CALL TO ORDER: President Patti Klinkhammer called the meeting to order at 8:44am.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Patti added three agenda items under New Business including: NASFAA 2011 Leadership Conference, Decentralized Training and 2012 Dates for SDASFAA Conference.

Deb Henrickson made a motion to approve agenda as amended. Grant Uecker seconded the motion. No discussion followed and the motion passed.

APPROVAL OF 2009 BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES (APRIL 1, 2009 – KEYSTONE SD): Patti asked for a review of the 2009 Business Meeting Minutes. After no changes were noted, Grace Bick made a motion to approve meeting minutes as submitted. Emily Studenski seconded that motion. After no discussion followed the motion passed.

OFFICER REPORTS

PRESIDENT REPORT: Patti Klinkhammer submitted the following written report to the membership.

NASFAA Leadership Conference
The NASFAA Leadership Conference for 2010 was held February 26th to March 2nd. For personal reasons I was not able to attend the conference. The registration fee of $250 was refunded to me and then I refunded SDASFAA.

RMASFAA Board Meeting
As Sharon Kienow had mentioned I was not able to attend the RMASFAA Board Meeting in Denver, CO this past weekend. Sharon provided the board report on behalf of SDASFAA.

Budget for 2010
As many of you already are aware the corporate support for 2010 is less than what we had in 2009. So far we have $4,925 in corporate support. We had for 2009 corporate support of $9,150. The executive board is aware of the drop in corporate support and is creatively thinking of ways to increase the sponsorships for future conferences and/or the future. If anyone has some ideas to express to the board I would suggest that you send them to me via email at pklinkhammer@kilian.edu. The board may only meet 4 times a year, however, technology allows us to vote on things via email and try to be proactive versus reactive to the current economic times.

I personally do not think we will have to tap into any of our CD’s to cover the 2010 budget year. SDASFAA is a very conservative group of people and we are always looking for ways to save us personally or the association.

The income side of the 2010 budget is projected to be $16,687.98. Most of that total has actually already been recorded. We do have some spring conference registrations that arrived this week to be added and then the HSCW for 2010. On the expense side of things I have projected that we will need to have $14,436.36. The spring conference is our largest expense and I had estimated $5,500 but I am confident that we will be well under that, but that is close to what the expense was for 2009 spring conference in Keystone SD.

PAST PRESIDENT REPORT: Denise Grayson gave the following written report to the membership. I would like to thank everyone for all that you have done to help me throughout my year as President of SDASFAA. 2009 was an interesting year with all of the proposed changes to our industry. Whenever I needed information from you to share with our congressional delegates, so many of you were quick to respond with your own comments and concerns, I really appreciate that!

As President of SDASFAA, I represented our association at the RMASFAA Board meetings held March 14-15, 2009 in Denver, CO and October 24-25, 2009 in Overland Park, KS. I also had the opportunity to attend the RMASFAA Annual Conference while in Kansas. Serving as president of the association certainly has some fringe benefits.

It was a pleasure to be able to solicit the association for nominations for our annual awards; many very deserving SDASFAA members were nominated for the various awards. Thanks to all of you who took the time to nominate your fellow members, I hope you continue to do so in the future. I’m sure we have all felt that we have “thankless” jobs at times so we need to be sure to show our appreciation for everyone who volunteers their time and talents for our association.

As a member of the Recognition Committee, I will soon be working on a slate of candidates for the executive committee positions that will be open for 2011. I hope that all of you will seriously consider running for an open office in SDASFAA. There are many personal and professional benefits of holding a position on the SDASFAA executive board. The ability to attend the NASFAA Leadership Conference at SDASFAA’s expense was a tremendous opportunity for me, one very good reason to consider running for SDASFAA President-Elect!

Finally, thank you to Patti Klinkhammer for stepping in as President-Elect during 2009 and President in 2010. Patti is going to do a great job leading our association this year!

SECRETARY REPORT: No report was given.

TREASURER REPORT: Becky Pribyl went through the Balance Sheet for the year-end 2009. Total income for 2009 was $18,038.45. Becky pointed out that $140 of the HSCW income was from 2008 received and recorded in 2009 and that $160 of the 2009 income for the workshops has now been received and recorded in 2010. Total expenses for 2009 were $15,921.56. For the Support Staff Workshop, $115 invoice from site location was not received and paid until 2010. She pointed out that the cost of the Executive Board was higher than 2008 because the fall board meeting is generally held in conjunction with Decentralized Training so schools cover the majority of the cost to attend that meeting. Because of the cancellation of the training, SDASFAA had to cover the travel expenses for that meeting, which had not been budgeted for. The Support Staff Workshop did go over their $1,000 budget as some miscommunication happened where the committee believed their budget was $1,500. General printing expense for 2009 was a little higher due to cost of printing calendars and ordering new checks. With income being higher than expenses, $1,000 was transferred from the checking account to the savings account leaving an ending balance in the checking account of $5,066.93.

Becky also went through the Balance Sheet for the Savings Account. Beginning balance for 2009 was $7,435.02. Interest income for 2009 was $11.59 plus a transfer of $1,000 from the checking account means an $8,446.61 balance at the end of 2009. SDASFAA has three CD’s. The Wells Fargo CD was purchased in December of 1987 and matures every six months. The ending balance for 2009 was $14,784.33, which includes $127.01 of interest earned during 2009. The next maturity date will be June 30, 2010. The US Bank CD was purchased in January 2001 and matures every 12 months. The ending 2009 balance was $3,537.00, which includes $39.72 of earned interest. The next maturity date will be October 19, 2010. The Great Plains CD was purchased in February 2008 and matures every 12 months. The 2009 ending balance was $10,458.30, which includes $290.26 of interested earned. Becky explained to the membership that the Great Plains CD matured on March 5, 2010 and was renewed for six months instead of 12 months. This decision was made by the board after lengthy discussion surrounding Great Plains not being a SDASFAA member, Great Plains only having locations in northeast SD and the fact that SDASFAA will have a new Treasurer starting in 2011 who will need access to the bank and need the option to move the CD at that time. The year-end Asset Statement for 2009 has a checking account balance of $5,066.93, savings account balance of $8,446.61, total CDs of 28,779.63 for total available assets of $42,293.17.

Becky also went through the 2010 Balance Sheet as of March 19, 2010 showing a starting balance carried forward from 2009 of $5,066.93. Total income so far equals $12,423.19. That income includes sponsorship income of $4,925 is for 16 associate members and 23 institutional members. Spring conference income so far is $2,850. The HSCW income of $160 is the remaining workshop payments for 2009 received and recorded in 2010. Miscellaneous income of $1,712.98 is the reimbursements for the NASFAA Leadership Conference from Tom Polonsic and Patti Klinkhammer. Total expenses as of March 19, 2010 are $1,971.87, which include executive board expenses of $1,070.48 from the February board meeting, $115.03 from the final Support Staff Workshop site bill from 2009 paid in 2010, $250 for the NASFAA Leadership Conference for the registration fee for Patti Klinkhammer, which she reimbursed under miscellaneous income, review committee expenses of $301.25 for the review of the 2009 books and $235.11 for the recognition committee for the awards given out at the banquet. Ending balance in the checking account is $15,518.25.

Becky shared with the membership a SDASFAA Historical Financial Record showing the income and expense comparisons for each year from 2005 through 2009. Total income in 2005 was $18,550.50. Driven by strong sponsorship support in 2006, 2007 and 2008, income increased to the highest point of $30,563.07 in 2006 and showed a steady decline to $18,038.45 in 2009. Total expenses in 2005 were $22,400.71, which was the highest expense total in the five year history. Expenses showed a steady decline each year to a total of $15,921.56 in 2009.

SDASFAA’s gross income average over a three-year period is what determines whether or not the association is required to file a federal tax return. Becky explained that with gross income being down, a tax return was not required for 2009 and she filed the required 990N in February, which is a free filing process.

PRESIDENT-ELECT REPORT: Starla Russell went over the following report with the membership.

Serve as the 2010 Chair of the following committees:

1. Membership Information Sub-Committee
1. Propose P&P update for sub-committee responsibilities to include developing strategies for increasing institutional and associate membership
1. Identify potential new institutional and associate members and consider additional training opportunities and other benefits for current and new membership
2. Identify enhanced corporate support avenues, including product/service information sharing among membership
2. Develop Strategies for streamlining membership information electronically
2. High School Counselor’s Workshop Committee
1. Survey counselors to review workshop enhancements, including length of workshop, web-based, hands-on sessions, material dissemination, and workshop sites.
2. Develop “save the date” notices and set-up web registration process early to promote and capitalize on current on other potential participants.
3. 2011 Conference Planning Committee
   1. Develop Conference Planning Guide
   2. Promote early agenda and registration process to current and new membership

• Developing the 2011 Budget
• Proposed 2011 committees set by November 2010
• Proposed 2011 committee budget submission by December 2010
• Review 2011 Corporate sponsorship and research enhancements, for example:
• Review of current corporate sponsorship/product/service advertising
• Explore SDASFAA website banner advertising
• Develop regular SDASFAA “What’s Happening” sponsorship
• Explore Financial Aid Awareness/College Goal Sunday sponsorship
• Policy and Procedure Review regarding role responsibilities
• Explore SDASFAA communication enhancements

Cindy Swinson made motion to approve the officer reports and Pam Lane seconded the motion. No discussion took place and the motion passed.

2009 STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

EDUCATION COMMITTEE REPORT: Jackie Payne, Chair, gave the following report on the support staff workshop.

The 2009 Support Staff Workshop was held in Chamberlain, SD – November 3rd and 4th at the AmericInn. There were 19 attendees from schools across the state and we deemed it another success. The theme was “Pool Party”. Some of the agenda topics include a FAFSA Update, LEAP & SDEAF Update, Recruitment and Retention, Personality temperaments and Customer Service. Entertainment included a trip to the SD Hall of Fame, dinner at Al’s Oasis and playing BINGO.

She went through how the budget was spent and explained how they thought they had $1500 in the budget but turns out it was only $1,000 so went by $484.14 and had to ask the board for additional funds to cover the costs for the year. Next year’s chair, Cindy Ostert is well aware of the change and will strive to stay within the budget allotted.

The 2010 Support Staff Workshop will be held in Watertown, SD November 9th and 10th. The committee is working on another exciting workshop. Marlene Seeklander is the site coordinator – and looking into possible entertainment from the Lake Region cosmetology department. More details to come.

HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT: Patti Klinkhammer reported that SDASFAA held their annual 2009 High School Counselor Workshops December 8th, 9th, and 10th despite in climate weather we had 110 people attend at all 7 locations (Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Madison, Yankton, Mitchell & Pierre). On the income side we had $2,220 and our expenses were $1,375, which were increased since each location printed the materials, purchased binders, and breakfast cost varied among campuses. The dates for the 2010 HSCW have not been set at this point. SD is committed to continuing the workshops and according to the 2010 surveys the high school counselors would plan to attend. Overall, the evaluations of the HSCW were all very positive and the counselors tend to enjoy the face to face interaction. Starla Russell did have on her campus the ability to do hands on interaction with part of her presentation and this received very positive comments and may be of interest for the future years.

AWARENESS & COLLEGE GOAL SUNDAY COMMITTEE REPORT: No report was given.

CONFERENCE SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT: Patti Klinkhammer reported that the 2010 SDASFAA Spring Conference March 22-24, 2010 in Huron, SD, SDASFAA will celebrate their 40th Anniversary during the conference. The conference committee has been working hard to ensure that we have a great "Forty Years Celebration". I hope that you will be able to enjoy learning with your friends and colleagues during this year’s conference. The conference committee has great speakers and entertainment planned from a Wii tournament to learning about the federal updates and how they affect our campuses, Year Round Pell, and many more. For budget reasons the committee has relied more on SDASFAA associate and institutional members to provide the training during the workshop along with the Department of Education training officer, Deborah Tarpley. The Crossroads Hotel & Huron Event Center and Huron Chamber of Commerce have been great to work with. The 2011 SDASFAA Spring Conference planning will begin soon. Starla Russell, will be the chair of this committee. The location will be the AmericInn in Chamberlain, SD April 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2011.

REVIEW COMMITTEE REPORT: Bob Prouty gave the following report on behalf of chair, Melinda Fedeler. The committee reviewed the check register spreadsheet discovering no major findings or errors. They reviewed the balance sheet and supporting accounts spreadsheets. Bank of North Dakota and Student Loans of North Dakota have their 2010 dues shown in 2009 since they paid by EFT upon billing before the end of the year. Emily Studenski asked how SDASFAA solicits new members, such as the new schools in Sioux Falls and lenders. Becky was not sure, so this is a question for the Board.

At the time of the review, 6-8 payments from the High School Counselor’s Workshops in 2009 were missing, which is approximately $120-$160. Becky continues to bill them.

Extra Board expense was noted in 2009 for the November meeting since it was not combined with decentralized training last year as usual. No decentralized provided by NASFAA so the Board had to meet on its own. Question for the Board: Why are travel expenses different for the same person going to the same location? Example – February travel expense to Chamberlain for one person was $204.60 and $195.80 in November.

The room expense for the 2009 Support Staff Workshop of $115 will be paid in 2010 as the bill was received in January. The committee reviewed each of the folders of receipts and invoices and the online banking system with US Bank.

The committee made the following suggestion: The Board should look at the current US Bank CD to see if the funds could be invested in a manner that would generate more income.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT: Emily Studenski reported that the Membership Committee is in charge of making sure the SDASFAA web page is up to date. I have reviewed it periodically though out the year and most recently Becky Pribyl has made sure that any changes due to membership renewals (or non-renewals) have been updated on the web as well. As of the start of the conference, all changes were current.

RECOGNITION COMMITTEE REPORT: Denise had no additional report outside of her Past President’s report.

COMMITTEE OF RECORD REPORT: Grant Uecker gave the following report to the membership for 2009.

Events; College Goal Sunday was held 02-22-2009. The SDASFAA Spring conference was held March 30 to April 1 in Keystone. A huge snowstorm began the day before the Conference and prevented or delay several members from attending. A Veteran’s meeting was held in Pierre, June 16, explaining a new post 9-11-01 Program named Chapter 33 that would increase the benefits for all students enrolled in the military and National Guard. It created some huge problems for the students and schools since the Veteran’s Administration did not have the proper software to administer the Program. Each file had to be processed manually taking about 40 minutes. Benefits to students were extremely slow to arrive causing financial problems to many of them. NASFAA was held in Orlando, Florida, July 6-9. Attendance was down for the SDASFAA membership due to our limited budgets caused by the economic hardship the Country was going through. The RMASFAA Conference was held in Overland Park, Kansas, October 25-28. The weather was again a factor for many attendees traveling to or through the Denver Airport due to another snowstorm. Sharon Kienow from NSU was installed as the new RMASFAA President. Way to go Sharon! Several great sessions were held on the soon-to-come Federal Direct Student Loan Program to replace the Federal Stafford Loan Program. The Federal Student Aid Conference was held December 1-4 in one location, Nashville, Tennessee. Over 6000 participants attended causing some sessions to be filled preventing attendance. Again, numerous sessions were held on implementation of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program. Also, to add to the many changes, “year around Pell Grants” went into effect for 2009-2010 leaving many institutions wondering how this project affected their students and offices.

The Super Bowl was won by the Pittsburg Steelers over the Arizona Cardinals. The weather was cool and wet resulting in record crops for the farmers, but difficult to harvest due to the high moisture in the crops and wet fields. The Christmas holidays were spoiled by a huge snowstorm that dropped almost 2 feet of snow over the entire state.

The entire Country was shocked by the passing of Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, and Senator Edward Kennedy. Congress struggled with the health bill, the strained economy, and had not yet passed the Bill to implement the Direct Lending Program.

The executive Council consisted of President Patti Klinkhammer, Kilian CC., President Elect, Starla Russell, WDT, Past President Denise Grayson, DSU, Secretary Laura Olson, USF, Treasurer Becky Pribyl, NSU, Board Members Greg Binstock, Augie, Sharon Martin WDT, Robert Prouty, MMC, Marlene Seeklander LATI, and Associate member, Jean Rock.

Kristi O’Kief made a motion to accept the standing committee reports as given. David Martin seconded that motion. No discussion followed. The motion passed.

OLD BUSINESS

DECENTRALIZED TRAINING – CANCELLED DUE TO WEBINAR: Starla Russell pointed out that on page 3 of P&P it is stated that the association should gather for two meetings each year. The Executive Board is aware they did not make this happen in 2009 due to the webinar series provided by NASFAA in replacement of the Decentralized Training. Starla would like the association to look closely at the opportunities offered by Sharon Kienow from RMASFAA in order to keep meeting in November for training and use this as not only the opportunity to receive training, but also to meet as an association and have healthy discussion. She encouraged the association to look at a relevant, current topic such as Cost of Attendance for the fall training. The design of the corporate sponsorship offers opportunities for associate members to advertise and participate in Decentralized training.

Discussion followed with the expressed support for a training opportunity in the fall for schools that have smaller or reduced budgets to offer an opportunity for schools that cannot send their staffs to larger more expensive training. It was pointed out that relying on RMASFAA or NASFAA for their timeline is hard. It was suggested that SDASFAA needs to look at topics and a timeline relevant to our state/association.

The question was asked if we move away from RMASFAA sponsored training, is that a good time to start inviting other campus personnel such as admissions or business office personnel and create our own training structure and topics. The membership was also reminded that the Annual Business Meeting only takes place in the spring and is not relevant to personnel outside of financial aid. One-day trainings in the fall may be a more relevant time to involve other individuals from campus in SDASFAA-offered training.

It was pointed out that Cindy Ostert is the chair of the education committee for 2010. It was suggested that that committee may need to look at this topic of wider spread training for campus personnel or high school personnel outside of financial aid and restructuring the Decentralized Training schedule to fit a broader set of needs affecting the industry.

An additional suggestion was to look at the recorded/archived NASFAA and FSA webinars. Those could be resources available at no cost to replay those training sessions for the group and then have a panel of school personnel available for feedback, best practices, discussions and implementation of such topics.

NEW BUSINESS

INCREASE ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIPS: Starla covered this topic in her goals and objectives as President-Elect. Patti asked for feelings/comments from the group for expanding the membership opportunities. Starla’s committee brainstormed ideas such as private loan lenders, additional campus personnel for cash management regulations, withdraw policies, admissions recruiting practices for tapping into financial aid, administrative capability (Registrar’s Offices, Admissions Offices, Business Offices, Vice Presidents/Deans of Students, Marketing Departments, Bookstore managers, IT Departments), University Accounting Service for Perkins loans, High School Counselors, software vendors, imaging systems/vendors, National Clearinghouse, the four Direct Loan Servicers, Payment Plan companies, credit collection companies, 3rd party funding agencies (WIA, Voc Rehab, BIA), Mapping Your Future, FastWeb, scholarship associations/organizations, SD Bridge to Benefits – some from their initial brainstorming list. A concern was raised that many of these listed are already institutional members, and therefore, doesn’t grow membership dues. It was pointed out that the association has lost memberships over the years because we haven’t kept up with providing the appropriate training. Membership used to be much larger and included organizations such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other tribal organizations.

Discussion took place regarding that fact of tight budgets and a change in the lending industry, associate members are looking for payback for what’s in it for them and how can they grow new customers. In years past, many organizations used to join SDASFAA, then after attending association events realized this was not a place to grow their customer base because of a small, tight knit state. SDASFAA has to show how can we give them benefit or pay back for being a part of the association. Where is the value? It was pointed out that it’s hard to ask businesses to join as members unless we are confident that we can deliver value to them. SDASFAA needs to do a stellar job to make sure we make good on our “promise” in the first training/conference or two to make sure new members keep coming back.

An idea was raised about whether or not there is a need to look at individual memberships instead of institutional memberships. It was also pointed out that the association cannot lose sight of the fact that we are a financial aid association if we begin involving a broader group of members, however, the broader base of training opportunities don’t have to involve all portions of an institution at every training event, every year. It was recommended that we need to have a plan and a focus once a year in how to incorporate those other areas of campus.

INCREASE FUTURE CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE (i.e. Business Office staff): Becky Pribyl pointed out that if we are going to try to increase associate members, those renewals are sent in November. It may be beneficial to have the spring conference agenda ready or available so we can “sell” it at that time.

2011 NASFAA LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: Patti Klinkhammer started the discussion by stating that in 2010 she was unable to take the opportunity offered by the board as President to attend the conference. Starla Russell was also not able to attend as the President-Elect. Each year it is the intention that the new President-Elect, and in the years where there is a new treasurer, they would attend the conference. Patti stated that there was a recommendation by the board to look at what the expense would be to send 3 or 4 people to the 2011 conference (President-Elect, President, Past-President and Treasurer) if the board could “save” some money from the 2010 budget for that funding in 2011.

Discussion followed by the membership. A question was raised that because of the economic times taking place in the world and the loss of revenue from sponsorships is that the best way to spend the association’s money? A suggestion was made that maybe there a different way/different opportunity for these individuals at either the state or regional level to avoid the large expense of NASFAA and consider such opportunities as the RMASFAA Leadership Pipeline. It was pointed out that it is unfortunate that Tom Polonsic went and then didn’t continue was President and then Patti didn’t get the opportunity. Some did not want Starla to miss out on the opportunity of going even though she did not attend in her year as President-Elect. It was suggested that those who have attended leadership conference in the past should build a Leadership track within SDASFAA to continue on with other members.

A main concern by the membership was the cost to send four people in one year. If the average cost is $1,700 per person, can SDASFAA really afford that? The RMASFAA Leadership Pipeline is a year-long training at no expense and there is scholarship help to get to the annual fall conference and it was suggested that the board look into this opportunity. Having both 2008 and 2009 with no conference expense will make it hard to have so much expense all coming in one year.

Concern was expressed over the importance to still send President-Elect and Treasurer-Elect to the NASFAA Leadership Conference. Further discussion took place surrounding the importance between President-Elect and Treasurer-Elect and who gains more benefit from the conference. An idea was brought forth for RMASFAA to consider creating a leadership track for treasurers of the state associations so that they are meeting with/learning from treasurers who are more similar.

2010 DECENTRALIZED TRAINING: This topic was discussed earlier. No further discussion took place.

2012 SPRING CONFERENCE DATES: The dates of March 24-28, 2012 or April 2-4, 2012 were put forth to the membership as options for the 2010 spring conference. Patti Klinkhammer has been contacted by the Rapid City Chamber of Conference about bringing the SDASFAA conference back to Rapid City. One recommendation was to look at “The Lodge of Deadwood” which is a new facility near Deadwood, but there is a concern about cost. A suggestion was made to consider the later of the dates (April 2-4). After much discussion, there was a preference from the membership to hold the conference in a location outside of Rapid City such as the Deadwood area pending availability and price. Deb Henriksen offered to research places and dates available and report back to the board.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. 2010 SDASFAA Support Staff Workshop – Will be held November 9-10, 2010 in Chamberlain SD at the AmericInn Hotel.
2. 2010 SDASFAA Decentralized Training – The SDASFAA Executive Board will be picking some tentative dates in Chamberlain SD to be determined based on information coming from NASFAA & RMASFAA later this summer.
3. 2011 SDASFAA Spring Conference will be held April 4-6, 2011 in Chamberlain SD at the AmericInn Hotel.

Grant Uecker made a motion to adjourn the annual Business Meeting. Emily Studenski seconded the motion. No further discussion was held and the motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 10:26am.

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Olson
SDASFAA Secretary