\ February 13, 2006
 South Dakota Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
 

 

 

SDASFAA Executive Council Meeting
February 13, 2006
Chamberlain, SD

  • Call to Order: David called the meeting to order at 9:15 a.m. Members present were David Martin, President; Grace Bick, President-Elect; Val Weiser, Past-President; Laura Olson, Treasurer; Carol Bogaard, Secretary; Sharon Martin, Kateri Montileaux, Emily Studenski, Members at Large; Mike Mutziger, Associate Member. Absent was Kim Nida, Member at Large.
  • Approval of Agenda: David distributed the agenda. David would like a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order and Grace would like the copy when she becomes President. Laura made the motion to approve the agenda. Grace seconded the motion. All members were in favor, the motion passed.
  • Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the November 14, 2005 were approved as amended. Corrected minutes will be posted on the website. Emily made the motion to approve, seconded by Mike. All members were in favor, the motion passed.
  • Officer Reports:
    • Secretary: The materials have been received from Monica. Approved minutes will be sent to Diane Francis to be posted on the website.
    • Treasurer: Laura provided copies of the 2005 balance sheet and the asset balance sheet. All NASFAA and RMASFAA expenses and income are included. Laura then provided copies of the 2006 balance sheet as of February 10, 2006. Sponsorship was discussed. Membership dues of $75 were due Jan. 1. All dues from schools are in and many associate members have paid. $14,300 in sponsorship has been received. Totals from the High School Counselor Workshops are not complete, with some additional money to be coming. Mike suggested showing membership dues as a separate line item from Sponsorship payments. Val asked if there would be additional expenses for the Awareness Committee. Laura felt that all of the expenses have been turned in for the printing and mailing, which was done at a media rate rather than first class, which saved some money. New line for 2006 will be registration fees of $50 for members, $120 for non-members. David asked about 2005 line for High School Counselor Workshops. Laura said $1638.71 from 2004 was paid in 2005. This included binders purchased from Northern State University. $1128 was the printing expense. Val said the Dept of Ed has a brochure Myths About Financial Aid, which could be utilized. David said it was not yet available to be ordered when we needed it. He said this is a process that needs to be worked on early, using work study help, etc. David’s committee met at spring conference but didn’t start putting materials together until fall. Some sites did revisions on their own, editing slides so the presentation wasn’t so long. David suggested to Grace getting the committee together early to edit materials. Val suggested that perhaps some information, such as the federal formula, isn’t needed by the HS Counselors. She also suggested that once the registration money is received from the counselors, materials could be emailed to the counselors so that would save printing costs. Grace will bring this up to her committee. David also said it was beneficial to send the materials to Diane Francis beforehand so it was available on the website. Mike said that would help the issue of being able to download such a large document by email. Grace appreciated the suggestions. David also suggested to Grace getting on the listserv for the high school counselors because it was a great advantage for communication with the counselors. Jay Larsen and Carolyn Halgerson were to attend the College Goal Sunday in February, which should be covered by the Lumina Grant. Laura will check with Peggy Kuck on this and will add line items for College Goal Sunday budgets. Carol moved to approve the Treasurer’s report, seconded by Sharon. Approved by all, the motion passed.
    • Past-President: Val reported that nominations for the two awards (Steckler and Outstanding Service) will be sent out tomorrow or shortly thereafter. This fall information for those who qualify for the Quarter Century Club will be requested from David by RMASFAA. It is currently up to date, as last year two years of QCC were reported last year.
    • President-Elect: Grace reported that she has a report concerning the NASFAA Leadership Conference which she will give later.
    • President: David reported that last year as president elect was busier than so far this year. There has been some talk about past-president running the High School Counselor Workshop rather than president-elect. This may need to be a change in policy, but may be worth while because of the experience involved. Another possibility is to have someone on the committee, rather than the president-elect, being in charge. Delegating is an option. A lot of the work is coordinating the material once it becomes available. One problem is that the material isn’t available as early as wanted. Time saved would probably be half once the person has done it once. This is perhaps a good idea to bring up at the March meeting. Using the High School Counselor listserv saved mailing costs. Pam’s timeline is helpful for knowing what needs to be done and when, but David wanted to get things done earlier. Val suggested that perhaps a co-chair would be helpful. Comments from the workshops were given to Grace, with comments being very good, in general. It was suggested that plenty of time be allowed for questions.
  • Report of Standing Committees will be done at the business meeting on Wednesday, March 29 in Watertown.
  • Old Business: Changes in Policy & Procedures are on the web site.
  • New Business: Grace reported on the NASFAA Leadership Conference, which will be the first week in March. She has all the arrangements made with information packets ready for Senators Thune and Johnson and Representative He r arseth. Grace asked for any suggestions to present, such as aggregate loan limits need to be raised. She will stress improving quality of life through education in South Dakota. Kateri talked about the good level of availability for her students to use the internet at their site and at the high school level. Sharon said they went on-line with loan apps this year. She said they found that worked well, and that students were able to find access to these sources. David encouraged Grace to stress educational topics.

