DE-DC-MD ASFAA Executive Board Meeting

2015 Retreat

June 16, 2015

Members Present:

Dawn Shockley, Amy Spinnato, Danielle Ballantyne, Meghan Palumbo, Carrie Ford, Stephanie Bender, Tisa Silver, Aristea Williams, Danetta Burgess, Nicole McDaniel-Smith, Andrea Cipolla, Beth McSweeney, Debra Ensor, Vicki Smith, Donna Thomas, Sarah Mariner, Chris Zimmermann, Susan Erb and Andrew Harvey.

Excused Absences:

Precious Smith, Biz Daniel, Detra Hooper and Judi Amey

Dawn called meeting to order at 11:06

Chair, Dawn Shockley: Report posted…review of things we’ve done this year and thanked all for serving. Thanked Aristea for putting together the Hill visit. Vicki motioned to approve minutes. Aristea seconded the motion. No abstentions. No discussion. Minutes approved.

Chair Elect, Amy Spinnato: Report posted. Amy has had several conference calls. She toured and met with Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort and Holiday Inn. Amy also went with Danielle and Deb to discuss 2016 Fall Conference.

Past Chair, Danielle Ballantyne: Report posted. Solicited nominations and two people withdrew their vote. Vicki asked how many paid members we had. It was determined that there were 309 but only 51 voted. Danielle asked if Dawn has checked with Paula to see if members were only allowed to vote for their particular state. Discussion regarding the possibility of handing out paper votes at events/conferences to get more votes was mentioned. Spring training had a little below 50 in attendance. We looked at nomination/elections notes for 2013. Three years ago we had 90 voters.

Treasurer, Meghan Palumbo: No report posted. Meghan stated that it looks like we are currently about $12,000 in the hole. Andrea asked if there were outstanding checks. Meghan stated they have all been up to date as of June 15, 2015.

Secretary, Carrie Ford: No report posted. Dawn asked for the motion to accept the minutes.

DE President, Nicole McDaniel-Smith: Report posted…Nicole continues to work with Stand By Me and The Department of Education. Delaware is working on a texting campaign with the high school graduating class of 2015 using Signal Vine Software. So far, 4000 students have signed up. Parents can sign up as well. Nicole has also found a few people who are willing to participate in Tri-State events.

DC President, Precious Smith: Excused…no report posted.

MD President, Sarah Mariner: Report posted…Sarah has done several things: 1) Continued doing the high school counselor workshops. 2) Did the community outreach in the fall. 3) Did the red shoe shuffle and raised $405. 4) Also did the MD food bank. 5) Hosted a diversity event at JHU. Sarah is still strongly engaging people to get involved and hope to have a bigger presence on social media. Susan asked we could host something in various locations. Sarah said we could be. Andrea stated that we use to have one. Aristea was in charge of it. Andrea stated that Chair should assign adhoc committees. Dawn asked Sarah if there was anything she could say about EASFAA. Sarah stated that both organizations have the same issues…trying to get more people involved and to participate in the organization. Next year is EASFAA’s 50thyear milestone so they’re gearing up to celebrate and will be having their conference in Atlantic City. Danielle suggested Amy having the conference in Atlantic City. Aristea stated that EASFAA is also talking about outsourcing the Treasurer stuff to an outside agency.

Organization & Governance, Vicki Smith: Report posted. Vicki stated that she sent out two email notices about the changes in the Policy and Procedures Manuel. She motioned for the group to accept changes as is. She stated that at this point everything is updated and changed and she asked if anyone had any suggestions. On page 8, number 10 talks about the name of our old newsletter. Do we want to update that name or is it still called the same thing. Danielle states it’s the same name. Also on page 56, Vicki wondered if the fee’s section need updated. Vicki changed “Venders” to “Business Partners”. Vicki stated that if the name of a committee needs changed, it will need to be a Bylaw change. Susan motioned to accept Vicki’s motion to accept the changes made thus far to the Policy and Procedures manual. Andrea seconded. No abstentions. No discussion…All in favor…motion carried. Policy and Procedures manual changes accepted as is. Also website has been updated. Danielle thanked Vicki for all of her hard work on updating Policy and Procedures Manual.

Awards & Scholarships, Stephanie Bender: Report posted. Stephanie stated that she’s received 10 nominations. Stephanie contacted directors. She also thanked all those who nominated. She asked for the votes of outgoing members by email and stated that she will send out today, June 16th.

Electronic Services, Tisa Silver: Report posted. Tisa is currently working well. Paula is asking for a little more time. Job postings are all up-to-date. Tisa has found that Facebook is more popular than Twitter. Vicki asked if there was a way we could get the minutes updated and posted in the correct places. Deb was verifying there is a charge per request to Paula. Dawn stated that we should be cautious. Dave explained that Paula doesn’t charge per request, but we pay a monthly fee and then periodically pay a maintenance fee. Sarah stated that when she posted info to Facebook, it didn’t post correctly. Dawn explained that she hasn’t been successful in contacting Detra to determine if she’ s in charge of operating the Facebook page. Dawn suggested that we should review where things are posted at each meeting. Danielle stated that Michael Poma started the Facebook page and she’s still an administrator. Danielle stated that she will look at it more to see if she can add others. Vicki stated that we should create a word document with the log in information and store it safely somewhere so that the board always knows where the log in information is and who the administrators are. Deb suggested we check to see which committee’s budget is charged. Dave stated that the invoices have who the purchases are charged to right on them.

