WASFAA 2011-12 Executive Council Fall Quarterly Meeting
November 17 & 18, 2011
Coeur d’Alene Resort, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Present: Kay Soltis, Mindy Bergeron, Paula Cady, Breena Conlin, Jack Edwards, Lynn Fox, Sandi Guidry,
Adam Hatch (proxy for Candice Wong), Steve Herndon, Laura Hughes, Abril Hunt, Tracey Lehman (proxy
for Ashley Munro), Bert Logan, Peter Miller, Ashley Munro, Scott Nielsen, Sun Ow, Judy Saling, Tami Sato
(proxy for Darcy Keller), Leonard Walker, Neil Woolf, Luhui Whitebear, Jennifer Zimmers
Not Present: Renee Davis, Nichole Doering, Kevin Jensen, Darcy Keller, Wendy Olson, Mary San
Agustin, Kim Schreck, Candice Wong, Jim White
Call to order: A quarterly meeting of WASFAA’s executive council was held in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on
November 17, 2011. The meeting convened at 1:04 pm with Kay, Soltis, President, presiding and Tami
Sato, acting as secretary.
Announcements: A group dinner will be at Bonsai at 6:30 p.m. with a reception first in room 1804.
Consent Agenda: The agenda was sent to EC before the meeting. Kay Soltis asked if there were any
request for changes. The State Presidents Group report will be provided by Paula Cady and the VicePresidents report by Ashley Munro were added. With no objections, the consent agenda was adopted.
The consent agenda action includes the approval of the minutes from the June 9-10 meeting which
includes the electronic voting for approval of the JRSMLI registration fee and the registration fee for
training.
TO DO:
Reminders: Since we did not have name placards, members can raise their hand to signify that they
would like to speak. Jack Edwards will keep a list. There are three proxies for state presidents and Tami
Sato is acting Secretary. ALASFAA has a new president, Ashley Munro but she is also WASFAA VicePresident so Tracey Lehman will be proxy for Alaska. AASFAA also has a new president, Paula Cady.
Ashley Salisbury will be taking over the chair position for Electronic Services and Historical Archives.
Ashley Salisbury should make sure that these changes are reflected at the website.
Outstanding To Do List: Tami Sato reviewed the list of to do’s that were extracted from the minutes and
Kay Soltis added a few. Luhui Whitebear made the suggestion that the EC members be sent an email
reminding them of their To Do before the meeting.
Leonard Walker/Adam Hatch – Did submit an article for the newsletter on the site selection process.
Adam Hatch - Determined that there were no video capabilities for Go2Mtg and explored video
streaming systems like SKYPE.
Sun Ow - Will investigate conflict of interest concerns regarding support for members/students to
participate in WASFAA training.
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Sandi Guidry – She will work with Luhui Whitebear to get the electronic ballot up after this meeting.
Jim White – He did obtain two additional proposals from Portland hotels.
TO DO
Renee Davis - Was going to review ATAC changes/charges to see if any savings can be made. Ashley
Salisbury is taking over as Electronic Services Chair so this to do may fall to her.
Sandi Guidry/Kay Soltis – Contacted Just Draeger to ask about WASFAA sending a representative for the
upcoming negotiated regulation sessions. Kevin Jensen from our Federal Relations Committee could not
commit to the time commitment. If we found someone WASFAA and NASFAA could assist.
Kay Soltis/Peter Miller – Followed up on trying to locate the documents requested by the NASFAA
investment company. This update will be covered during the Fiscal Planning report.
Introductions: Kay Soltis asked EC members to introduce themselves and tell us one thing they are
working with or implementing new in their office. Most frequently mentioned were the setting of SAP
policy or system changes issues.
State Presidents Reports
Alaska – Ashley Munro reported that 3 Presidents have left the state and as a Past-President she will
serve as President until their conference. They hope to partner with WASFAA to have face-to-face
training. She is the only paid member presently and she plans to have members pay 2 years
membership and WASFAA membership.
Arizona – Paula Cady reported that their state also has had lots of changes this year, Kathreen Baggett
stepped down. The Vice-President was lost because she moved out-of-state. Paula Cady was elected
President 2 weeks before conference and they had a nice conference with representatives from
WASFAA, NASFAA and the Department of Education. Reviews by members have been good. They are
planning a Spring Symposium. A big task is cleaning up the membership database which will help in
recruiting new members.
California- Lynn Fox reported that they were busy with their conference coming up in Sacramento right
after FSA. They are renewing their strategic plan and had a transition meeting. He is reviewing the
report of a consultant they utilized for a membership survey. CASFAA is very active in legislative
advocacy at the capital. With the state of the California budget there are many challenges.
