WASFAA 2011-12 Executive Council Fall Quarterly Meeting

WASFAA 2011-12 Executive Council Fall Quarterly Meeting

November 17 & 18, 2011

Coeur d’Alene Resort, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Present: Kay Soltis, Mindy Bergeron, Paula Cady, Breena Conlin, Jack Edwards, Lynn Fox, Sandi Guidry, Adam Hatch (proxy for Candice Wong), Steve Herndon, Laura Hughes, Abril Hunt, Tracey Lehman (proxy for Ashley Munro), Bert Logan, Peter Miller, Ashley Munro, Scott Nielsen, Sun Ow, Judy Saling, Tami Sato (proxy for Darcy Keller), Leonard Walker,Neil Woolf, Luhui Whitebear, Jennifer Zimmers

Not Present: Renee Davis, Nichole Doering, Kevin Jensen,Darcy Keller, Wendy Olson, Mary San Agustin,Kim Schreck, Candice Wong, Jim White

Call to order: A quarterly meeting of WASFAA’s executive council was held in Coeurd’Alene, Idaho, on November 17, 2011. The meeting convened at 1:04 pm with Kay, Soltis,President, presiding and Tami Sato, acting as secretary.

Announcements: A group dinner will be at Bonsai at 6:30 p.m. with a reception first in room 1804.

Consent Agenda: The agenda was sent to EC before the meeting. Kay Soltis asked if there were any request for changes. The State Presidents Group report will be provided by Paula Cady and the Vice-Presidents report by Ashley Munro were added. With no objections, the consent agenda was adopted. The consent agenda action includes the approval of the minutes from the June 9-10 meeting which includes the electronic voting for approval of the JRSMLI registration fee and the registration fee for training.

Reminders: Since we did not have name placards, members can raise their hand to signify that they would like to speak. Jack Edwards will keep a list. There are three proxies for state presidents and Tami Sato is acting Secretary. ALASFAA has a new president, Ashley Munro but she is also WASFAA Vice-President so Tracey Lehman will be proxy for Alaska. AASFAA also has a new president, Paula Cady. Ashley Salisbury will be taking over the chair position for Electronic Services and Historical Archives.

TO DO: Ashley Salisbury should make sure that these changes are reflected at the website.

Outstanding To Do List: Tami Sato reviewed the list of to do’s that were extracted from the minutes and Kay Soltis added a few. Luhui Whitebear made the suggestion that the EC members be sent an email reminding them of their To Do before the meeting.

Leonard Walker/Adam Hatch – Did submit an article for the newsletter on the site selection process.

Adam Hatch - Determined that there were no video capabilities for Go2Mtg and explored video streaming systems like SKYPE.

Sun Ow - Will investigate conflict of interest concerns regarding support for members/students to participate in WASFAA training.

Sandi Guidry – She will work with Luhui Whitebear to get the electronic ballot up after this meeting.

Jim White – He did obtain two additional proposals from Portland hotels.

TO DORenee Davis - Was going to review ATAC changes/charges to see if any savings can be made. Ashley Salisbury is taking over as Electronic Services Chair so this to do may fall to her.

Sandi Guidry/Kay Soltis –Contacted Just Draeger to ask about WASFAA sending a representative for the upcoming negotiated regulation sessions. Kevin Jensen from our Federal Relations Committee could not commit to the time commitment. If we found someone WASFAA and NASFAA could assist.

Kay Soltis/Peter Miller – Followed up on trying to locate the documents requested by the NASFAA investment company. This update will be covered during the Fiscal Planning report.

Introductions: Kay Soltis asked EC members to introduce themselves and tell us one thing they are working with or implementing new in their office. Most frequently mentioned were thesetting of SAP policy or system changes issues.

State Presidents Reports

Alaska – Ashley Munro reported that 3 Presidents have left the state and as a Past-President she will serve as President until their conference. They hope to partner with WASFAA to have face-to-face training. She is the only paid member presently and she plans to have members pay 2 years membership and WASFAA membership.

Arizona – Paula Cady reported that their state also has had lots of changes this year, Kathreen Baggett stepped down. The Vice-President was lost because she moved out-of-state. Paula Cady was elected President 2 weeks before conference and they had a nice conference with representatives from WASFAA, NASFAA and the Department of Education. Reviews by members have been good. They are planning a Spring Symposium. A big task is cleaning up the membership database which will help in recruiting new members.

California- Lynn Fox reported that they were busy with their conference coming up in Sacramento right after FSA. They are renewing their strategic plan and had a transition meeting. He is reviewing the report of a consultant they utilized for a membership survey. CASFAA is very active in legislative advocacy at the capital. With the state of the Californiabudget there are many challenges.

Idaho- Jennifer Zimmers reported that her goal was to have a conference jointly with Nevada. It was a successful event and a good collaboration. They had no problems with their room block. For the attendees from Nevada, just the registration fee was charged, not membership. They included sessions for proprietary schools with clock hour issues in an effort to expand membership. They are sending out a call for nominations for officers.