Lunch 12:15

Meeting called back to order at 1:10

Federal Relations, Aristea Williams and Andrew Harvey: Report posted. The Hill visit went very well. EASFAA may be reengaged but nothing is definite yet. Also, they will be going to hearings which Andrew lets the FRC know about ahead of time. At this point, Senators don’t think there’s a student loan debt issue. Aristea explained that they feel loans are around the same as car loans and people aren’t asking for car loans help. Senator Mikulski is retiring this year and Aristea suggested that maybe the board get her a gift of appreciation. Andrew indicated that more people need to attend the Hill visits to help cover more and to be able to have longer visits to each area. Susan asked if we could schedule maybe two different visits. Arista stated that we could certainly do so. Danielle explained that there is a list of federal relations resources on our website under “Resources”. Aristea stated that TriState is one of the few groups that have representation of the three areas. Ariestea stated that there were metro cards, dinner, etc. that Tri-State covers. Deb suggested that the FRC group might want to think about announcing the out-of-pocket expenses when advertising the Hill visits. Dave asked if the FRC looked at taking any students on the visits. Ariestea states that they talked about that but wasn’t sure about the liability or if schools would allow this. Andrew stated that in the past he’s gotten students’ stories from Garrett College and got their permission to share their stories. Beth suggested that we try to send letters from every state. Aristea asked if we could get any letters to them so they could share.

Membership/Membership Outreach, Susan Erb and Beth McSweeney: Report posted. There are currently 309 Member s with 300 active members. Not clear as to what “active” means. Assuming it is “paying” members. There were 6 new volunteers at the Fall Conference. Beth states that budgets are an issue with membership. Chris asked if we knew how many colleges in our region that don’t have membership. Susan and Beth said they feel there is a way to run the numbers to find out this information. They’re thinking that maybe in 15-16 they’ll send post cards.

Conference, Danielle Ballantyne & Debra Ensor: Report posted…114 attendees for the Fall Conference. The conference committee got some very good feedback. Danielle said she feels that there should really be two people working on this project because it’s a lotof work. The conference committee will continue with Survey Monkey. Deb explained that we can always go back to the database and update or review if we forget something. Deb stated that we shouldn’t completely write Dover Downs off due to our last experience.

Historian, Danette Burgess: Report posted. Danette asked the group which documents should be kept as paper copies and which should she store in the Historical Society. Further discussion on this will continue with future meetings.

Long-Range Planning, Andrea Cipolla: No report. Andrea stated that she was going to do a survey but couldn’t find the information. Deb will send the survey information to Andrea.

Old Business: The meeting was called to order at 3:08 PM. The group started off with the new discussion about the logo. Do we keep the old logo or choose one of the new ones that Brandon’s work study designed? Deb suggested that we have a contest with work study students at our colleges to promote coming up with a new logo. Susan suggested that the new board discuss logos. It was decided to table the logo for the new board.

Danielle motioned to adjourn the meeting. Vicki seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 3:18 PM.

DE-DC-MD ASFAA Executive Board Meeting

2015 Retreat -Passing of the Gavel

June 16-17, 2015

Members Present:

Amy Spinnato, Dawn Shockley, Andrea Cipolla, David Manning, Chris Zimmerman, Holly Hawkins, Marie Janiszewski, Nicole McDaniel-Smith, Sarah Mariner, Stephanie Bender, Tisa Silver, Keia Brown, Aristea Williams, Andrew Harvey, Susan Erb, Beth McSweeney, Debra Ensor, Danielle Ballantyne, Danette Burgess, and Melanie Mason

Excused Absences:

Precious Smith, Biz Daniels, Dawn Mosisa-Lowe,

June 16, 2015 – 3:30 pm

Call to Order – New Chair Amy Spinnato

  • Amy Spinnato welcomes new board members and has each member introduce themselves to the new members
  • Chair’s Vision: “I am excited to be the chair of the DE-DC-MD (Tri-State) Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (ASFAA) for the 2015-2016 year. Being a member of Tri-State my entire financial aid career has allowed me to gain access to a great networking community.

As an association, we plan to continue to offer a variety of training events in addition to keeping your offices abreast of changes on the hill. We will continue to provide employment listings as a benefit of membership, giving members access to career opportunities.With budgets being tight we feel that our membership rates, conference and training costs are reasonable while at the same time providing much value.

