SDASFAA BOARD MEETING
Monday, March 22, 2010
Crossroads Convention Center, Huron SD

CALL TO ORDER:  President, Patti Klinkhammer called the meeting to order at 8:09 am.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Patti Klinkhammer, President; Becky Pribyl, Treasurer; Denise Grayson, Past-President;  Starla Russell, President-Elect; Laura Olson, Secretary; Greg Binstock, Bob Prouty, Marlene Seeklander, and Sharon Martin, Members At Large; Jean Rock, Associate Member At Large.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA:  Patti handed out a revised agenda. Becky made a motion to approve the revised agenda, and was seconded by Sharon and the motion passed.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM February 23, 2010, BOARD MEETING:  A few changes were noted. Greg made a motion to approve the minutes with revisions.   Marlene seconded the motion and the motion passed.

OFFICER REPORTS

SECRETARY:  No secretary report was given outside of the minutes from the February board meeting.

TREASURER:  Becky pointed out a few changes in the last month since the February board meeting. SD National Guard is now a member and those dues are included in this report bringing Membership Dues to $2,775. Under Sponsorship Income an increase to $4,925 is seen as NSLP contacted SDASFAA to have a booth at the Spring Conference as they had previously not signed up for one. High School Counselor Workshop income is complete for 2009 as all attendees have now paid. For the three counselors who did not pay, Becky had sent out invoices to the business offices and has received payment from each of them. Miscellaneous income includes Patti’s reimbursement for the 2010 NASFAA Leadership Conference which she was not able to attend. Total income as of March 19, 2010 is $12,423.19. New expenses include the Executive Board Meeting expenses for the February board meeting at $1,070.48. The Recognition Committee has new expenses of $235.11 for the awards that will be presented at the Awards Banquet at the Spring Conference. The NASFAA Leadership Conference registration fee of $250 is listed, but Patti’s reimbursement to the association is listed under Miscellaneous Income. Total expenses as of March 19, 2010 are $1,971.87. Ending balance in the checking account is $15,518.25.

Becky also pointed out on the Asset Sheet that the Great Plains CD was rolled over into a 6 month CD, which will mature September 3, 2010. The interest rate is currently 1.75%. Total assets available with checking, savings and CDs are $52,865.85.

Becky also distributed the final HSCW totals showing all income and expenses for 2009.  Average cost per attendee ended up at $10.50 each and the total cost per attendee was $12.50.

Becky stated that the average gross income for SDASFAA for the last three years is what now determines the tax filing status. The average gross income went down in 2009 so she filed the 990N in February which is free.

PAST-PRESIDENT:  Denise reported that her report will be given at the business meeting, but gave a synopsis of what she will present on. She will thank those who have helped her these past three years. She will have the opportunity to present the awards at banquet and is working on a slate of candidates to run for the open positions on next year’s board. She wants to focus on the benefits to being on the board and reiterate that holding a position on the board is not all work. Denise thanked Patti for stepping in last year as President.

PRESIDENT:  Patti stated that she is very glad that the spring conference is here. She stated she has been very nervous the past few weeks with all the preparations, however, the hotel has been great to work with.

PRESIDENT-ELECT: Starla has been penciling out goals for next year and talked through them with the board and will share them at the Business Meeting. As secretary for RMASFAA and so much experience from being on SDASFAA board has made her transition very smooth. She would like to incorporate a strategic planning process to SDASFAA to focus on increasing membership for conference and training purposes by expanding into training opportunities for business office personnel and others on campus affected by financial aid regulations. She has seen the value of belonging on SDCPA and feels there could be value in asking those members to join SDASFAA. 

