TASFAA Board Meeting-----Dec 16 2014
Prepared by Delisa Falks-Secretary of TASFAA
Alamo Community College District Office-San Antonio (Selma Texas)
In attendance:
Anne Walker
Fabian Vasquez
Jennifer Nanni
Cecelia Jones
Karen Trail
Chris Murr
Sonia Townsend
Denise Welch
Marcos Mendez
Delisa Falks
Shannon Followill
Alan Ahmad
Meeting called to order 8:56a.m. by Anne Walker
Motion to approve minutes from priormeeting
First motion: Shannon Followill
Second motion: Celcelia Jones
All in favor-no one opposed
Anne Walker PRESIDENT’S REPORT-
Anne was able to talk to folks to do what we do.
One of the important items to discuss today is membership of TASFAA.
Thank you to the board and committee chairs participated in the training Anne held to introduce us to the website and its features.
The board homework was to reach out to their chairs and make sure they are okay and do not need anything.
Legislative year and bills have been introduced and Anne hoped that THECB would be here today, but at this point they are not.
Dr. Murr will discuss position papers that have been written, we hope to approve them today.
A big focus this year at the state level is to introduce our current funding levels, or increase them.
The other critical thing this year is our current membership. Anne pulled a current volunteer list and there were 26 new volunteers, TASFAA only has 96 institutions, TASFAA had over a hundred last year, the year prior it was over 200, TASFAA membership has been dropping.
Two goals of Anne’s as President of TASFAA is legislative items and membership.
Denise Welch-working on membership/volunteer list and sending to the committee chairs.
Some of the committees are just one person and did not need volunteers.
Anne asked about some committees thinking they are one person; however they may need more help. Board members need to reach out to committee chairs and discuss getting other volunteers to assist them.
Shannon Followill-President-Elect Report
(full report on TASFAA website)
Shannon has worked with Dana Mingo and drafted 3 letters to send to presidents of universities to recognize the board members from their institutions, also membership promotion to Directors of financial aid, and Presidents. (Conference attendance, Membership promotion and Recognition of Service-those are the three letters)
Any thoughts on whom else we might need to send it to?
TASFAA school membership needs to improve.
Shannon said that these letters need to go paper in order for the Presidents to actually see it. A more personal approach to send paper. Membership committee should send the letters.
Anne wanted to pass a piece of paper sent around a room to write down who the letters should go to on our campus.
Ann will ask Scott Moore If he has anyone on his committee who can work on this. Whoever sends these out can keep track of expenses and TASFAA will reimburse. Shannon will send out the letters to the board for review and edits tomorrow.
Marcos asked about training opportunities to be included in these letters. Marcos can attend and TASFAA will pay for it as he was the rising star for last year.
Membership-Donnie Purvis would like to take over Membership
Site Selection-Vice Chair
Jess Black-Angelo State-Web services
There was discussion on Co chairs for fall conference.
Heather Fountain-Regional Training and Tiara Greves
Communication and social---Ilara from Rice
Shannon is grateful to serve and to assisting TASFAA in this role.
Next year 50th Anniversary of the Higher Education Act-will we do something to recognize this 50th year?
---May want to talk to our legislatures-Ann asked Shannon to get something out to the board on this. Also the act was signed at Texas State by Lyndon B. Johnson
Melet Leafgreen-Past President’s report
Is out on the google documents-to be posted to TASFAA website (see full report there)
Melet is on a debt and repayment committee, as well as Chris Murr.
Anne asked Chris Murr to speak on this, the committee has not met as of yet, a number of the committee members have served on the TG’s Council in the past. Chris stated they will continue to educate and use TASFAA as the mechanism to do so. Anne stated this will go hand in hand with the state goals
Anne believes we need to authorize this group; she wanted to talk about authorizing this and wanted to discuss this as a task force.
The Past President’s end of the year report is underway. We hope to have this by the next board meeting.
TREASURE REPORT- Fabian Vasquez
Rogers Capital-Denise pulled up the latest report from November-this will be emailed to everyone. This was a report on the mutual funds. First page explained assets, it did increase by $6,600.00, the rest of the report shows TASFAA’s portfolio. The $6,600.00 was for the month of October. The estimated annual income was estimated at a bit over $4,000.00. Overall assets look to be in good shape. There was a motion last meeting to move around the funds. Fabian will take any questions and send to Tia who will get those questions to Rogers Capital.
THECB Report-Catherine Gibson
Catherine Carson with THECB gave brief update- the legislature had 15 state agencies go through a review, it was the Sunset review.
One thing asked for in the strategic review came out of the FAACP meeting-having to do with the Be on Time loan Program, all the set asides have not been given back to the schools. THECB asked that all those monies that the public schools have given be allocated out. They also asked that the repayments from existing loans be allocated as well. The repayment monies go back to the Treasury. The Treasure is currently using the money to balance the budget. We think it is about a million dollars.
