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Officers 2011-2012
President
Harold Whitis
Vice President
Shannon Crossland
President Elect
Dana Mingo
Past President
Joseph Pettibon
Treasurer
Becky Wilson
Secretary
Iroghama Omere
Board Members
Mike Carranza
Laurie Coulter
Enrique Garcia
Raul Lerma
Melet Leafgreen
Ed Turney
Cathleen Wright
Jason Young

Vice President’s Report

  • Information about February’s Board of Directors meeting will be sent in the upcoming weeks by email.
  • It is import that the committee reports are submitted by the published deadline so that the meeting agenda can be completed.
  • Members should contact Shannon Crossland if they desire to set up a conference call meeting. The access codes are needed so that committees can utilize the service.

President Elect’s Report

  • There is no report available at this time.

Past President’s Report

  • There is no report available at this time.

Treasurer’s Report

  • The current balance sheet has been posted to the TASFAA website, disclosing all financial activities up to date in this fiscal year.
  • There is currently a balance of $60,595.03 in the TASFAA account. There was $12,600 received in membership and workshop registration fees. $1,605.55 in miscellaneous items from the silent auction. The total income received is $16,075.00.
  • The expenses include credit card fees, BOD travel, conference committee operations cost and partial payment of the attrition fee.

Committee Report

Newsletter Committee

  • There is no report available at this time.

Membership Committee

  • The membership committee is currently working on contacting institutions whose memberships have not yet been renewed, even while renewals and new memberships keep coming in. Here are the numbers as of 12/05/2011.
  • 97 institutions are current with their membership. Last year there were 209 total institutions with memberships. 115 institutions (all types who were members in 2010) have not renewed yet. . Two of the 97 memberships this year are new members.
  • The membership committee met at the TASFAA conference to discuss committee practices and priorities. On October 18, 2011, a listserv email went out to all members encouraging them to renew their membership. This week another email is scheduled to go out to all institutions whose membership expired in October asking them for renewal once again.
  • The membership committee will have a phone conference before the Holiday Break to work out details regarding a call-a-thon that will happen in the months of January and February in order to encourage renewals for any institutions that have not renewed in the past few years.
  • The membership renewals continue to come in at a steady pace and the committee plans to contact all remaining institutions before the end of February.

Fall Conference Committee

  • There was a preliminary budget sent to the President on the expected cost of the event. This budget included the meal cost. The cost of the conference social event has not yet been determined.
  • There are talks about having a golf tournament or a 5k run on the bay front. The Department of Education has been contacted to provide the federal update and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has been contacted to provide the state updates.
  • The committee will meet this upcoming Friday. Jason has been very instrumental in assisting in the planning of the conference.
  • The committee is searching for sponsors to host various events throughout the conference. The committee hopes to an additional meeting prior to February’s BOD meeting.

Communications Committee

  • A report was submitted on the website.
  • The conference site is inactive and there are various updates that have been made to the site.
  • The Facebook fan page became active in October with 119 fans.

Site Selection Committee

  • A site is currently being selected for the 2013 and they would also like to begin searching for the 2014 site.
  • Committee members are visiting various cities such as Lubbock, Houston and Dallas to find a suitable location for the future conferences. The Overton Hotel in Lubbock is a site of interest. It is a cost effective location.
  • Joseph Pettibon clarified that the 2013 site has been determined by the board in a previous meeting.
  • The committee will begin searching for the 2014 conference site.

Regional Training Committee

  • 12/6/2011 Lubbock Training Cancelled due to freezing temperatures and schools not opening until 12pm.
  • Lubbock has been rescheduled for February 23rd, 2011
  • New Date will be emailed to TASFAA list serve
  • New Date will be sent to Alan to include on TASFAA website
  • DFW Regional Training Conducted as scheduled 12/8/2011

Regional Training Committee Members who attended:

  • April Gonzales- Trainer/Presenter used one night lodging & round-trip flight
  • Delisa Falks-Observed presentation/trainer in order to prepare for Houston Regional Training- used one night lodging & round-trip mileage
  • Andrew Rodriguez- Assisted with Sign-In Participant Registration from DFW
  • Suggestions to include for review during DFW Recap conference call 12/19/2011
  • Need to have a stationary registration table to accommodate sign-in
  • Switch morning sessions of the agenda to include:
  • “Doing More With Less”
  • TASFAA presentation on Verification
  • THECB Updates
  • Federal Updates (if needed) a lot of time spent on gainful employment
  • Make change to Show What You Know: keep questions divided up equally for all three agencies, will make revisions to some of the verification questions for easier read through
  • Request that power point and electronic handouts should be available on TG’s laptop to include as additional reference material for TASFAA presenter during presentation
  • Make sure descriptions match the Verification and SAP training topics
  • Future considerations for TASFAA Board to review:
  • It was the committees understanding that this training was to incorporate our agencies equally; however it has been a challenge to keep it as such. It has been suggest to the TASFAA board to reconsider how much involvement TG should have as part of our Regional Training.
  • TASFAA should keep in mind that our Regional Training is no longer appears as a TASFAA sponsored training; this has been brought to my attention by participants and TASFAA committee members. The misconception that this is a TG Regional Training with TASFAA and THECB as guest rather than a true collaborative training are due to the following:
  • TG holds the Registration site
  • TG disclosure of Programs and Materials with Logo
  • TG sends confirmation to participants
  • Electronic Handouts are included on the TG portal
  • TG has more face time on training agenda
  • TG sends evaluation to all participants
  • Meetings & Trainings have more TG representation than TASFAA and THECB

TG has committed to this training however TASFAA regional training may have more flexibility if the following would be considered:

  1. Agenda not including TG: TASFAA could be more flexible with our start and end time along with spending more time focusing on Financial Aid Administrator hot topics including the allotted time suggested for NASFAA Decentralized Fall Training (3 hour training with hands-on) Currently significantly reduced to (1 hr. and 15 minutes no hands-on).

We are currently unable to do this due to the following:

  • Time allotment - Vickie Tanner has informed us that agenda has to include off the top 2 Financial Literacy Topics and 1 Professional Development Topic
  • Agenda for 2011-2012:
  • TG: includes Doing More With Less, Federal Update from PRAF team, Show What You Know (questions were asked from all three agencies), and Shattering Common Myths about Default
  • TASFAA: SAP and Verification
  • THECB State Updates
  1. Calendar: Incorporate more travel to accommodate more sites based off TASFAA and THECB calendar
  2. TASFAA regional committee can depend on committee members to present on the same date at different sites without having to accommodate all the TG presenters which could keep our travel time from extending till March.
  3. Our future goal could include having all regional training completed by February.
  4. Request that co-chair be assigned early on to regional training committee to assist chair with set up for 2012-2013, including logistical items, presentation preparation, and conducting presentations.
  5. TASFAA Regional Training Committee Members include:
  6. Chair/ Lubbock, DFW, San Antonio, El Paso Presenter: April Gonzales-UTSA
  7. Registration Table for DFW-Andrew Rodriguez- Tarrant County College
  8. Presenter’s for Houston: Delisa Falks Texas A&M College Station & Shana Castillo Texas A&M –Houston

Unfinished Business

  • Tia Clary contacted Justin Dragger NASFAA to get information and recommendation in regards to the selection of the treasurer position. The information and the recommended model were given to Joseph.
  • The treasurer and the secretary will be appointed by the president. A bookkeeper will be hired to manage and document the financial activities of the organization. This will limit the activity of the treasurer.
  • Since this change is being in the Constitution and By-Law, the BOD will have to review the recommended changes and it will have to be posted to the list-serv for the general body to review. The general body must vote to approve the changes in the constitution and by-laws.

New Business

  • .XXX domains are being secured by various companies. Alan contacted Paula Gordon of ATACK to get her opinion on the purchase of the domain name.
  • Per the email received from Paula, .xxx domain is being bought by other to protect the integrity of their companies’ brand. There are many different views including the thought that purchasing the domain is a tactic for domain registrars to gain additional revenue.
  • TASFAA currently owns tasfaa.com, tasfaa.org and tasfaa.net. Purchasing the xxx domain will cost $130 per year plus an annual $20 registration renewal fee.
  • It was stated that it is necessary to purchase the domain due to cost and the low risk of the organization’s brand being compromised.
  • Harold appointed Shannon, Ed, and Raul to review the constitution and by-laws and make recommendations to the Board of the various areas that need to be update. Every member of the board should review the C&BL and make recommendations to the appointed committee areas. All recommendations should be made by February’s BOD meeting.
  • Pictures of the Board should be posted to the website so that the general membership can become familiar with the members of the Board of Directors.
  • The board should come up with a method of accurately calculating the Years of Service in Financial Aid. Especially for members that take breaks from the profession.
  • The Financial Aid Tele-a-thon will be held at TG Headquarters on February 8, 2012.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:53 PM