Nevada- Scott Nielsen reported that for the joint conference with Idaho, they had small group of attendees from Nevada. An ongoing concern is if NAFAA will be able to stay afloat. He is wondering if it would be better to continue just teaming up with others. Money is a big concern as financial aid administrators are trying to figure how to get the biggest bang for their buck. It has been 2 years since they have had a NAFAA conference.

Oregon-Bert Logan reports on their efforts to provide training, like the one-day drive-in workshops during summer. Kim Shreck has assisted them and is a good new trainer. They just finished support staff workshops. Financial Aid 202 and 201 training will be provided for financial aid veterans and those new to the field in January. The OASFAA conference will be in Salishan in February. OASFAA will continue NT4CM training for counselors, even though past support from NASFAA and others has been dropped. Having theWASFAA conference in Portlandis great. The Oregon Challenge Grant will not be able to continue and will finish up this year.

Pacific Islands- Adam Hatch reported that there have been changes at PACFAA with their Treasurer, Joyce Gum stepping down, so now their Treasurer-Elect has moved to that position. The biggest activity has been the high school counselors training. PACFAA is planning an in-person training visit to Guam because of the new Verification law change that will for the first time apply to Guam. They have asked the Department of Education for materials. Presentations were made at 55 sites for Financial Aid Nights. College Goal Sunday has funding in place and will be on January 22. The Spring Conference for PACFAA will be on March 19-20 at the Ala Moana Hotel.

Washington- Darcy Keller submitted the WFAA report. Their conference was held in Leavenworth on October 25-28th. With 161 attendees they met their budget goals. Kay Soltis added that they had great sessions and speakers. They will have a long term relationship with the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth for conference in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with low cost, a great location and good service. At their Transition meeting they discussed creating a strategic plan to develop their website to target the primary audience.

Representatives-at-Large Reports

Rep-at-Large/EDAC- Luhui Whitebear reported that a major activity of EDAC was to expand the number of committee members. They needed more input for scholarship selection. This year she is trying sub-committees to work on different projects or goals. Two EDAC members are from the previous year but the majority are new members. The have had two online meetings using the Go2Meeting and it has worked out great. Their next meeting will be in December. They are discussing session ideas for the Portlandconference. One they want to present for sure is the Dream Act. Many of the committee members are from Oregon because of the conference location. They would like to create training materials for high school counselors on training for working with diverse students.

Rep-at-Large/Associate Member- Sun Ow said that most of her activity has been with the other WASFAA positions she holds and will be reported later.

A break was provided from 2:10 to 2:20.

Fiscal Planning Committee – Steve Herndon reported that Fiscal Planningmet this morning before Strategic Planning. The change in order was to allow time to get printing done for the revised 2011 FY Budget and a draft of the 2012 FY Budget. We first discussed the size and composition of the Fiscal Planning Committee. The number was cranked up for this transition year to a new chair and because getting the budgets right is critical. Next year Fiscal Planning will revert back to the committee membership designated in the WASFAA Policies and Procedures.

An update was provided on where we are in our decision to collaborate with NASFAA with our investments. We are still seeking the IRS letter and original Articles of Incorporation. Peter Miller sent a request for the tax letter and obtained the form to request certified copies of the articles.

TO DO:Peter Miller willfill out the order form for certified copies of our Articles of Incorporation and send it with the payment required. When documents are received he will send them off to NASFAA.

The contractual agreement has been completed and we have the instructions on how to wire the money.

An update was also provided on the final negotiations with the Hilton Hawaiian and our room attrition penalty. We ended up having to pay a little over $19,000 which is a lot lower than the possible $68,000 we could have been responsible for. With the penalty the result of the conference was being in the red for about $11,000. Steve Herndon stated that this was not the fault of the conference committee. We have changed how we will handle room reservations and the timing of room cancellations causing loss of the room deposit. Leonard Walker stated we had a room attrition problem at the conference here at the Coeur d’Alene Resort but they waived the $20,000 penalty due to the repeat relationship we have with this site. Holding the council meeting here was part of the agreement.

At the Fiscal Planning meeting they finalized the current 2011 FY Budget. Wendy Olson and Steve Herndon sent out forms for requesting adjustments before the December close-out. They received six requests and accommodated most of them. The final 2011 FY Budget ended with the amount of $289,550. The dependency on asset reserves increased and we will be drawing on $65,150.

Treasurer’s Report – Peter Miller reported that this has been a rough quarter and our Vanguard accountshave both gone into minus amounts. Our larger Vanguard that started at $150,000 had gone into the black previously. WASFAA will wait for the market to rebound. The Vanguard accounts are set up so that no additional funds are being put into these accounts. Peter Miller will get the necessary documents to NASFAA so we can complete our plan to combine with their larger portfolio.

