Nebraska Association of Federal Student Aid Administrators
RMASFAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING, October 2013
NEBRASKA STATE REPORT
Submitted by Tom Ochsner, Past-President
NeASFAA Board Members
President: Matthew Johnson, University of Nebraska - Kearney
Past-President: Tom Ochsner, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Secretary: Beth Sisk, College of Saint Mary
Treasurer: Marty Habrock, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Associate Representative: Don Buehrer, Nelnet
Private School Representative: Annie Lee, College of Saint Mary
Proprietary Representative: Sara Christensen, Kaplan University - Lincoln
Public 2 year Representative: Stacy Dieckman, Northeast Community College
Public 4 year Representative: Erin Dinneen, University of Nebraska – Omaha
NeASFAA Spring 2013 Conference
The NeASFAA Spring 2013 Conference was held April 25-26 at the Midtown Holiday Inn in Grand Island, NE. We had close to 80 attendees, including the honor of having RMASFAA President Jeff Jacobs joining us. Approximately 15 of those in attendance indicated they were from the Business Office sector. The evaluations for the event were very favorable, and the Professional Development Committee felt the conference provided excellent content. Suggested improvements to the conference were incorporating more NeASFAA members as presenters and including a “back to the basics” track for newer members or those from the Business Office sector.
The following members of NeASFAA were honored at the conference:
Renee Besse (University of Nebraska – Kearney) – Bob Minturn Special Recognition Award
Marty Habrock (University of Nebraska – Lincoln) – Distinguished Service Award
Cindy Delaney (Nebraska Wesleyan University) – Distinguished Service Award
Ray Miller (Grace University) – Rookie of the Year
Craig Munier (University of Nebraska – Lincoln) – Feel the Excitement Award
Don Buehrer (Nelnet) and Stacy Seim (EducationQuest Foundation) – Committee of the Year Award (Corporate Development Committee)
We also recognized Randy Sell (University of Nebraska – Omaha), Tina Larsen (Nebraska Christian College), Steve Millnitz (Central Community College – Grand Island), and Diane Kahle (Doane College) on their retirement from the financial aid community.
Special thanks goes out to Laura Schulz, Ray Miller, Beth Sisk, Kent Wolfe, Marron Keady, Hylee Aschee, Vicki Kucera, and Cindy Delaney in planning this conference.
June Board Meeting
LeAnn Hoffman led the June 7 Board Meeting of NeASFAA as the new President. The main objective of this meeting was to do some strategic planning and visioning for NeASFAA. To help us achieve this goal, LeAnn invited Brenda Hicks (Director of Financial Aid at Southwestern College and a Past-President of RMASFAA) to attend the meeting and to lead us through the process. A lot of good discussion took place and the Board will again focus on this issue at our planned October 11th meeting, with the intent of discussing implementation of the initiatives that were suggested.
Change in Leadership
On August 5 LeAnn Hoffman announced her resignation at Wayne State College to accept the position of Director of Financial Aid at Western Iowa Tech Community College. As a result of her leaving the state, she at the same time announced her resignation as President of NeASFAA. Matt Johnson (University of Nebraska – Kearney), who was the President-Elect, will now assume the duties of President and will in essence serve for two terms in this role.
Fall Training
It was just announced that we will be holding our annual Support Staff Workshop on Friday, November 1 at Mahoney State Park (near Ashland, NE). Topics that will be covered include: an overview of student loan programs and how to effectively communicate the regulations to students; R2T4 basics, how to communicate better with students, and how R2T4 affects various offices; customer service basics and how to creatively deal with difficult situations; and an overview of studentaid.gov and studentloans.gov, with a walk-through of entrance loan counseling and PLUS request forms.
For the first time, we will be holding our Fall Training at two locations in the state to better accommodate all members across the state. The training will be held on November 4 at Mahoney State Park and on November 5 at the University of Nebraska – Kearney. The topic is on being prepared for a Department of Education Program Review, and will be led by Diane Stemper (Director of Student Financial Aid at the Ohio State University) and Bob Walker (Director of Financial Aid at Creighton University).
Spring 2014 Conference
The Spring 2014 Conference will be held in Norfolk, NE on April 10-11 at the Divots Conference Center.