In preparing for the spring conference, she realized she is the chair of three committees.  The High School Counselor Workshop Committee will be meeting today to look at the schedule for 2010, look at fee structure and will be working with Tom Cool to conduct a survey with high school guidance counselors. The Membership Committee will meet to look at the P&P and charge that committee with growing membership to give this committee more responsibility than to just review directory information. The task of growing memberships and making asks doesn’t appear to fall under any committee of the board at this point. Starla would like to look at the database and new opportunities for membership in conjunction with the education committee for providing more training.  After some research Patti pointed out that in the P&P manual, the membership responsibility falls under the Treasurer and discussion surrounded how that has  happened in the past. Starla felt that the membership information sub-committee should have a role as a committee that is expected to “grow” the membership base instead of it being a treasurer responsibility. The third committee is the 2011 Conference Committee.  She would like to pull the expertise of the members who have had a part in planning past conferences and design one master document to help future planning so that every year the committee doesn’t feel like they are starting from scratch. Look for a general guide of sorts to follow for future conferences. She would like to market the spring conference as early as November/December and do it more broadly to invite others to join us with the hopes to increase attendance by advertising in advance. 

Starla’s biggest concern as president is the budget as she does not want to leave the association in a deficit. She also just flew in last night from the RMASFAA board meeting and gave an update. RMASFAA is struggling with budget as well with considerable discussion on where things are headed with the financial health of the association due to a huge budget deficit. Their concern lies with dipping into reserves and the long term sustainability of the association. Discussions surrounded where they can cut costs, the future of the annual conference, and the future of summer institute, in addition to training concerns. 

Starla pointed out that in the SDASFAA P&P or bylaws, it is indicated that the association will have two training opportunities for all members each year and this past year with the change in the NASFAA/RMASFAA training, there were not two training opportunities provided. The board needs to look at what RMASFAA will be offering us in the coming year and we may need to look at where to go from here. A couple other state associations purchased the NASFAA webinar series and still came together as a group to do facilitated training. She will look at providing feedback from SDASFAA to RMASFAA as to state needs Current board members and committee chairs need to continue to look at needs/ideas for the association. 

Conference programs, banquet programs and calendars were handed out to the board and will be available today to attendees.

Starla Russell made a motion to approve all of the Officer’s reports. Bob Prouty seconded that motion and the motion passed.

OLD BUSINESS

REVIEW THE 2010 REVISED BUDGET PROPOSAL:   Patti presented an updated budget proposal using actual income and expenses from 2009. The associate memberships are down as expected. The recognition and review committee expenses are current and considered complete. She included expenses for Decentralized training until we receive more information from RMASFAA. Under miscellaneous expenses, which mostly include memorials sent to families of SDASFAA members, Patti stated that a memorial was never sent in remembrance Tom Polancic’s father who passed away in February. She will contact him regarding options for a memorial to be sent. The question was raised as to how realistic is it that Decentralized training will happen. The expenses listed for the November Board meeting were very minimal with plans the meeting would happen with Decentralized training. This may not be realistic at this point. A question was raised as to whether or not the association can pay the registration fee early for the NASFAA Leadership Conference in order to spread out the expenses. It was recommended to bring this topic up at the business meeting to be sure that membership is aware of board’s consideration of the idea of sending multiple people to the leadership conference.

Starla brought up the point that in 2007 the sponsorship structure changed. The board may need to look at this going forward as Great Lakes is the only sponsor who pays for advertising on the calendar and in the conference program. Institutional membership may not be affected/see an increase in membership dues if business office personnel or others campus personnel are invited to be more involved, but other areas may be affected instead such as conference registrations. 

UPDATE ON MEMBERSHIP GOALS FOR 2010:  Starla has a plan to take a look at the responsibilities of the membership committee. She is proposing a policy change to incorporate more of a strategy to increase memberships to the association. Her hope is that the membership committee can work closely with the training/education committee for training opportunities for any potential new members. The membership committee would offer invitations for new memberships, but to do so we need something that lists what the benefits are to joining SDASFAA such as list serve and training opportunities.  The membership committee meets this afternoon and they will start reviewing options/ideas to determine value for others, what trainers would be available and they will look at P&P change. Anyone who has ideas or suggestions please let Starla know She stated she will need help with tapping into membership for training, new ideas for sponsorship/vending opportunities. 

