SDASFAA Executive Council Meeting
Minutes for November 17, 2003
Sioux Falls, SD

1. Call to Order: Pam Lane, President called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. Present were Brenda Murtha, President Elect; Cody McMichael, Past President; Ruth Hanson, Treasurer; Monica Gannon, Secretary; David Martin, Member at Large; Ken Kocer, Member at Large; Val Weisser, Member at Large; Denise Grayson, Member at Large; Jean Rock, Associate Member. Guests present for the new board: Julie Hamer, Member at Large-Elect; Carol Bogaard, Member at Large-Elect.
2. Approval of Agenda: Pam distributed the agenda. Ken made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Brenda seconded the motion. All members were in favor, the motion passed.
3. Reading and Approval of Minutes: Pam distributed the minutes of the last meeting. Jean made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. David seconded the motion. All members were in favor, the motion passed.
4. Officer Reports:
   1. Treasurer's Report: Ruth presented the Balance Statement current up to today. The income ending balance is less than the expenses ending balance. The income from the Support Staff workshop is in, but all membership dues are not in yet. They will start coming in once billing is done. Brenda made a motion to approve the balance statement as presented. Ken seconded the motion. All members were in favor, the motion passed.
   2. The minutes for the Business and Executive Board meetings are now posted on the SDASFAA website. Thanks to EAC.
   3. Past-President Report: Cody gave Pam the list of Years in Service for the members.
   4. President-Elect: Brenda reported that the results of the election had been posted to the listserve. Brenda also reported on the RMASFAA Board meeting. The next RMASFAA will be in Omaha in the Fall, there will be more of a focus on the program rather than the entertainment as the budget is tight. The RMASFAA President will no longer be expected to visit every state meeting. There is not enough time for this and they need to cut down on expenses. If a state wants to pay the President's way, the President will come. The current president will do a presentation on Satisfactory Academic Progress if she comes.
   5. President: Pam submitted a written report to the membership of her accomplishments and thanked the membership for having her serve. She thanked the membership for sending her to the RMASFAA conference. RMASFAA is looking for members to serve on committees or as officers. RMASFAA will no longer offer Spring Decentralized Training. The EAC Leadership scholarships need to be used within the year of winning them. Please submit a one page written report to the board, as to how they were used.
5. Reports of Standing and Special Committees:
   1. Education Committee: Pam thanked the Support Staff Workshop crew for doing an excellent job and passed on thanks from some attendees. Mary Anne presented a written report from Marlene for the Support Staff Workshop .
      1. High School Counselor Sub-Committee: Brenda advised that the H.S. Counselor workshops are ready to go. The materials are here to be picked up by the various sites. The turnout should be higher overall. Site coordinators are to e-mail participants and remind them to bring their binders. H.S. Counselor workshops are being held at different locations throughout the state on December 8, 9, and 10. Registration numbers are higher than last year .
      2. Awareness Sub-Committee: Monica reported that the Awareness activities will be the same as last year. Awareness month will be in February rather than in January. We have again requested that the National Guard pay for the printing costs and we still have $800 left in the budget from last year. We have had no answer from the professor of the class that was putting the Career Quest game (Quinn and Quigley) in electronic format. Pam advised that Utah sends out a postcard reminding students to apply for their PIN and do the FAFSA on line. She also advised that she knows a patent law professor, when we have the electronic game version ready. Jean advised of another Scam at www.fafsa.com. The SD National Guard has agreed to sponsor the printing costs again. A request was made for donations for the Radio Trivia give away to promote financial aid awareness. A flyer will be mailed to H.S. Counselors shortly regarding the Financial Awareness activities .
      3. Conference Sub-Committee: The Spring conference will be in Sioux Falls at the Sheraton, March 15-17. It is EAC's 25th anniversary and they will celebrate by hosting a dinner for the membership. The theme for this conference, in honor of St. Patrick's day is the "Sharin O' the Green" .
   2. Review Committee: Denise reported that Donna Johnson advised the Annual Audit is also supposed to review the Code of Ethics according to the Policy and Procedures manual. The board agreed that this was a provision that should have been taken out of the Policy and Procedure manual and it will be. The audit committee recommended that once the Fiscal year is complete, we would then list the income and expenses for planning for the next year. Line items should be titled to match the actual budget items. It would also be good to see what was budgeted vs. real on the Balance Sheet. Donna Johnson advised that the books would be reviewed in January, once the year is over .
   3. Committee of Record: Ken advised there is no report.
      1. Membership Information Sub-Committee: Cody advised that Diane is very excited to work on the website and redesign it, but has not had the time. Cody will check on where this project is at.
   4. Recognition Committee: Pam will be looking for nominations for awards earlier, this year.
6. Old Business:
   1. Secretary Term: Pam advised that the constitution will need to be changed for the change in the length of the Secretary's term and also to add the option of electronic voting. The Constitution will need to be retyped as it is currently on in paper format, and then published on the web. Monica will retype the constitution.
   2. Leadership Conference: Pam discussed the fact that sending a second person with the President Elect is at the discretion of the President. We will not be sending the Treasurer this year as Ruth has been before. Therefore only Val will go next year. We also need to look at sending the President to NASFAA at the board's discretion, to cut expenses. There are no duties for the President, when they go to NASFAA, unlike when they attend RMASFAA. Changes to the Policy and Procedure Manual need to be done for this at the Summer meeting.
   3. Election Ballots: Pam requested to shred the ballots from last year. The board agreed they could be shredded.
7. New Business:
   1. Spring Conferences: Pam recommended that the President Elect not be chair of Spring Conferences as it gets hectic with the President activities for that conference. The Policy and Procedure manual states that the President Elect is the conference chair for the Spring conference. It was recommended that a schedule be set up for a couple of years in advance for the conferences, so as not to clash with the ND and NE schedule.
   2. SDASFAA Newsletter: EAC and NASFAA all ready give the membership updated information quickly. Any other information is sent on the listserve. Is the newsletter necessary? Could this be done as a president's report on the website? Do we ask for a volunteer to do a newsletter as a quarterly publication published on the web? This would probably just be membership information, not Financial Aid news.
8. Announcements:
   1. Passing of Gavel: Pam passed the gavel to Brenda.
   2. Other: David and Jean turn 49 this week. Next year we should have a 50th Birthday party. The speaker tonight is Sheila Letcher from Mitchell. She is a Breast Cancer survivor and a humorous motivational speaker. Her cost was $150 plus mileage, which was reasonable. The NASFAA symposium next year will be on Student Speak, communicating in student language. The NASFAA Symposium will also include the Data Driven Financial Aid Office and Promoting the Financial Aid Office .
9. Adjourn: Jean made a motion to adjourn the meeting. David seconded the motion. All members were in favor, the motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 2:28 p.m.

Return to Menu