Idaho- Jennifer Zimmers reported that her goal was to have a conference jointly with Nevada. It was a
successful event and a good collaboration. They had no problems with their room block. For the
attendees from Nevada, just the registration fee was charged, not membership. They included sessions
for proprietary schools with clock hour issues in an effort to expand membership. They are sending out
a call for nominations for officers.
Nevada- Scott Nielsen reported that for the joint conference with Idaho, they had small group of
attendees from Nevada. An ongoing concern is if NAFAA will be able to stay afloat. He is wondering if it
would be better to continue just teaming up with others. Money is a big concern as financial aid
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administrators are trying to figure how to get the biggest bang for their buck. It has been 2 years since
they have had a NAFAA conference.
Oregon- Bert Logan reports on their efforts to provide training, like the one-day drive-in workshops
during summer. Kim Shreck has assisted them and is a good new trainer. They just finished support
staff workshops. Financial Aid 202 and 201 training will be provided for financial aid veterans and those
new to the field in January. The OASFAA conference will be in Salishan in February. OASFAA will
continue NT4CM training for counselors, even though past support from NASFAA and others has been
dropped. Having the WASFAA conference in Portland is great. The Oregon Challenge Grant will not be
able to continue and will finish up this year.
Pacific Islands- Adam Hatch reported that there have been changes at PACFAA with their Treasurer,
Joyce Gum stepping down, so now their Treasurer-Elect has moved to that position. The biggest activity
has been the high school counselors training. PACFAA is planning an in-person training visit to Guam
because of the new Verification law change that will for the first time apply to Guam. They have asked
the Department of Education for materials. Presentations were made at 55 sites for Financial Aid
Nights. College Goal Sunday has funding in place and will be on January 22. The Spring Conference for
PACFAA will be on March 19-20 at the Ala Moana Hotel.
Washington- Darcy Keller submitted the WFAA report. Their conference was held in Leavenworth on
October 25-28th. With 161 attendees they met their budget goals. Kay Soltis added that they had great
sessions and speakers. They will have a long term relationship with the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth for
conference in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with low cost, a great location and good service. At their Transition
meeting they discussed creating a strategic plan to develop their website to target the primary
audience.
Representatives-at-Large Reports
Rep-at-Large/EDAC- Luhui Whitebear reported that a major activity of EDAC was to expand the number
of committee members. They needed more input for scholarship selection. This year she is trying subcommittees to work on different projects or goals. Two EDAC members are from the previous year but
the majority are new members. The have had two online meetings using the Go2Meeting and it has
worked out great. Their next meeting will be in December. They are discussing session ideas for the
Portland conference. One they want to present for sure is the Dream Act. Many of the committee
members are from Oregon because of the conference location. They would like to create training
materials for high school counselors on training for working with diverse students.
Rep-at-Large/Associate Member- Sun Ow said that most of her activity has been with the other WASFAA
positions she holds and will be reported later.
A break was provided from 2:10 to 2:20.
Fiscal Planning Committee – Steve Herndon reported that Fiscal Planning met this morning before
Strategic Planning. The change in order was to allow time to get printing done for the revised 2011 FY
Budget and a draft of the 2012 FY Budget. We first discussed the size and composition of the Fiscal
Planning Committee. The number was cranked up for this transition year to a new chair and because
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TO DO:
getting the budgets right is critical. Next year Fiscal Planning will revert back to the committee
membership designated in the WASFAA Policies and Procedures.
An update was provided on where we are in our decision to collaborate with NASFAA with our
investments. We are still seeking the IRS letter and original Articles of Incorporation. Peter Miller sent a
request for the tax letter and obtained the form to request certified copies of the articles.
Peter Miller will fill out the order form for certified copies of our Articles of Incorporation and send it
with the payment required. When documents are received he will send them off to NASFAA.
The contractual agreement has been completed and we have the instructions on how to wire the
money.
An update was also provided on the final negotiations with the Hilton Hawaiian and our room attrition
penalty. We ended up having to pay a little over $19,000 which is a lot lower than the possible $68,000
we could have been responsible for. With the penalty the result of the conference was being in the red
for about $11,000. Steve Herndon stated that this was not the fault of the conference committee. We
have changed how we will handle room reservations and the timing of room cancellations causing loss
of the room deposit. Leonard Walker stated we had a room attrition problem at the conference here at
the Coeur d’Alene Resort but they waived the $20,000 penalty due to the repeat relationship we have
with this site. Holding the council meeting here was part of the agreement.
At the Fiscal Planning meeting they finalized the current 2011 FY Budget. Wendy Olson and Steve
Herndon sent out forms for requesting adjustments before the December close-out. They received six
requests and accommodated most of them. The final 2011 FY Budget ended with the amount of
$289,550. The dependency on asset reserves increased and we will be drawing on $65,150.
Treasurer’s Report – Peter Miller reported that this has been a rough quarter and our Vanguard
accounts have both gone into minus amounts. Our larger Vanguard that started at $150,000 had gone
into the black previously. WASFAA will wait for the market to rebound. The Vanguard accounts are set
up so that no additional funds are being put into these accounts. Peter Miller will get the necessary
documents to NASFAA so we can complete our plan to combine with their larger portfolio.
Currently our liabilities are high and therefore we have a lot of funds in our Bank of America accounts.
He has set up automatic payments. He can provide expanded versions of each budget category. The
asset reserves, dues, Job Links, and JRSMLI income all increased. It has been a good year for training
income with the exception of the big expense due to the attrition penalty. Without that we would have
had $7,000 profit for the conference. EDAC reduced expenses from their budget. We discussed the
expenses of using the Go2Meeting and Go E-merchant products which provide good service but have
high costs to the association. Payment was made for the SDBSI in Spokane. The SDBSI and Site
Selection needed an increase. We spent less on the state and other meetings budget category. Training
paid Citrix twice this year so we added $3,000 to their budget. VDC pulled back some funds. All these
adjustments led to a balanced budget for FY 2011.
MOTION: Scott Nielsen moved and Sandi Guidry seconded a motion to approve changes to FY 2011 Budget.
MOTION CARRIED
Budget FY 2012- Council members were also requested to submit budget adjustment for FY 2012 and
seven forms were returned: 1)The Conference Committee wants approval on their proposed fee of
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$325 (plus the $50 membership fee) for the conference that will be in Portland, April 21-24th. Their
income and expenses were based on an estimate of 250 attendees. The results would be $81,750
income and expenses of $68,000 and an estimated net income of $13,750 profit.
MOTION: Tracey Lehman moved and Ashley Munro seconded a motion to approve a 2012 conference fee of $325
plus $50 membership. MOTION CARRIED.
MOTION: Adam Hatch moved and Ashley Munro seconded a motion that the Conference Committee consider an
annual increase in the conference fee by $25, taking into account location, historical attendance, and
costs. In the discussion Peter Miller suggested just adding this note to the policies and procedures
manual. MOTION FAILED
EDAC – Previously EDAC had a $1,000 budget. EDAC has requested a $200 operating budget and a
reallocation of $800 to EDAC scholarships. Fiscal Planning felt we could consider additional funds for the
EDAC scholarships after the current $3,750 was fully expended.
Newsletter- Rescinding request for additional funding and their budget will remain at $6,000.
SDBSI- The fee structure and expenses as submitted by Jim White resulted in a $1,100 profit. Fiscal
Planning felt a larger profit from this event is generally expected. We increased the registration fees to
a level that would result in a net income of $5,625.
2012 FY Budget Draft- The total budget for next year is a little less and has a lower dependence on asset
reserves, which is very good. Some committees went lower with their request. Sun Ow asked if
WASFAA has looked into other GoEmerchant-like products like PayPal. Peter Miller replied that the
product was tied into the ATAC system. We would need to obtain a different product for registration if
we changed the electronic payment systems.
MOTION: Jack Edwards moved and Peter Miller seconded a motion to accept the Fiscal Planning recommendation
for SDBSI registration fees with the opportunity for Jim White to review the adjustments. MOTION
CARRIED
TO DO:
Kay Soltis will provide Jim White with the SDBSI budget information.
MOTION: Sandi Guidry moved and Adam Hatch seconded a motion to accept the recommended Budget for FY
2012. MOTION CARRIED
Steve Herndon reported that the last item discussed was Archives. Ashley Salisbury sent Fiscal Planning
an updated inventory list. The Secretary’s laptop is broken and no longer under warranty. Fiscal
Planning recommended the laptop be taken off the inventory list, purchase a new device for the
Secretary to take minutes and charge this in the General Administration budget for 2012. We will also
remove expired first aid kit from the inventory list.
Committee Reports
Awards/Scholarship – Breena Colin added three additional members, some who were new members
who paid the membership fee. They had their first meeting in August which was helpful to the
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committee members new to WASFAA volunteering. The committee has also been communicating by
email. They awarded the JRSMLI scholarship which covered costs for one recipient. Breena Colin
suggested that instead of a set dollar amount we state parts of the event the scholarship would cover.