Tri-State relies on volunteers in order to provide our services. If it’s been a while since you have volunteered or if you are looking to connect with a group of caring knowledgeable professionals than this is the association for you.We are also an association that gives back to the community through fundraising events as well as offering scholarships.Plans have already begun for Neophyte Training and Fall Conference 2015.I am honored to serve with such a dedicated group of professionals! ~ Amy Spinnato

  • Meeting rules/Suspend By-Laws/Appoint Resident Agent (David Manning)
  • Board Rules state that only 9 executive members vote
  • Andrea Cipolla motion to suspend that rule and allow all chairs to vote; Dawn Shockley 2nd ; vote – all in favor to allow chairs to vote
  • Amy Spinnato motions to appoint David Manning as Resident Agent to Tri State; All in favor
  • The description or the Resident Agent is in the policy and procedures

NEW BUSINESS

Budget Discussion(Andrea Cipolla David Manning)

  • Andrea Cipolla and David Manning share the budget discussion from earlier in the retreat. The Finance Committee decided to keep the fees the same for the new year ($40 membership fee, $30 workshop fee, $575 Neophyte fee, $195 conference fee– ($71,725 Income)
  • Remember the budget is just a tool. If y you don’t spend all the fund, that’s ok; if you go over, that’s ok, but be aware of the budge. If there are problems or questions throughout the year, let the Board know.
  • We need to make an effort at increasing membership and attendees at events. It will allow for more funds for spend.
  • We are currently working with a deficient in spending, which we can survive for the time being, but not for the long haul (probably for @ 8 years).
  • Budget is based on the # of people anticipated with estimates
  • Danielle Ballantyne motions for fees to remain the same; Chris Zimmerman 2nd; all in favor

Tri-State Website – Discussion and Demo (Tisa Silver)

  • The Website user guide was emailed to everyone from Andrea Cippola
  • All postings go thru Tisa Silver to forward to Paula Gordon for updating website. It keeps it easier and more streamlined; Tisa is a designated person to save in the expense of engaging Paula
  • Reminder that the Member Services tab is where all the info is housed
  • Administrative options is where the board goes for our specific information
  • Electronic Services – Committee Reports and Minutes Postings
  • Minutes (make a document/ upload it –easiest); there is a form that can be used as well.
  • Membership is confirmed prior to a job is posted on the website.
  • Danielle Ballantyne commented on a tool we can use –“Potential New Members”…new members that show interest in your committee…they will be listed there with contact info…committee chairs should follow up or reach out to new members
  • Danielle Ballantyneshared that saving documents with “dot” can be an issue
  • Nicole McDaniel-Smith shared that you may need to save documents to your C drive vs. server…can run into uploading issues.
  • Tisa is working on updating and cleaning up the website – any new photos to Tisa by July 1.

Committee Goals and Objectives

Fall Conference - Present information (Minutes posted on the website.) (Debra Ensor & Danielle Ballantyne)

  • Clarion in OC, MD - November 10-12, 2015 (11th is Veteran’s Day)
  • Executive Board meeting on Tuesday – 10-12 am and conference will start from there
  • Few bumps with hotel staff planning….working it all out (veteran staff retired)
  • Theme ideas…entertainment ideas (shorter time frame to keep people there). (Carnival on the Boardwalk; Knowledge is the Name of the Game; Connect Collaborate, Innovate, Differentiate, All in a Day’s Work
  • Call for sessions via Survey Monkey in fall
  • Motivational Speaker at lunch
  • Andrew Harvey suggested Sen. Barbara Mikulskias speaker; offer recognition of her support to Higher Education – fit her in into the agenda based on her schedule. Let’s try to get her and then plan around it. (Veteran’s day may be an issues?) – What time of award? Honorary Lifetime Membership? Dedication to FA Offices?
  • Sarah Mariner suggested an alternative, Motivational Speaker Raymond Anderson from the ASL workshop (Sarah will send his info on the conference chairs)
  • Andrea Cipolla suggests the need to bring back the formal business meeting format into the conference. It allows us to recruit and toot our horn on what we do. The Chair would lead the meeting with Chairs of Committees giving 5 minute updates to give audience an idea of what’s going on. Committees that do have something going on – use the time. …Incorporate it into registration with blubs to allow for sign ups
  • Invite EASFA President to Conference as well; Few minutes to speak to the group; question came up within discussion…who pays for the EASFA member’s expenses to attend; Do we pay or does EASFA pay? (Amy will check with Rick Heath and Barb Miller as former EASFA leaders; it not clear in policy who pays); Is it standard that we invite them each year? What is the value the attendance? Should it be an Invitation? Maybe ask them to do a presentation? Conference Chairs will inquire with other States involved with EASFA to see what they do.
  • David Manning suggests that we don’t make it an invitation. Give them an opportunity to present and make it clear what’s covered (in black and white/policy and procedures); Reach out will come from the Chair (Amy) ----INVESTIGATE BEFORE MOVING FORWARD (Conference Chairs and Chair (Debra/Danielle and Amy). (Page 96 of P&P…details about how things are negotiable each year)

4:50 pm - SUSPENDING THE MEETING UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING