WASFAA CONFERENCE 2010 MEETING
Reflections on Student Success
March 11, 2009
General Information from the Meeting 1. 5 states have travel constraints that are causing numbers
to be low.
2. Keep costs down, by printing locally, providing simple
flowers from Costco if at all, using our own LCDs, having
local speakers, cutting out the fluff. Only spend what you
really need to spend; don’t make a point of spending the
full budget that has been provided.
3. Note that each conference in each location has its own
challenges.
4. Use “Reflections on Student Success” as conference theme –
per Mindy’s choice.
5. Decide what committee members can wear to promote the
conference and to be recognizable at the conference in
2010. Wear a vest with the WASFAA logo, have a hat, use
sashes, make buttons? Order some vests with WASFAA logo and
name for the committee to wear. Leonard will get prices.
Committee members are willing to pay for them if necessary.
6. Understand our customer base at the conference by getting
data from the survey that Conference 2009 will be doing.
Information Organized by Main Person’s Responsibilities Chio:
1. Have the Volunteer Development Committee chair for 2010-11
(Kay Soltis is 2009-10 VDC chair) help coordinate the
newcomers’ meeting.
2. (Shared with Ron and Traci)Help members understand what the
association is about and how it works. Unfortunately, other
conferences that have had a panel of executive council
members as an interest session for this purpose have not
seen much interest by regular members to attend those
sessions. The newcomers’ session provides an opportunity to
share this information. We can consider describing how and
what the association is about in the program and/or the
newsletter.
Colleen:
1. (Shared with Wendy)As 2009 Chair - Can use survey monkey
for evaluation and also to find out why people did not
come. Send it out to all members and prior year members
whether or not they attended.
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2. (Shared with Wendy)Get information regarding AV costs etc.
Leonard:
1. Talk with the hotel about how to best use the space in the
hotel and maybe give some space up. Our contract requires
337 booked rooms for Sunday and then again on Monday. There
is a 10% room reduction opportunity. The contract is set
with just a slight amount of flexibility for attrition. Up
until January 18, 2010, we can release 10% of our room
block without penalty. Up until March 4, 2010 we can adjust
the room block by an additional 5% of the number set by
January 18.
2. Obtain a DVD about the hotel so it can run at the WASFAA
booth. We can intersperse it with the ARC DVD.
3. (Shared with Wendy)See what we can get for a raffle at
Alaska conference: hotel logo wear, huckleberry item or
spuds candy.
Patrick:
1. Link our website to the chamber of commerce website.
Peter:
1. Determine if there is a retiree rate for the conference.
2. (Shared with Wendy)Consider if we should have a one day
rate. There was no one day rate in Alaska, but there was in
Seattle in 2008.
Ron:
1. Create time for people to connect more at the conference.
Birds of a feather type of sessions would allow people to
connect with similar concerns related to their school type,
software product they use etc.
2. Consider having “reunion” meetings for those who
participated in Jerry Sims Management and Leadership
Institute or Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute.
3. Provide a list of questions for the 2009 conference
evaluation survey that will help with our planning.
4. Consider having as a special interest session speaker,
Terry Everson.
5. See if the College Board wants to tack on a special meeting
before or after our conference. This can help meet our room
count requirements with the hotel.
6. Determine schedule for conference. Ron went over suggested
schedule. 40 sessions was what he planned but may be too
many for fewer numbers. Sunday – student success at opening
plenary session, Monday lunch would be NASFAA and Tuesday
morning would be Department of Ed.
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7. Have tracks for the interest sessions – Professional
development, big picture/access/retention/demographics, GP,
financial literacy/loans, Dept. of Ed., management,
financial aid are some of the tracks mentioned as
possibilities.
8. Have moderator provide feedback with a standardized form on
the interest sessions.
9. Consider when the best time is to have the business
meeting. The 2009 conference committee meeting moved it to
the middle of the day so more people will attend.
10. Include policy regarding interest-session presenters, if
they attend any part of the conference beyond their
presentation then they must pay, in the
presenters/moderators agreement.
11. (Shared with Chio and Traci)Help members understand what
the association is about and how it works. Unfortunately,
other conferences that have had a panel of executive
council members as an interest session for this purpose
have not seen much interest by regular members to attend
those sessions. The newcomers’ session provides an
opportunity to share this information. We can consider
describing how and what the association is about in the
program and/or the newsletter.
Traci:
1. (Shared with Chio and Ron)Help members understand what the
association is about and how it works. Unfortunately, other
conferences that have had a panel of executive council
members as an interest session for this purpose have not
seen much interest by regular members to attend those
sessions. The newcomers’ session provides an opportunity to
share this information. We can consider describing how and
what the association is about in the program and/or the
newsletter.
2. Send articles, flyers, power-point information to each
state for their newsletters and their conferences to
advertise our conference.
3. Contact state webmasters to help with advertising. Can we
send emails through sate listservs? Mindy could maybe send
it through as she will be a member of each state’s
organization.
4. Can use mail merge with Outlook and Word for emailing to
people in WASFAA directory to advertise.
5. (Shared with Wendy) Make sure Jack Edwards has information
to include in this year’s conference brochure.
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Victor:
1. See if chamber of commerce can provide a DVD about Coeur
d’Alene.
2. Have a couple of local students participate as keynote
speakers – could find them at NIC or the local girls/boys
or the Y.
3. Have student develop logo - student silhouette with
reflections – 5-6 year old in cap and gown looking in
mirror and seeing self with cap and gown? Ask awardingwinning design student at NIC to design it for us. Provide
$200 for the work. Victor will give him the mission and the
goals of WASFAA as well as our theme.
Wendy:
1. (Shared with Colleen)Can use survey monkey for evaluation
and also to find out why people did not come. Send it out
to all members and prior year members whether or not they
attended.
2. See what the chamber of commerce can provide.
3. (Shared with Leonard)See what we can get for a raffle at
Alaska conference: hotel logo wear, huckleberry item or
spuds candy.
4. Consider having a WASFAA table at each state’s conference.
Can we just pay for real costs?
5. Get survey results from Strategic Plan to Ron.
6. Note that the conference budget includes two years that we
have expenses and budget for it.
7. Get subcommittee chairs volunteer names.
8. Have conference call meeting which just focuses on the
budget.
9. Have conference call meeting which just focuses on the
timeline.
10. (Shared with Peter) Consider if we should have a one day
rate. There was no one day rate in Alaska, but there was in
Seattle in 2008.
11. (Shared with Colleen)Get information regarding AV costs
etc.
12. (Shared with Traci) Make sure Jack Edwards has information
to include in this year’s conference brochure.
13. Add being environmentally responsible as one of our
objectives.
14. Let members know what we are doing with survey results.
Help them to know that they were heard.
15. Add the objective of providing an opportunity for members
to reconnect and build relationships.
16. Modify the last objective to the “Goals for WASFAA
Conference 2010” replace “promote” with “increase.”
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