She also suggested use of our mileage points for travel expenses be considered. Their next big project
will be promoting the submission of nomination forms for WASFAA Awards.
By Laws – Jack Edwards reported that there have been no changes in the By Laws since our previous
meeting.
TO DO:
Conference – Tracey Lehman reported that the Conference Committee had their first in person meeting
in September. They took a tour of the Benson Hotel facilities. The committee has been holding biweekly phone meetings. The conference program chairs are Leslie Limper and David Tolman. We will
again have a NASFAA training track. The theme was developed: “The Yin and Yang of Financial Aid,
Reaching harmony through WASFAA”. They will have yoga as part of the program. The tentative agenda
and registration is ready to be posted at the website. They are looking at a program with a spiral
notebook format. The University of Reno will bring their projectors so we can save on AV costs. The
room rate of $125 applies to single or double. Registration will be available the first part of December.
The budget is based on 250 attendees at the full registration rate. A survey went out to listserv
members regarding interest in a one-day registration. The survey results will determine if a set number
of one-day registrations will be offered. The committee will use the WASFAA Face Book page for
conference information.
Tracey Lehman and Mary San Agustin will coordinate publicity with the Communications Committee.
Electronic Services/Historical Archives –A report was submitted by Renee Davis. She has a new job and
it is difficult for her to do both positions. Ashley Salisbury will be taking over the chair positions for
Electronic Services and Historical Archives.
Federal Relations – Neil Woolf reported that the committee is working on putting together the best
practices in program integrity issues. The committee will send out a survey of what implementation
procedures worked and what did not. At their last conference call meeting they discussed nominating
names for the loan negotiated rulemaking sessions and will let Beth Guerard at NASFAA know of any
available WASFAA representatives. List serve messages have been sent regarding advocacy for the Save
Student Aid effort, the model financial aid disclosure and legislative proposals. Committee members
discussed trying to get a formal gathering of WASFAA members at the FSA conference since it is being
held in our region. Neil Woolf and Kevin Jensen wanted to remind the state presidents to bring issues or
questions to our Federal Relations Committee.
Fund Development- Sun Ow reported that she had contacted vendors about advertising in the WASFAA
Newsletter. She prepared for soliciting support for the annual conference by reviewing the
fund/development and sponsorship web pages. There will be no drayage fee at the Benson so that will
save expenses for WASFAA. There is room for twenty exhibit booths in the ballroom and more booths
could be located in hallways. Sun Ow has gathered Information on the different vendors that have been
at other events. She estimates Fund Development expenses will only be about $700. The hope is that
the committee can raise $24,000.
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Graduate/Professional- Mindy Bergeron reported that there were Interesting developments for
graduate students with the Subsidized DL loans and repayment benefits being eliminated for the
2012/13 year. Discussion with committee members was with how these changes can be communicated
to graduate students. Some schools are adding the information to entrance presentations or including it
in announcements to support the Save Student Aid campaign. Mindy Bergeron included an article in
her report about how law changes are increasing the cost of college for these students. Next year loan
interest and fees will be raised making these loans more costly.
NASFAA is supporting a very active listserv for graduate financial aid administrators. There are many
issues that have been brought forth: 1) whether verification will be necessary if a graduate student has
no subsidized loans; 2) the future of the Perkins loan program; 3) reporting for gainful employment for
graduate certificate programs and 4) new “special” DL Consolidation and IBR enhancements.
Membership – Abril Hunt reported that the membership is at just over 675, the highest since 2008. She
thanked the state presidents for promoting membership and for committee chairs for adding new
committee members. The membership committee has been working on cleaning up the database with
a goal to have it done by February. Abril Hunt attended the conference planning committee and will
help coordinate social events and the newcomers welcome. Membership renewal reminders were sent
out multiple times.
Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute – Jim White was unable to attend the council meeting, but he
submitted a report. The site for the 2012 SDBSI will be at Occidental College in Los Angeles. We
discussed the difficulty of finding reasonable lodgings for the council meeting and transportation for the
council to attend the graduation dinner. We came up with two options: 1) not holding the council
meeting at the same time/site; and 2) having the EC meeting on the Occidental College campus and
having council members stay in the dorms. The decision was made that it was important for the council
to meet and interact with those new to financial aid so we will explore options of having the June
meeting in Los Angeles.
MOTION: Jack Edwards moved and Tami Sato seconded a motion to go into Executive Session. MOTION CARRIED
The members of the Executive Committee started the Executive Session at 4:15 p.m. to review the list of
nominations for officers and develop the ballot for elections. All candidates were discussed and voted
upon. The result was a slate of candidates that would be presented to the council tomorrow.