Currently our liabilities are high and therefore we have a lot of funds in ourBank of America accounts. He has set up automatic payments. He can provide expanded versions of each budget category. The asset reserves, dues, Job Links, and JRSMLI income all increased. It has been a good year for training income with the exception of the big expense due to the attrition penalty. Without that we would have had $7,000 profit for the conference. EDAC reduced expenses from their budget. We discussed the expenses of using the Go2Meeting and Go E-merchant products which provide good service but have high costs to the association. Payment was made for the SDBSI in Spokane. The SDBSI and Site Selection needed an increase. We spent less on the state and other meetings budget category. Training paid Citrix twice this year so we added $3,000 to their budget. VDC pulled back some funds. All these adjustments led to a balanced budget for FY 2011.

MOTION: Scott Nielsen moved and Sandi Guidry seconded a motion to approve changes to FY 2011 Budget. MOTION CARRIED

Budget FY 2012- Council members were also requested to submit budget adjustment for FY 2012 and seven forms were returned: 1)The Conference Committee wants approval on their proposed fee of $325 (plus the $50 membership fee) for the conference that will be in Portland, April 21-24th. Their income and expenses were based on an estimate of 250 attendees. The results would be $81,750 income and expenses of $68,000 and an estimated net income of $13,750 profit.

MOTION: Tracey Lehman moved and Ashley Munro seconded a motion to approve a 2012 conference fee of $325 plus $50 membership. MOTION CARRIED.

MOTION:Adam Hatch moved and Ashley Munro seconded a motion that the Conference Committee consideran annual increase in the conference fee by $25, taking into account location, historical attendance, and costs. In the discussion Peter Miller suggested just adding this note to the policies and procedures manual. MOTION FAILED

EDAC – Previously EDAC had a $1,000 budget. EDAC has requested a $200 operating budget anda reallocation of $800 to EDAC scholarships. Fiscal Planning felt we could consider additional funds forthe EDAC scholarships after the current $3,750 was fully expended.

Newsletter- Rescinding request for additional funding and their budget will remain at $6,000.

SDBSI- The fee structure and expenses as submitted by Jim White resulted in a $1,100 profit. Fiscal Planning felt a larger profit from this event is generally expected. We increased the registration fees to a level that would result in a net income of $5,625.

2012 FY Budget Draft-The total budget for next year is a little less and has a lower dependence on asset reserves, which is very good. Some committees went lower with their request. Sun Ow asked if WASFAA has looked into other GoEmerchant-like products like PayPal. Peter Miller replied that the product was tied into the ATAC system. We would need to obtain a different product for registration if we changed the electronic payment systems.

MOTION: Jack Edwards moved and Peter Miller seconded a motion to accept the Fiscal Planning recommendation for SDBSI registration fees with the opportunity for Jim White to review the adjustments. MOTION CARRIED

TO DO: Kay Soltis will provide Jim White with the SDBSI budget information.

MOTION: Sandi Guidry moved and Adam Hatch seconded a motion to accept the recommended Budget for FY 2012. MOTION CARRIED

Steve Herndon reported that the last item discussed was Archives. Ashley Salisbury sent Fiscal Planning an updated inventory list. The Secretary’s laptop is broken and no longer under warranty. Fiscal Planning recommended the laptop be taken off the inventory list, purchase a new device for the Secretary to take minutes and charge this in the General Administration budget for 2012. We will also remove expired first aid kit from the inventory list.

Committee Reports

Awards/Scholarship – Breena Colin added three additional members, some who were new members who paidthe membership fee. They had their first meeting in August which was helpful to the committee members new to WASFAA volunteering. The committee has also been communicating by email. They awarded the JRSMLI scholarship which covered costsfor one recipient. Breena Colin suggested that instead of a set dollar amount we state parts of the event the scholarship would cover. She also suggested use of our mileage points for travel expenses be considered. Their next big project will be promoting the submission of nomination forms for WASFAA Awards.

ByLaws – Jack Edwards reported that there have been no changes in the By Laws since our previous meeting.

Conference– Tracey Lehman reported that the Conference Committee had their first in person meeting in September. They took a tour of the BensonHotel facilities. The committee has been holding bi-weekly phone meetings. The conference program chairs are Leslie Limper and David Tolman. We will again have a NASFAA training track. The theme was developed: “The Yin and Yang of Financial Aid, Reaching harmony through WASFAA”. They will have yoga as part of the program. The tentative agenda and registration is ready to be posted at the website. They are looking at a program with a spiral notebook format. The University of Reno will bring their projectors so we can save on AV costs. The room rateof$125 applies to single or double. Registration will be available the first part of December. The budget is based on 250 attendees at the full registration rate. A survey went out to listserv members regarding interest in a one-day registration. The survey results will determine if a set number of one-day registrations will be offered. The committee will use the WASFAA Face Book page for conference information.