NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes    

Rutgers University

May 16, 2006

 

Attended:  Jim Anderson, Lissa Anderson, Karyn Arnold, Sharon Austin, Evelynne Blatt, Catherine Boscher-Murphy, Vince Davis, Donna Fojtlin, Gloria Green, Jean Hathaway, Adrienne Hynek, Gisele Joachim, Dennis Levy, Woodrow Lewis, Helen Mikulak, Ninfa Mueller, Reggie Page, Carmen Panlilio, Maribeth Quinn, Mark Singer, Karen Sokol, Linda Tunick, Marion Twitchell, Karen Weber, Debra Wulff

 

The meeting was called to order at 10:15 a.m.  A quorum was established.

 

Motion to approve the March 28 Executive Council meeting minutes moved by Lissa Anderson; seconded by Maribeth Quinn.  Minutes were approved unanimously by a voice vote.

 

Officer Reports:

 

President:  Carmen Panlilio

 

·        Carmen sent a letter to our current accounting firm notifying them that we will no longer use their services.

·        She received NASFAA CORE training materials on CD.

 

Past President:  Maribeth Quinn

 

·        Maribeth thanked everyone for the opportunity to serve as President-Elect, President and Past President.

·        The next Board of Directors meeting will be held on June 16 at Princeton Theological Seminary.

 

Treasurer:  Helen Mikulak

 

·        All vendors are paid for the fall and spring conferences.

·        Helen will file our tax returns in the next few weeks.

·        Motion to approve the May 15, 2006 Treasurer’s Report moved by Lissa Anderson; seconded by Karen Weber.  Treasurer’s Report was approved unanimously by a voice vote.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Conference:  Catherine Boscher-Murphy

 

·        The spring conference received good evaluations.

 

 

Development:  Vince Davis

 

·        Vince and Kimber Decker will update the vendor list and mail out vendor packets for 2006-2007 by June 1.

 

Graduate and Professional Concerns:  Gisele Joachim

 

·        This committee overlaps with the EASFAA Graduate Concerns Committee and will be eliminated.

 

Membership:  Adrienne Hynek

 

·        The association has 496 members.

 

Multicultural Concerns:  Woodrow Lewis

 

·        Woody sent 86 letters to guidance counselors in Abbott school districts to notify them of the Multicultural Student Award.  He received 22 applications.

·        The committee will meet on May 22 to determine the recipients of this award.

 

Newsletter/Magazine:  Lissa Anderson

 

·        The fall issue of the NJASFAA Journal was mailed to members last week.

·        The spring issue should be available soon.

 

Nominations and Elections:  Maribeth Quinn

 

·        Maribeth announced the election results for 2006-2007.  About 52% of eligible voting members voted.

·        The committee voted on the two distinguished service awards, which were announced and presented at the spring conference.  Helen Mikulak received the Arthur E. Richmond Distinguished Service Award and Manny Loera received the Thomas C. Scott Distinguished Service Award.

 

Non-Traditional Concerns:  Donna Fojtlin

 

·        Donna sent a third letter to colleagues at computer schools inviting them to join the committee.

 

Novice Training:  Gloria Green

 

·        This committee should be a standing committee every other year when Novice Training is a residential program.

·        The Mentoring and Novice Training Committees should work together.

 

 

Public Relations:  Mark Singer

 

·        Mark sent press releases to announce our distinguished service award recipients.

 

Scholarship:  Debra Wulff

 

·        The Scholarship and Awards Luncheon at the spring conference was a success.

 

Training and Professional Development:  Sharon Austin

 

·        The two Verification workshops were well received.

 

Introduction of New Executive Council and Committee Chairs:  Helen Mikulak

 

·        Helen introduced the 2006-2007 Executive Council and committee chairs.

·        She requested that committee chairs provide her with their anticipated budget for next year.

·        She reminded us that we may submit expenditure forms for travel expenses from January to June, if the round trip is greater than 40 miles.  We may submit an expenditure form for the retreat prior to the retreat.

·        The 2006-2007 Executive Council Retreat will be held June 20 to 21 at The White Sands in Point Pleasant.

 

EASFAA Update:  Maribeth Quinn

 

·        The Federal Relations Committee distributed a draft letter to all State representatives regarding the discrepancy between the FFELP and DL PLUS Loan interest rates going into effect July 1.  Maribeth distributed the information and the draft letter via the NJASFAA listserve.

·        NASFAA Fall Training, which is coordinated through EASFAA and NJASFAA, will be coinciding with planned Department of Education Reauthorization training.  NASFAA/EASFAA traditionally performs this training in October and November.  EASFAA’s response to NASFAA regarding this conflict was to delay the training until late November through December, so it will not conflict with the Department.  NASFAA’s training topic is Verification.

·        EASFAA membership for 2005-2006 is over 1800.  Final numbers for the conference were over 830.

·        EASFAA’s 2005-2006 Volunteer of the Year was Fran Andrea.

·        EASFAA’s 2005-2006 Committee of the Year was Graduate and Professional Concerns, which was co-chaired by Rich Woodland.

·        George Chin of New York asked that EASFAA take a position on the PLUS Loan interest rate discrepancy and that instead of pushing for DL and FFELP to be equal at an 8.3% interest rate, that we push for FFELP to be lowered to the DL rate of 7.9%.

·        The 2006-2007 Executive Council Retreat will be held June 11 to June 13 in Philadelphia.

 

Old Business:

 

·        We will establish a Finance Committee as a standing committee of NJASFAA, as part of the Audit Committee recommendations.  This new committee will replace the current Budget Committee.  The Vice President will chair this committee.  It will include the President, President-Elect, Past President, Treasurer-Elect and Treasurer.  We will change the composition and duties of the Budget Committee in 2006-2007, prior to the name change.

 

·        The Finance Committee will review our investment recommendations from Paul Murray of Morgan Stanley.

 

·        Maribeth distributed the 2004-2006 Long Range Strategic Plan monitor.  She asked committee chairs to review this document and before June 16, report back to her with the status of the goals.

 

New Business:

 

·        We discussed whether we need to print NJASFAA letterhead.  A suggestion was made to post the letterhead to our Web site.  We would like to post two templates, one with the NJASFAA logo only, and the other with the NJASFAA logo and the names of elected officials.

 

·        Carmen thanked everyone for a good year.

 

Motion to adjourn moved by Lissa Anderson; seconded by Mark Singer and unanimously approved at noon.