MOTION: Adam Hatch moved and Jack Edwards seconded a motion to adjourn the executive session. MOTION
CARRIED
The council meeting was recessed at 4:48 p.m.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Present: Kay Soltis, Mindy Bergeron, Paula Cady, Breena Conlin, Jack Edwards, Lynn Fox, Sandi Guidry,
Adam Hatch (proxy for Candice Wong), Steve Herndon, Laura Hughes, Abril Hunt, Tracey Lehman (proxy
for Ashley Munro), Bert Logan, Peter Miller, Ashley Munro, Scott Nielsen, Sun Ow, Judy Saling, Tami Sato
(proxy for Darcy Keller), Leonard Walker, Luhui Whitebear, Jennifer Zimmers
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Not Present: Renee Davis, Nichole Doering, Kevin Jensen, Darcy Keller, Wendy Olson, Mary San
Agustin, Kim Schreck, Candice Wong, Jim White, Neil Woolf
The meeting reconvened at 8:10 a.m.
TO DO:
State Presidents Group- The State Presidents Group report was presented by Paula Cady. She reviewed
the common issues many state associations have of losing membership. In Arizona they are trying to
update their membership database in an effort to locate members that have changed schools. Nevada
has the biggest issue of facing whether they will be able to stay afloat. We discussed how WASFAA
would handle representation on council if a state association dissolved.
Jack Edwards will research what procedures WASFAA would follow if a state association dissolved.
California is worried they might lose some conference attendees because of the timing and location of
FSA conference. States that use ATAC have faced some challenges. California changed from ATAC to
Member Clicks but it is too early to decide if cost savings are worth some of the loss of services. The
Idaho State Board is discussing unifying a single cost of attendance to make the Net Price Calculator
more consistent. Kay Soltis reported that another region changed from ATAC to a product called Wild
Apricot. She felt ATAC has been more responsive to requests but Adam Hatch reported Training had
some timing issues.
Newsletter/Communications- Judy Saling reported that the newsletter was out after the fall term.
There was good representation of articles from the states. Judy Saling asked council members to write
down ideas they might have for an article. An article does not have to be long. Justin Draeger from
NASFAA is now submitting an article for each newsletter.
TO DO:
Judy Saling is also working on Communications and working on the website. Her committee is reviewing
the survey on how members like to communicate. Jennifer Zimmers suggested a link to the newsletter
on our Facebook page. Jack Edward said one region eliminated their newsletter and replaced it with a
successful BLOG. Judy Saling has thought about making a change to another electronic tool to get more
member participation and make information output timely. RMASFAA has a great BLOG.
Judy Saling will review the electronic communication venues of other regions.
Nominations and Elections – Sandi Guidry reported that the Executive Committee was able to develop a
final slate for the ballot. The goal is to get the ballot together with photos and statements and have the
election before Christmas. The final candidates represented seven of the eight WASFAA states in the
region. Here are the candidates for officer positions:
President-Elect
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer-Elect
EDAC R-A-L
Frank Green and Laura Hughes
Kathleen Koch and Luhui Whitebear
Paula Cady and Abril Hunt
Mindy Bergeron and Scott Nielsen
Ronald Noborikawa and Lawrence Persky
Policies and Procedures – Jack Edwards reported that since the June meeting the changes approved at
that meeting to the Secretary’s duties were added to the Policies and Procedures manual. The updated
Policies & Procedures Manual is now available on the website.
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Jerry R. Sims Management and Leadership Institute – Laura Hughes reported that the JRSMLI was held
last week in Tahoe. The faculty included two new volunteers. The total number of registrants was 16
with one late cancellation. She has received good feedback from the attendees including the
scholarship recipients. Harvey’s was a very good site to work with. Laura Hughes believes they will end
up within their budget. Kay Soltis appreciated the ease in working with this hotel and believes that no
penalties will be levied for attrition. Jack Edwards asked if this is a better time of year instead of
February. Laura Hughes said yes, that it was a better time for financial aid offices. October may be more
difficult for quarter schools. Adam Hatch added that it was important that the dates not conflict with
FSA and other WASFAA training events. Kay Soltis had one of her staff attended the JRSMLI and they
had a good experience.
Site Selection- Leonard Walker informed us that the next council meeting will be at the Suncoast in Las
Vegas with room rates at $42/night. The dates are February 29th and March 1-2, 2012. Leonard Walker
is working on finalizing the contract. The contract includes a great package deal for meals.
Transportation to the Suncoast must be by their free shuttle because the taxi fee would be high.
Arrivals will have to be coordinated with the shuttle times. This will be a combination council and
transition meeting. This council will meet for two full days including a half-day with new council. This
current meeting at the Coeur d’Alene is part of the bargain to avoid fees for not making the room block
for the conference held here in 2010. The attrition penalty was generously waived. Leonard Walker
wanted us to know that although the total number of conference attendees is lower than past years, the
number of schools attending the conference has not changed and has always been around 200. Most of
his work is done before the start of a meeting. Leonard Walker recommends holding the 2012 JRSMLI
back at Harvey’s. The next conference site after the 2012 at the Benson will be in Arizona. We skipped
Arizona in the state rotation and he recommends that we put them back for 2013. Sun Ow asked about
the immigration law issue and Paula Cady replied that the state has other bigger problems with jobs and
the economy.
MOTION: Jack Edwards moved and Sandi Guidry seconded a motion to hold the 2013 conference in Arizona.
MOTION CARRIED
Leonard Walker reminded the council members to let him know if they have special requests for lodging
or food so he can make arrangements with the hotel. We also discussed the check out time and
procedure for council members staying longer on their own.
Strategic Planning – Sandi Guidry reported that Strategic Planning met after Fiscal Planning. The
committee went through the Measures Tracking tools. We have completed the 2010/2011 year data
and have started adding information in for 2011/2012 for events that have been held. The committee
decided that we should add information on when data is collected or is available to provide for a more
consistent collection of data. Sandi Guidry is working with Electronic Services and ATAC as their system
drives some of the timing. The 2011/2012 Goals Matrix was put together using information from the
Quarterly Reports.
Training- Adam Hatch reported that they just finished up in-person fall trainings in Boise, Phoenix and
Seattle. The two topics for the workshops were Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) and Verification
Changes. NASFAA materials were used for the SAP presentations and this caused a delay. The Training
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Committee appreciates the collaboration with NASFAA but they need to get the materials out to the
regions way before the FSA Conference. The benefit of using NASFAA content is that it increases
attendee numbers. Mindy Bergeron asked if the delay was because they were waiting on changes in
information. Adam Hatch replied that that was the case in some past years but not this year. The total
number for all sites was 154 people. Arizona had one of the largest events with 46 attendees. The
Training Committee tried a new format with split training over two days, half-day late and half-day early.
The idea of the plan was so that far away attendees would only have to spend one night and the local
attendees would not have to be out of the office the whole day. The pilot was tried in Oregon and
Washington. They will survey attendees but on the surface it did not work out as well as they thought it
would.
The Training Committee also offered the training in two web-based sessions using the same content.
For the dates in December they had 19 registrations so far which represented an estimated 80
attendees (multiple attendees at one registration). The Fall Training brought in an additional 85 new or
returning members.
TO DO:
WASFAA has multiple licenses for Go2Meeting, and CA has paid for usage in past years. Adam Hatch
reminded council members that the Go2Meeting product could be used for committee meetings. It can
be set up pretty quickly. Luhui Whitebear said it has worked out well for the EDAC Committee. You can
share the desktop.
Adam Hatch or Ashley Salisbury will resend out instructions for how to use the Go2Meeting product for
committee meetings.
Volunteer Development – Tami Sato reported that a chart was developed to list all volunteers by state.
This information was utilized by Kay Soltis to make a brochure that she took to the state conferences. It
was updated for each state. Tami Sato used the committee lists from the website and the quarterly
report forms. She appreciated the use of asterisks on the report form to indicate those new to the
committee. She thanked committee chairs for so many new names on their committee lists.
A break was provided from 10:10 to 10:30. This allowed council members to check-out.
Presidents’ Reports
Vice-President – Ashley Munro reported that she has been reviewing our bank statements from Peter
Miller and all looks fine. The calendar now includes all state conferences and other one-day training
meetings that have been reported to her. Ashley Munro is working with the Conference Committee on
the number of bags and lanyards that will be needed for the conference and other events. We try to
recycle the lanyards but the supply is low. It is best to buy in bulk for greater cost saving.
TO DO:
Past President- Sandi Guidry attended the NASFAA board meetings in Boston and Las Vegas. The
NASFAA board has 43 around the table so it is too big. The reduction in board members should make
the board more effective. Their board meets three times a year. In addition continuing as a regional
representative on the NASFAA board Sandi Guidry has been chairing the WASFAA Nominations/Elections
and Strategic Planning Committees.
Sandi Guidry will work with Luhui Whitebear to get the ballot out to membership.
