NJASFAA Executive Council Retreat Minutes

The Inn at Lambertville Station

June 7 - 8, 2004

Monday, June 7, 2004

Attended: Jim Anderson, Lissa Anderson, Sheila Attias, Michael Bennett, Catherine Boscher-Murphy, Joan Buttafuoco, Jo-Ann Craig, Frank Cuozzo, Vince Davis, Kimber Decker, Gloria Green, Patricia Guli, Jean Hathaway, Gisele Joachim, Dennis Levy, Shirley McFarlane, Helen Mikulak, Reggie Page, Carmen Panlilio, Maribeth Quinn, Joe Roberto, Larry Sharp, David Sheridan, Mark Singer, Marilyn Stamas, Carol Strauss, Karen Weber, Richard Woodland, Debra Wulff

The meeting was called to order at 10:05 a.m. A quorum was established.

Officer Reports:

Past President: David Sheridan

· David thanked everyone for his or her contributions to NJASFAA this past year. NJASFAA had a very successful year.

· He will contact members for nominations and elections.

· In February he submitted a nomination for the NASFAA State Award. He submitted our public awareness campaign to educate students, families and high school guidance counselors of the differences between financial aid professionals and financial aid consultants. We will hear the result soon.

Treasurer: Debra Wulff

· Our balance is $259,146.46. All bills are paid to date.

· Debra sent all required documents to the NJASFAA accountant to prepare the 2003-2004 tax return. The return should be filed by July 2004.

Budget Update: Marilyn Stamas

· The first committee meeting was held on May 13. Marilyn distributed the proposed 2004-2005 budget.

· All committee chairs received the budget that they requested.

· A few new line items were added, including Transfer to Establish “Endowment Fund,” Constitution and By-Laws, EASFAA Conference Gifts, Novice Training and President’s Assistant.

· The Fall Conference budget was increased to $75,000.

· Our insurance costs increased as a result of the increase in our membership.

Long Range Strategic Plan: Michael Bennett

· Susan Howard, who facilitated the NJASFAA Strategic Planning retreat held in March, provided David Sheridan and Mike with a first draft of the NJASFAA Long Range Strategic Plan. David and Mike added a few sections.

· The draft Plan was shared with Executive Council, Strategic Planning retreat participants and NJASFAA Past Presidents.

· Today, Executive Council retreat participants were divided into four groups to develop our 2004-2005 Strategic Plan, based on a Strategic Plan grid that listed our priorities for this year. The facilitator of each group presented goals to all retreat participants.

· The Strategic Plan will be shared with NJASFAA members. It will be finalized and placed on our Web site.

· Committees can make changes to the Strategic Plan, with Executive Council approval, and highlight these changes on our Web site.

· The Board of Directors will monitor the Strategic Plan and provide feedback to Executive Council.

Committee Discussions:

Awards and Recognition: Catherine Boscher-Murphy

· Catherine will review our membership list for accuracy.

· She will develop a procedure to identify longevity award recipients and determine how to deliver awards to those members. We will investigate expanding the longevity awards to include members who have served in Financial Aid for 30 years.

· She would like to notify newspapers and members’ supervisors of NJASFAA award recipients.

Conference: Gisele Joachim

· The first committee meeting will be held in the first week of August.

· The 36th Annual NJASFAA Fall Conference will be held November 9 - 11, 2004 at Bally’s.

· We would like to include an electronic training room, roundtable discussions and professional development sessions in this year’s conference.

· Gisele will ask committee chairs to provide sessions.

· Brett Leif will present a Washington, D.C. update.

· The President’s reception on Tuesday evening will have only appetizers to allow vendors to take members to dinner.

· On Wednesday evening there will be entertainment leading up to dinner and the Grease band.

· Joe Roberto will look into a site and date for the spring conference.

Constitution and By-Laws: Richard Woodland

· Our Constitution and By-Laws are firm and do not change often. Our Policy and Procedures Manual is a more fluid document.

· Richard serves as an advisor for committees. Committee chairs may check with him on issues of concern.

· At its June 3 meeting, the Board of Directors discussed our travel reimbursement policy as a way to utilize some assets. Two concerns in changing our policy are the cost and the amount of work for the Treasurer. Richard distributed a survey, to be returned by September 15, asking each committee chair to develop an estimate of his or her annual travel expense budget. This form will be used to gather statistics only. The Board of Directors will reconsider this issue at its November meeting.

Development: Jim Anderson and Kimber Decker

· Kimber asked committee chairs to notify him by July of any special vendor gifts they will need for training events.

· He needs to know if we plan to produce an electronic or paper newsletter for vendor ads.

Electronic Initiatives: Larry Sharp

· Larry will review the current services that ATAC has to offer. He hopes to do a presentation in August to give us a tour of our Web site. He would like our site to be more functional.

· He suggested having another section of our Web site with a portal for members only, and developing a separate site to post our newsletter.

· A suggestion was made to move the directory to a more convenient location on the site.

· David Sheridan encouraged committee chairs to be active on the Web site and keep membership lists and the calendar up-to-date.

· The committee chair access instructions will be reviewed at our July meeting.

The meeting was recessed at 3:45 p.m.