Tuition Set asides will be looked at as well in the upcoming Legislative session. We are not sure if they will be repealed or not. (HB 0117)
There has not been a great deal of bills filed as of yet.
Undocumented Students-will be reviewed during the next legislative session as well as this is a new important issue for Lt. Governor
SB 0053 Jane Nelson-strategic reviews make agencies go through every session-This is a great deal of work and it can take up to a year.
SB 0136 Senator Charles Barry-Zero based budgeting for agencies
SB 1117 Van Taylor-requires student to be eligible to federal financial aid to receive Texas Grant. Appears to be work around to remove Texas G funds from undocumented students. Anne asked if TASFAA wanted to take a position on? She was not sure if as organization if we could come together on this.
Discussion on Top 10% at Financial Aid Advisory Committee-THECB
There was also a topic at the FAAC meeting to send TEOG money directly to the schools.
New plan after Closing the Gaps-one items discussed is keeping the amount of debt is keeping it at 60% of your earnings in your first job. There is a committee working on this. Any ideas are welcomed. One idea was to keep the number of students who borrow on your campus at 50%. The committee that the past president Melet is putting together would be key in this discussion.
Strategies-better advise student and parents, optimize funding sources, fully funding grants, reduce semester credit hours to completion by adding guided pathways to their degree, support bachelorette initiatives.
TASFAA can submit a position paper on loan education to student borrowers to the house education committee and the senate education committee.
TASFAA BUDGET DISCUSSION-Anne had the Budgets up on for FY 15 and FY14 so that the Board members could see them side by side.
Fabian discussed what was approved for FY 14 and then what has been spent-this year we had a net income gain of 22,000. The final numbers for fall conference are not complete.
Anne took last year’s budget and tried to determine what would be realistic for FY 15, she noted that going into the year we were $21,000 in the hole. The fall conference fees earned $75,000, and the expenses were less so we did make some money.
We do not want to go into the year with an unbalanced budget. Anne tried to be realistic with some items on the budget sheet.
The ABC Workshop brought in $16,000. For the Fall conference we only had 200 attendees in El Paso, at the Galveston conference we had over 400. Anne is hoping for 375 for fall 15 conference, so we can balance the budget.
She is also trying to get 25 to exhibitors. We currently only charge $250.00 dollars to exhibitors. They exhibitor has to be a member of TASFAA and pay for conference fee.
The TASFAA New Aid Officers Workshop cost $24,000 last year.
Membership dues were kept the same as last year on the budget sheet. TASFAA had 171 Schools last year that were members. If we bring up the memberships we can increase revenue a bit. The only way to get more people at the conference is to increase membership.
The board discretionary line item was left at $1,000.00, the Board of Directors travel bumped to $20,000.00 from $10,000.00. We will have 4 face to face board meetings for FY 15.
Past Presidentravel left the same.
President Travel kept a $4000.00
President Elect-$3000.00
Book keeper-left the same
Audit gone up to $2625.00
Insurance stay the same
Credit card increased to what we spent last year
FUZE box and Survey Monkey? Do we still need?----Need Survey Monkey as needed for evaluations from the conferences, and also to get responses on issues
ATAC the same
Miscellaneous administrative was left the same
Site selection-kept the same
Legislative Issues left the same
Fall conference last year we budgeted $90,250.00, Eric only spent about $46,000.00. Anne took off $3200.00, resulting in budget for fall conference at 95,000.
Regional Training-last year budgeted $8,000.00, but we spent $12,000.00, so she used $12,000.00 for the coming year
New Aid Officers-last year budgeted $22,500.00 we increased for FY 15 to$24,000.00
The ABC TASFAA workshop was lowered to $3500.00, as most of the cost is covered by the conference budget.
Trail Blazer award, left the same, and increased the Trail Blazer travel-$2300.00 (leadership symposium)
Mack Adams-left the same-----Where does the money from fundraising for Mack Adams go to? Fabian will check he believes it goes back to the scholarship fund. It is not income, it is scholarship monies to give.
Awards & Scholarships-left the same
The total expenses are at $190,775.00, which gets us closer to a balanced budget.
-----Can we make the proposed 375 attendees for the Fall 2015 conference
----Homework from board-contact 10 institutions to talk to them about TASFAA membership, the fall conference ----make a few phone calls. Anne will call some proprietary schools.
____if we do get 375 at the fall conference we might get more in the ABC workshop, we might not have enough in the budget for ABC.
____Anne asked do we need a larger line item for the fall conference.
___what happens if we over spend in one area? We also have a large reserve. If we over on the conference then it is worth of it.
____should we bump the conference budgeted up?
Discussions is selling TASFAA to institutions on what the organization can do for you….Be more strategic-
Marketing line item pitched by Dr. Murr-for the TASFAA organization. Apply to all our communications-aimed not only to Directors and front line staff-the others who would benefit-business office staff, career services,
Marcos talked about mid management staff tract
Anne discussed in the past struggles to get schools to present.