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Since Luhui Whitebear is on the ballot Sandi Guidry will take over monitoring the voting after the ballot
is set up. Sandi Guidry has not heard anything about the lawsuit from the Reno SDBSI since it was
turned over to the State Attorney General and believes that this case is closed. Sandi Guidry has also
taken over making the air travel arrangements for the council meetings.
President Elect- Since last council meeting, Jack Edwards attended the orientation meeting for new
NASFAA board members in July. It was educational and interesting observing the board meeting from a
separate table. He also attended the board meeting in Las Vegas. As part of the NASFAA interregional
exchange program he attended the MASFAA conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had 400
attendees and lots of vendors. He gave the list of vendors to Sun Ow. Jack Edwards presented a session
at MASFAA. He will continue chair selections for next year and can now plan on working on the 2013
conference now that Arizona has been selected as the site.
President- Kay Soltis reported that it has been a busy few months. She attended the joint state
conference for Nevada and Idaho. They had great speakers including a cartoonist who is a veteran that
goes out to retired veterans. Idaho has a silent auction that raises funds for member scholarships. Kay
thanked Idaho for hosting her. The Arizona conference was the next state conference she attended.
They had a party about movies. It was put together in 3 weeks due to officer changes. Kay Soltis copresented a session with Pat Peppin who was honored with an award. The Washington conference was
in Leavenworth, which is a Bavarian style town. She went to the NASFAA board meeting at the Aria
Hotel. This will be the site of the 2013 NASFAA Conference. In December she will attend the California
state conference in Sacramento.
Because NASFAA has a large board size, they are reducing the numbers. This will affect WASFAA
because they are reducing the number of regional representatives who attend the meetings. Presently
there are 3 regional representatives: 1) usually the President-Elect attends as an observer that can
speak but has no vote; 2) the current President serves as a voting member and 3) the Past-President
remains on the board as a voting member. All will remain on the board until the July conference.
NASFAA is reducing the total size from 33 to 19. All present board members will serve out their terms.
When the rotation is settled we will have to decide who we will send to the NASFAA board meetings.
From discussions at the board meeting Kay Soltis is recommending that we have an independent audit.
Some regions paid $1,200 to $3,000. NASFAA pays $25,000 annually for an independent audit. Kay
Soltis also recommended that we obtain an attorney.
Kay Soltis is working with the Conference Committee and formal letters were sent to invite Justin
Draeger and Pam Fowler to attend the Portland conference. We will have an interregional guest from
RMASFAA, Jeff Jacobs, and Kay Soltis asked us to be welcoming to him. Jack Edwards said we should
show our WASFAA hospitality. Kay Soltis said SWASFAA picked her up from airport. Eunice Powell will
also be at our conference as a NASFAA trainer. We will pay for their lodging. We have less free rooms
as part of the hotel contract since the size of our conference is smaller. Kay Soltis stated that we told
NASFAA that we will only accept one inter-regional guest. Since all regions are having budgetary
constrains the interregional visits could be something that will go away.
Kay Soltis showed us the brochure she used at state conferences to promote training events and
volunteers and conference date in 2012. It was printed at her college. She has been keeping a journal
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that she will pass on to Jack Edwards and gave him a journal to record insights and helpful information
for his year as President. As an association, we sent flowers and cards to Wendy Olson, wishing her well
after her surgery and she wrote a letter of thanks for the thoughtful gift.
TO DO:
TO DO:
TO DO:
TO DO:
TO DO:
Unfinished business: Steve Herndon stated that for a domestic non-profit organization we need an
annual statement by an attorney. Our retainer lawyer, Richard Glasner retired, 2-3 years ago. He had
WASFAA documents and passed it on to the WASFAA President at that time.
Steve Herndon, Peter Miller and Ashley Salisbury will do more research on where the WASFAA legal
documents were passed on to. WASFAA needs to obtain a lawyer on retainer.
We put off this due to fiscal constraints. Steve Herndon asked if anyone knew of an attorney. Rebecca
Cady is a past WASFAA member and attorney and may have a desire to do this for us. Peter Miller
stated that we have paid an Attorney General in California $225 or so to date. We also file the 990 form
annually. Steve Herndon remembers an annual $20 fee that had to be paid.
Steve Herndon and Peter Miller will do research on what a non-profit organization is required to do
annually to keep this status.
Lynn Fox believes the form name and process has changed recently. Breena Conlin has a campus
president who is an attorney and she will find out if he will be interested. Peter Miller stated that we
paid $20 each year between 2008 and 2010 to renew our status as a non-profit.