    David gave an update on RMASFAA 2008 which will be in Sioux Falls at the Sheraton. Don Taylor from IMN Solutions has been working with the conference and using strong-arm tactics with the Sheraton. David asked Don to please not ruin our relationship with the Sheraton. The Sheraton no longer give s state rates as a general rule, but will give state rates to the South Dakota state schools for RMASFAA 2008. The number of rooms was a concern, but they’ve been more accommodating on that. The Ramada across the street may be an additional overflow site. It has been remodeled, according to Mike, so it should be quite nice.

    Val reported on the slate of candidates for open positions in 2007. Cindy Swinson, SDSU, has agreed to be up for President-Elect. For two Member at large positions, Patti Klinkhamer, Killian, Kristy O’Kief, DWU, Becky Pribyl, NSU, have agreed to have their names on the ballot. Carolyn Halgerson, CitiBank, Corey Rabenberg, National Guard, and Jackie Payne, Wells Fargo, have agreed to have their names on the ballot for the Associate Member position. According to the calendar April is the time to prepare the slate of candidates, May announce the ballot and vote. There was a discussion of asking for volunteers to run for office as well as information as to the timeline and amount of commitment involved and the benefits received from being involved as an officer or serving on a committee. P& P says two candidates should be up for each office, but the Bylaws do not indicate that two must be listed. An additional candidate had said okay to the President-Elect office, but later withdrew their name. Grace made the motion to accept the slate of candidates as presented. Carol seconded the motion. All approved, motion carried. A suggestion was made to open up the ballot to nominations for the offices. A write-in candidate is also an option that will be listed on the ballot.

    The 2006 budget was discussed with some committees such as Review Committee having a budgeted amount for anticipated needs, a General Association budget to cover miscellaneous expenses, Decentralized Training to have a budget so a banquet and speaker might be a possibility once again. David will send a copy of the 2006 budget to all board members.

    2005 Review Committee will meet at the SDASFAA Conference in Watertown to review the 2005 Treasurer’s books.

    Update on Membership renewals: No letter was sent to recruit new membership among sponsors. This is the first year to try annual sponsorship levels, so it is yet to be seen how that will works work for us as opposed to requesting support as needed in the past. Most appear to be giving what they have in the past. Associate members will be asked through a follow-up letter to track in-kind support so recognition can be given. November 1 was suggested as a deadline so recognition can be given by at Decentralized Training, by letter, email or the website.

    Directory updates to the Treasurer and to the website are being coordinated to be updated and to be accurate so when the Treasurer gets new information, she can update the website. There will be a new link to update membership information changes that will go to Laura, Peggy Kock Kuck and Diane Francis. Membership is required to be listed on the website. A full email system would allow contacts by email rather than paper mailings. It is something that would be nice to have for next year.

    Will we pursue additional sponsorships from associate members? Val has the address for Home Federal. Mike will send information to Laura about Dakota Bank. Chase is also another possibility to be approached for membership and sponsorship. Levels of sponsorship, not dollar amounts, will be posted. Mike will have Diane make recognition posters to be displayed at SDASFAA supported events and the website. The cost of membership is included in the Gold and Silver levels only.

    EAC will continue $1500 Professional Development worth of scholarships for attendance at meetings or conferences. Every year approval needs to be run through the EAC board, per Mike. This year one school got two of the three scholarships, so Laura paid them the scholarship, even though it is hard to see if it was actually used in current year for Professional Development. Perhaps a certificate could be issued to be used, rather than a check being issued. The decision was made to have a limit of one scholarship per school per year. This year the names will be drawn and announced via the listserv and a letter. It was decided to do 5 – $300 scholarships, with 3 alternates so if one of the winners can’t attend a meeting in 2006, an alternate will be able to go. If a winner cannot attend, they must notify David by May 1 so an alternate can attend a conference or meeting. At Mike’s suggestion, any unused money will stay in the treasury rather than be returned to EAC.

    The IRS review is completed and no fine was issued for late submission of tax exempt status. We are considered a public charity rather than a private foundation. Laura is still determining if we have to file a federal tax return. The realization that tax exempt status was not up to date came about due to the application for the Lumina Grant to fund College Goal Sunday.

    Laura gave a reminder that the chair of each committee remember that is to submit their expenses are to be submitted to the Treasurer, and no solicitation of sponsors is needed by the committee chair.

    David said that for next year it will be important to notify Diane to update the on-line volunteer form so that those volunteering for the has been asked to be sure the Conference Sub Committee understand is specific as to which year’s conference people they are volunteering for.

    Mike’s name is not on a committee list, but he volunteered for Conference Sub-Committee. He is also willing to be on High School Counselor Workshop Committee. David will send updated committees. Mike said he is “just happy to serve.”

    Fees for the SDASFAA conference will not be changed for this year and will remain at $50 for SDASFAA Members and $120 for Non-SDASFAA Members.

    The next board meeting will be Monday, March 27, 2006 at 9 a.m. Central Time at SDASFAA in Watertown. July will be the date for the following meeting.

    At 2:56 p.m. Grace moved to adjourn, seconded by Val. Motion carried, with one opposed due to the fact that it was not yet 3p.m.

 
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