Anne stated we need to increase the line item in the budget for Fall conference to $105,000.00.
There was a line item inserted for Marketing in the budget of $1500.00.
Now we are at $202,575.00, thus we are $12,000.00 out of balance. If we do not hit our 375 we could end up being $20,000 in the red. Are we okay with this as a board?
First motion to approve the budget made by Sonia Townsend
Second motion for approval of the budget made by the Karen Trail
Voted on by the board and all approved it. (no one opposed)
Jennifer Nanni-Early Awareness Committee
We had 12 host sites sign up for the workshop and one site did 12.
13 NT4CM-National Training for counselors and mentors (DOE Training for High School Counselors)
Last year we had 1000 counselors/mentors sign up last year
Debbie from ATLE has been very instrumental in helping with this training
Jennifer wanted to send a Thank you gift to Debbie-approved to do so from miscellaneous budget
Any ideas from improvement Jennifer welcomes any ideas.
The DOE no longer does the CEU credits so Jennifer is still working on this issue. She believes the attendee will still be able to get credit.
ATLE REPORT- will not be in attendance today
Constitution and by Law Committee Report-Shannon Followill
All position papers are on the TASFAA website from 2010. Great new committee members, they will review the constitution and by-laws and will have report back to the TASFAA board by February 2015.
Legislative Issues Committee-Chris Murr
State of Texas position paper had some revisions recommended.
Federal position paper has been approved.
Also there was a response from the House committee-they do not support the position on the Be On Time loan, we prepared a response on this-Gorge Torres from TGSLC wrote it and Dr. Murr edited it as well. Anne approved Dr. Murr to send out.
Need a motion to approve the revised position papers
First Motion to approve position papers-Shannon Followill
Second Motion to approve-Marcos Mendez
All board members approved (no one opposed)
They will be posted on the TASFAA website
Next Board meeting will be on February 5, 2015 At TG in Austin Texas
COMMITTEE REPORTS-
Eric Cooper-Fall Conference Committee (submitted this report via email to Denise Welch)
Eric K. Cooper - Texas A&M University - San Antonio (Chair)
Scott A. Moore - University of Houston (Co-Chair)
Brenda M. Benedetti - Texas A&M University - San Antonio
Yolanda M Cleveland - University of Texas – Arlington
Erika M. Cox - University of Texas at San Antonio
Jael E. Garcia - University of Texas - Pan American
Brandy S Gilliam - Texas Woman's University
Linda A Gonzalez-Hensgen - El Paso Community College
Donna King - Grayson County College
Raul H Lerma - El Paso Community College
Lou Murray – NelnetAmanda L Smith - Clarendon College
Roy Tuberville - El Paso Community College
Denise Welch - Panola College
Molly M Williams - Tyler Junior College
This year’s conference took us to El Paso, TX with beautiful weather and plenty of things to do and learn. Although this year’s conference was smaller than expected with only 232 attendees, we know that budget constraints and travel probably played a role. However, this does make us pause to think about the future and support of TASFAA, especially in light of the fact this year’s theme, Shaping Tomorrow’s Future Today, since we do play such a major role in the future of colleges and students throughout the state of Texas.
For those that were able to attend, we had great general sessions from Trevor Summers and Justin Draeger, wonderful welcomes from Melet Leafgreen, Anne Walker and Andrew Hammontree of SWASFAA. The entertainment this year was spectacular, if not a little eerily spot-on from David Magee and Fungi Mungle. Did y’all see those pictures?!?!? And, we had great and poignant presentations from experts all across the state!
TASFAA was able to raise nearly $1000 for the Mac Adams Scholarship and also was able to provide some much needed money to our community service recipient: The Reynolds Home.
If you missed the conference, please visit the conference site and take a look at the presentation materials. Nearly all of the presenters have offered their materials for you to reference, highlighting the collegiality of TASFAA!
Thank you to the conference committee for a lot of hard work, to everyone who attended and especially to those exhibitors who attended and supported us and to the folks who presented material to make this a terrific conference. See you again next year in Austin, TX!!!
Anne noted that she was very pleased with El Paso. Eric did a great job and came way under budget. Justin Draeger being there is a great thing for TASFAA. NASFAA is interested in what the state associations are doing.
Membership Committee Report-Beth Reid/Donnie Purvis
Donnie Purvis submitted this report to Denise Welch via email
Beth Reid and I are working on getting the membership updated.
Here is our plan to clean up the membership.
First, I have downloaded the entire membership into an Excel file so I can filter which ones are institutions and which are vendors.
Our focus will be on cleaning up the institutional membership first. We are sending out emails directly to the directors in charge of the institution along with all the staff membership associated with that school. We are asking two possible questions. First, please update all the staff members listed and/or add any new members to your staff. Once we get this mail, either Beth or I will go into the Database and make these updates for the schools.