Council members will gather information to put forth names for a possible WASFAA attorney for the
next meeting.
Steve Herndon stated that in the past we paid a modest fee for legal services that were charged by the
hour. Lynn Fox stated that CASFAA had a lawyer by pro bono from a firm. They use recent graduates
from their California law schools. Sandi Guidry recommended that we compile a list and fee costs.
Steve Herndon recommended that we may not need to retain an attorney, but have one we could use
when needed. Ashley Munro suggested, if possible, we have a recommendation for an attorney from
each state.
Kay Soltis will work with the state presidents to have a potential attorney from each state on the list.
Peter Miller will send Kay Soltis the fee history of the amount paid for retainer fees.
NASFAA Investment Update- We have obtained the IRS tax form and statement document. The original
Articles of Incorporation will be ordered with information we collected.
New Business: Abril stated that a joint ALASFAA/WASFAA training will be held in March and an issue
about WASFAA membership has come up. Ashley Munro said with only a few months left in this
membership year, Training would like to have the membership paid for this event to be applied to the
next membership year. Peter Miller said we need to determine a what point membership will just go to
the next year. ATAC asks us to pick a date for rolling into the next year.
MOTION: Jack Edwards moved and Ashley Munro seconded a motion that for any training activity that requires
membership and occurs after March 1st, the membership fee will continue for the following year. In
discussion Bert Logan said the OASFAA membership year was not in sync with the training year and felt
WASFAA should keep the date as a floater. Voting on the motion was made by a show of hands.
MOTION FAILED.
Peter Miller recommended that we put an edit in the Policies & Procedures Manual that we use March
as a good target date for extending membership to the following year.
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TO DO:
Jack Edwards will research if this issue is already in the Policies & Procedures and if not will add the
notation that training events in March should consider membership applied to the following year.
For the training happening in March 2012 we will have the rollover membership for the next year. Abril
Hunt added that they have had 32 sign up for this event.
Tami Sato stated that it is disturbing how many of the WASFAA state associations have serious fiscal and
membership problems. When the FFEL program was eliminated and vendor support dwindled, the
regional associations were expected to be hit the hardest but it is turning out that some of the state
association’s are struggling to survive. So now members of states are turning to WASFAA for their
training needs and this has affected our growing number of members.
TO DO: The WASFAA State Presidents Group will discuss what WASFAA can do as regional association to
assist the states’ members or state associations.
Federal Update - Kim Schreck is our Federal Liaison but could not attend our meeting. She submitted a
written report that Kay Soltis presented.
 2012/2013 FOTW – Changes will be minimal. Most significant are changes with the IRS data
retrieval tool which will apply skip logic to prevent those who cannot use the retrieval tool from
using it (i.e. married filing separately, head of household, etc.)
 FSA Conference registration closes November 17th and over 7,500 will make this the largest
conference ever. They are offering 70 interest sessions, including hands-on software sessions.
 They have invited schools to participate in the experimental sites initiatives and posted a Q & A
document on November 15th. Being able to limit unsubsidized loan amounts seems to be the
most popular.
 Nearly all sections of the 2011/2012 FSA Handbook have been published and they are at IFAP.
 Hopefully everyone has submitted their gainful employment data because it had a November
15th deadline. No extensions will be granted or considered. There is a GE page in IFAP.
 She recommended attending sessions at the FSA on Verification 2012/2013. It is still not
determined ED will provide verification worksheets. According to Jeff Baker, a copy of a card
used by a person for purchasing food is sufficient documentation.
 On the budget front we are still operating under a continuing resolution. The Super Committee
has a deadline of November 23rd so there should be information at the FSA Conference.
 DE has hired two new training officers, one in Seattle and one in Denver. Suzanne Scheldt
joined the Seattle office on November 7th. Rick Renshaw was also hired as a training officer in
the Denver office and we could see him because trainers often train in other regions.
 There has been a change in social security number assignment to utilize previously unused
ranges. PACFAA will get the new 666 pseudo range.
 Kim Schreck provided the contact information for training officers in Region IX and X.
Motions Made by Electronic Vote Prior to Meeting:
MOTION: On August 25, 2011 Ashley Munro moved and Candice Wong seconded a motion to approve the Jerry R.
Sims Management and Leadership Institute budget and recommended fee of $675 for attendees.
MOTION CARRIED
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MOTION: On September 15, 2011 Ashley Munro moved to accept the fee structure recommended by the Training
Committee which was $51 for members/$101 for non-members and $31 for one of the half-day
sessions. MOTION CARRIED
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.
_______________________________________
Acting Secretary of WASFAA
____________________________
Date of approval
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