NEW BUSINESS

H&R BLOCK – FAFSA DAY MARCH 19TH:  Patti received a flier at Kilian from H&R Block that they are having a “2010 FAFSA Day” at six Sioux Falls locations on March 19, 2010. No one else recalls seeing this information on their campuses. The flier tells students/families to bring tax returns and FAFSA PINs. The question raised by the board surrounded what training does H&R Block have to provide students/families with FAFSA training? Obvious tax experience, but anything out of the ordinary they may not be able to assist with. Jay Larsen is aware and has shared this with College Goal Sunday.  Unknowns are is it just one day? Is it free after that day? Jay will ask them about partnering with CGS in the future.

TENTATIVE DECENTRALIZED TRAINING DATES & LOCATION:  Patti asked for the board’s recommendation on whether or not a reservation should be made at the AmericInn in Chamberlain for November to be prepared should Decentralized training take place. It was pointed out that there is an expense for schools to participate in the training and campuses would have travel expenses to get to Chamberlain plus the cost of webinar on their own campus. With budgets being tight right now, will anyone do both? This discussion and further planning was tabled until the membership votes at business meeting. 

UPDATE ON SPRING 2011 CONFERENCE:  After the February board meeting, Denise was charged with research on a central location for the 2011 Spring Conference. After the meeting, Denise emailed the board with her research as follows:

AmericInn Hotel
April 4-6, 2011

• Group rate for rooms - $64.99 (state rate available for state employees)
• 43 rooms available at the $64.99 rate, other rooms vary from $79.99 to $99.99 (whirlpool and 2 room suites)
• Meeting room fee is $150, waived if we fill 50 rooms both nights -can bring in outside food or have meals catered through the hotel

Cedar Shores Resort
April 11-13, 2011

• Group rate for rooms - $82.95 (state rate available for state employees)
• Meeting room fee is $350, waived if we fill 50 rooms both nights - meals must happen through Cedar Shores, no outside food can be brought in

She noted the different dates available above. She thinks the AmericInn is the better choice, the rooms are cheaper and we will have more choices as to what we want to do with meals. She suggested we could have a pizza night Monday night and then have a catered meal Tuesday night for the banquet. They have always been very accommodating to SDASFAA.

The board voted unanimously via email to go with AmericInn for the 2011 Spring Conference location April 4-6, 2011. 

2012 SPRING CONFERENCE LOCATION:  Patti received information from the Mitchell Highlands Conference Center. She has also received information from Rapid City. Patti asked about future locations and whether or not we want to continue to consider central locations or go back to the regular rotation. Denise brought up that we need to be fair to west river schools who will still always be spending more because of the distance even if we consider Chamberlain “central”. Starla asked if we need to look at having it on college campuses during spring break in the future to help with cost. It was suggested to open it up to discussion with the membership as to what options would work for a location knowing that spring breaks vary greatly across the state. The question raised is will we really save on cost by having it on a campus and to really look at where we want to go in the future. Starla mentioned that other state associations are looking at these kinds of cost-saving options. Normal rotation for the spring conference is a northeast, southeast and west location. The 2009 Spring Conference was west (Keystone SD), 2010 is northeast (Huron) and 2011 is supposed to be southeast, but will be central instead (Chamberlain). The board asked when do we go back to “normal” rotation and feels the membership needs to have a discussion. Easter in 2012 is April 8th. March 26-28 or April 2-4 would be options for a conference. 

Starla asked that we look at reworking the 3 day conference schedule to try to avoid the board meeting right away on Monday morning requiring a Sunday night hotel stay for most. Discussion surrounded do we make Monday evening “on your own” to avoid entertainment cost and have the board meeting that night? Pros and cons discussed were that for new association members or guests will find that at some conference locations there won’t be as many evening options outside of the hotel and will new members/guests will “get lost” or feel left out.

2010 HSCW UPDATE:  Starla discussed surveying high school counselors regarding start times, activities during the training, web-based training options, lunch or no lunch, electronic availability of materials before, during or after, and looking at site locations.  Past workshop surveys have shown the counselors want face-to-face interaction. The board decided on the dates of the 2010 High School Counselor Workshops to be December 7-9, 2010 due to the FSA Conference being the week before. Starla would like to look at expanding options of inviting additional people such as admissions counselors to the training as this information is applicable to their jobs as well. She has also received some commitments from some of the workshop locations. We may need to look at charging additional fees to provide lunch as well as look at later start times due to weather that time of year. Discussion surrounded how many locations offer lunch and that schools have been covering this charge to date. Up until two years ago or so, Student Loans of North Dakota used to cover the cost of the breakfast and the schools would cover the lunch. The board talked about whether or not the SD National Guard would be interested in sponsoring any portion of food for that day beings there is a representative at some of the locations anyway. With moving to the corporate sponsorship a few years ago, a requirement was to show more tangible options for their membership dues. This may not be an issue for National Guard as they are separately sponsoring a break at the 2010 Spring Conference. At what point will counselors not pay – what is the price break for them to attend?    

COLLEGE GOAL SUNDAY/AWARENESS COMMITTEE:  Patti announced that Marlene Seeklander has stepped down as co-chair of CGS sub-committee. Marlene would like to stay involved, but not as co-chair due to time commitment. A discussion was held surrounding the leadership of this committee and whether or not this should be structured as a rotating chair/co-chair set up like other SDASFAA committees. Other questions raised were whether or not the CGS Chair position should this be an elected position as we go forward and do we want the site coordinators at each CGS site to be part of the committee like we have switched the HSCW committee site coordinators to be members of that committee? It has been found to be difficult getting people out into the high-need communities due to the PR challenges in getting the word out. When we look at what we are spending and how many students/families we are serving, we need to look at funding as a key piece of that discussion in the future. With the CGS grants, we have been spending a lot more than we typically would without having the grant money. Discussion surrounded the future of the CGS event, what opportunities do we have for volunteers, what will the budget impact be to SDASFAA, will Great Lakes provide support in future, where can SD Education Access Foundation fit in, does this fit within their mission and can they support CGS event going forward, and are we getting the most bang for our buck. Emphasis was placed on the marketing piece and volunteer effort at grass roots level as being extremely important. Discuss in length this afternoon at the CGS agenda within the conference and the plans for Jay Larsen to continue as chair. It is known we need a new co-chair and there needs to be a board member as a liaison and an active CGS member for better information sharing.

ELECTRONIC VOTING & ARCHIVING FOR SECRETARY:  Starla clarified that when electronic votes take place between meetings those results are shared as part of the meeting minutes directly following the electronic vote. She also clarified that Diane Francis at Great Lakes will help with archiving process for minutes.

CONSIDERATION OF PEOPLE FOR SDASFAA TREASURER POSITION FOR 2011:  Patti brought up a concern about the fact of College Goal Sunday and bringing those funds under SDASFAA. How will that affect funding and tax filing status, are we prepared for the transition of moving the funds from the University of Sioux Falls to the SDASFAA Treasurer and having consistency in this process? It was determined that we couldn’t answer those questions until after Jay Larsen gave afternoon presentation/update of CGS program. Becky did announce to the board that she would be willing to run for the Treasurer position again.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Next Meeting – Tentatively set for July 13, 2010 at 11:00 am. Yet to be determined is whether or not the meeting will be held via conference call or in-person.
• It was announced to the board that Mary Anne Whitman from Great Lakes is the go-to person for help/requests/assistance from Great Lakes. Mary Anne and Mike Mutziger are the only people from Great Lakes who can volunteer for committees.  Even though Mary Anne may not complete the task herself, she will make the appropriate contact.

ADJOURN

Sharon made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Becky. No further discussion followed. The motion was passed and Patti adjourned the meeting at 11:29am.

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Olson
Secretary