2008-09 WASFAA Committee Chair/Officer Year-End Report
Committee Name/Officer: Federal Relations Committee
Committee Chair/Co-Chair/Officer (Name/Place of
Employment/Address/Phone/Email):
Tami Sato – Co-Chair Southern CA College of Optometry
Vicki Shipley – Co-Chair NCHELP
Committee Members (Name/Place of Employment – Please identify those new to
the committee with an *)
Janet Cantelon - Seattle University*
Tia Dunsmore – Bainbridge Graduate Institute*
Pat Hurley – Glendale College
Goals:
1.
Continue to increase the awareness of federal issues by providing timely
information to the membership via the listserv and Newsletter.
2.
Encourage advocacy of issues deemed important to the WASFAA members.
3.
Review and respond when a consensus position can be reached on key bills,
proposals and NPRM’s.
4.
Develop and present a session on a current federal issue at the annual
WASFAA conference.
5.
Be a resource to the WASFAA membership on federal issues and to
coordinate efforts with the other state associations that make up the
WASFAA membership.
6.
Work to increase the size and diversity of the membership on the committee.
Activities:
The 2008/09 year was once again a very active time for this profession and this
committee. We continued to keep the membership current on the many pending federal
issues which included reauthorization, negotiated rulemaking, the pending parent PLUS
Auction and the President’s 2010 proposed budget. These efforts included the following:
 Numerous and timely listserv announcements (close to 40) which members
indicated they feel is an important WASFAA membership service
 Newsletter articles were submitted for each issue with multiple articles written by
our newest FRC members for the paper issue provided at the annual conference
 Two training sessions have been developed on federal issues at the annual
conference
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We provided a chart to members on the number of students and amount of
financial aid in the major student aid programs broken down by each WASFAA
state and the WASFAA region in total
Two letters were sent to Congress to support WASFAA’s position: one on a
request to delay the Parent PLUS Auction; and another regarding the
administration’s budget proposal
We responded to questions posted to the listserv by WASFAA members
Copy of these letters were shared with membership with a listserv message
along with a sample letter format in hopes they too would consider making their
voice heard on these important issues. According to the results of the
membership services survey 47% of responders have answered our call to action
and contacted their congressional leaders.
The committee kept in contact during the year via email and conference calls.
Two FRC members are involved in the Negotiated Rulemaking meetings and
issues regarding the process were discussed at one of the conference calls.
Approved Budget Breakdown and Actual Expenditures to Date:
The FRC has no budget and no expenditures
Progress Toward Strategic Plan Goals/Activities:
1. The results from the membership survey indicate that the membership values the
information provided by this committee and it is our intention to continue to meet
this WASFAA Strategic Plan Goal
2. We have provided the supporting information, letter templates and contact links
so WASFAA members were encouraged to make some noise and advocate their
input on how provisions and proposals would affect their students and school
3. We were successful in drafting two position letters this year that council approved
and these we forwarded on to congressional leaders and the budget committee
members.
4. Two sessions will be presented at the annual conference on current federal
issues: “What Does Congress Do With All of Those Bills Anyway?” and “The
Inside Track on Federal Loan Issues”
5. The 40+listserv messages sent provided timely and concise information about
actions and developments in Washington DC. We have heard that some state
presidents pass this information directly to their own state listserv.
6. We expanded the size of the FRC this year and they were very active members
that participated in the conference call meetings and submitted articles to the
WASFAA newsletter.
Suggestions for Committee Chair/Co-Chair or Officer Successor:
 Review the newsletter and websites of the NASFAA, NACUBO, NCHELP,
CBA, ACE, the Higher Education Chronicle, USA Funds, EdFund, etc. to
extract important information that members should know about.
 Keep messages short and concise. Try to summarize and use charts that
break down long bills or documents. An example is the chart provided
that listed the new school disclosures/reports required in the 1100 page
HEOA. This is helpful for the many financial aid administrators that do
not have time to read extensive documents.
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In person meetings are not required for this committee and much can be
done in a one hour conference call
Because position letters are usually time sensitive an electronic motion
and vote is required between council meetings.
The time span between newsletter deadlines for article submission and
the actual release of the newsletter to membership makes it difficult to
include time sensitive information so general topics are more practical.
Calendar of events/deadlines needed to be met:
 Quarterly reports must be developed and written before each quarterly council
meeting
 A year-end report must be written before the annual conference for the council
meeting held the day before
 Newsletter article submission deadline dates are available at the WASFAA
calendar and sometimes a few days/week delay can be negotiated
 Session title and description is required by the program chair of the Conference
Committee a few months before the conference so a general description that can
address the hot topic in April is recommended
 PowerPoint handout and session presentation should be worked on a month
before the annual conference
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