promoting its’ upcoming conference in Birmingham, AL and other important dates are listed in the calendar section, including the Spring VASFAA conference dates.  The President’s message provides important and up to date information on Association activities which warrant your review.  In addition, several committees provided updates for this issue while additional committee activity continues to be available on the VASFAA website.  Visit it often to keep up to date with the latest information.

As we continue a second year under the new format, the committee would like to provide you with concrete submission guidelines to better serve the membership and potential contributors.

The purpose of the newsletter is to keep the membership informed and up to date on association supported activities, and items and/or articles of general interest to the financial aid community.  Careful steps are being taken to meet your needs professionally while resisting the temptation to accept articles simply to fill space.  Consequently, we have developed an editorial policy to accomplish this task.

Article Guidelines:  The Editorial staff will review all articles submitted for publication.  Submissions should be of a professional interest to the association and not include marketing and/or advertising of products, services, websites or personnel.

Full articles should be no longer than two typed pages single spaced.  It is requested that all submissions be provided in 10 pt size with Arial font type to save our publishing editor time and energy.

AD and Picture Guidelines:  The online newsletter flows best with graphics submitted in .jpeg or .gif format.  Other options should be reviewed with Joe Dobrota, Publishing Editor, prior to sending.  An ad should not be larger than 6'' in width.  You submit it in either Full color or black& white according to your preference.

We are seeking Gold Sponsors to possibly submit vertical ads this year (to enable us to get them further up in the page & have text wrap around the ad).  A vertical ad would be about 2'' wide x 4-5'' high.  An example of the size of traditional ads may be found at: http://www.vasfaa.org/docs/newsletters/fall2002/page1.htm.  We had one sponsor submit an animated gif. ad which can be viewed at: (http://www.vasfaa.org//docs/newsletters/summer2003/page6.htm)

(Note:  Ads are only accepted from Sponsors at the Gold level who receive a free ad in the issue of their choice based on availability)