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Attended: Lissa Anderson, Sheila Attias, Catherine Boscher-Murphy, Joan Buttafuoco, Jo-Ann Craig, Frank Cuozzo, Vince Davis, Gloria Green, Patricia Guli, Jean Hathaway, Gisele Joachim, Dennis Levy, Shirley McFarlane, Helen Mikulak, Reggie Page, Carmen Panlilio, Maribeth Quinn, Joe Roberto, Larry Sharp, Mark Singer, Marilyn Stamas, Carol Strauss, Karen Weber, Debra Wulff

The meeting was called to order at 9:10 a.m.

Committee Discussions, continued:

Government Relations: Lissa Anderson and Sheila Attias

· Lissa and Sheila would like to keep the committee moving in the same direction as last year.

· They will follow the Strategic Plan, and keep members informed of issues.

· Two Mentoring Committee members, a new member and a mentor, will serve on this committee.

Membership: Joan Buttafuoco

· Joan will organize our database, send follow-up letters to lapsed members and work with the Public Relations Committee to promote NJASFAA.

Mentoring: Gloria Green

· The goal of the committee is to guide new members through the year, including the fall conference.

· Gloria will identify members who want to be mentored and those who want to be a mentor. She will send letters to directors asking if they have staff who want to be mentored.

· She will look at the Big Brother and Big Sister programs for ideas on effective mentors, and will ask neighboring associations what they are doing with mentoring.

Multicultural Concerns: Vince Davis

· Vince received a list of initiatives from Derek Gatling.

· He is contacting vendors and will send letters to corporations for funding for the Multicultural Student Award.

Newsletter: Carol Strauss

· We discussed redefining the purpose of the newsletter and whether to produce an electronic or paper format. Its original purpose was to disseminate federal and state updates. We now have other vehicles in which to receive these.

· A suggestion was made to produce a paper annual report, which would include pictures, and articles of committee accomplishments from all committee chairs.

· In addition, we would produce two paper post conference publications with conference pictures and conference reports from all committee chairs.

· Sponsors could advertise in all three issues.

Non-Traditional Concerns: Helen Mikulak

· Helen is contacting all institutions that responded to the Clock Hour training.

· She will network with proprietary schools.

· A member of this committee will serve on Government Relations Committee.

Novice Training: Jo-Ann Craig and Debra Wulff

· The committee is planning for Novice Training to be held in June 2005. Debra has contacted Drew University, Rider University and Princeton Theological Seminary as possible sites. The dates will be set once the site is determined. It will be a four-day three-night residential program.

· This committee would like to work with the Mentoring Committee.

· Jo-Ann and Debra will contact members to be trainers.

· They may ask sponsors to help with expenses.

Public Relations: Mark Singer

· The committee is developing a brochure to promote the association.

· The NJASFAA Hotline will be held in January 2005.

· Mark will prepare press releases for local newspapers.

· He would like committee chairs to inform him of committee accomplishments.

Scholarship: Jean Hathaway

· Jean will help in the formation of a NJASFAA Endowed Scholarship.

Speakers Bureau: Reggie Page

The committee would like to:

· Review dissemination of information to high schools. Reggie will contact high schools in early October to publicize the Speakers Bureau.

· Continue to present outreach programs in high schools, hopefully with more representation in South Jersey.

· Look into College Goal Sunday.

· Communicate directly with parents to educate them about financial aid consultants.

Sunshine: Shirley McFarlane

· The committee would like to recognize members’ life events, including birthdays.

· Shirley will reach out to directors to ask if they want to recognize staff accomplishments.

Training and Professional Development: Frank Cuozzo and Patricia Guli

The committee will:

· Develop a calendar of events.

· Explore having an executive speaker series with professional development speakers.

EASFAA Update: Joe Roberto

· The EASFAA Executive Council retreat will be held June 13 - 15, 2004.

· The EASFAA Spring Conference will be held May 15 - 18, 2005 in Atlantic City.

· David Sheridan is conference chair. He would like a large attendance from NJASFAA members and may offer incentives for members to attend. He will contact members for assistance.

Old Business:

· Last year Shirley McFarlane discussed the establishment of a scholarship fund for memorial donations. This can be considered once the endowment fund is established.

New Business:

· We are considering a golf outing, to be held in the spring of 2005, to raise money for our endowment fund. We would like to coordinate it with the EASFAA Spring Conference.

· We discussed whether associate members of NJASFAA should have the right to vote. If we change our Constitution and By-Laws to allow this, should associate members be allowed to hold office? Opinions varied, but we agreed it would be helpful to determine the history of why our Constitution and By-Laws do not allow associate members to have voting privileges. Joe Roberto will contact Al Rylko and Jay Peterson for this history. We should also contact other associations to ask if their associate members have voting privileges. We will table this discussion until we have the history.

· David Sheridan reached out to HESAA for a discussion on planned revisions to the Management Review Chapter of the Grants and Scholarships Policy and Procedures Manual. HESAA brought this matter to NJACSA for its feedback and has deferred discussion of this topic until the July NJACSA meeting. HESAA will expand the discussion to include four additional financial aid professionals, two of whom will be invited by HESAA and two to be invited by Executive Council. Maribeth will talk to David to select two NJASFAA representatives.

· Maribeth distributed the Executive Council meeting schedule for 2004-2005.

Motion to adjourn moved by Dennis Levy; seconded by Helen Mikulak and unanimously approved at 12:05 p.m.