NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
Present: Jim Anderson, Sharon Austin, Danielle Barbee, Evelynne Blatt, Lucy Candal-Fernandez, Wil Casaine,
Joanna Cellary, Carmen Ferrari, Tammi Hussey, Michael Livio, Christine Petersen, Pilar Sanchez, Karen Sokol,
Douglas Wilson, Gabrielle Charette, Grace Ann Giglio, Ed Gonzalez, Ed Hill
Absent: Catherine Boscher-Murphy, Jean Brine, Gedalya Green, Pearl McMillan, Patty Pappas, Mark Singer, Hayato
Suzuki, Cynthia Montalvo
The meeting was called to order at 9:49 am on March 14, 2014; a quorum was established.
OFFICER REPORTS
President’s Report – Douglas Wilson
Thanks to HESAA for hosting and executive board members will meet some key HESAA players this afternoon.
Executive council is looking forward to a new website and congratulations to all committees for the success of
their events. Doug encouraged everyone to continue to use the listserv and website, but also to use NJASFAA 411
(the blog) to start conversations.
Past-President’s Report/EASFAA –Karen Sokol
Nominations and Elections
Ballot went live yesterday and we have many offices that have multiple people running and quite a few names on
the ballot. For example, ten people are running for council member at large, four will be elected. The election is
open until the end of the month.
Board of Directors
There will a Board of Directors meeting following this one at Princeton Theological Seminary.
EASFAA
At the end of February, Karen attended the EASFAA meeting that included hill visits. The group visited 46-48
offices. Karen will email the position paper that was used to the membership. The best visit was to Rush Holt, who
is retiring, and his aid was extremely knowledgeable. Loan issues, Pell issues, campus based and other issues were
discussed that represented all sectors of higher education. Karen is hopeful that NJASFAA members will be able to
attend next year to better represent NJASFAA. This should be considered in the budget planning for next year. The
EASFAA Conference is in May in Puerto Rico. The community service project for the year is for EASFAA members to
be involved in the Epilepsy Foundation. Members can be a virtual walker for the March 22nd Walk if unable to
attend.
President-Elect- Jim Anderson
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
Jim and Gedalya went to the Leadership Conference. The program was beneficial and provided a lot of good
information. A pollster discussed how the legislative districts are safe, so a change in the composition of the
congress is not likely, there is a prediction of the status-quo.
A legislative panel shared their points of view on reauthorization and the various programs. The panel discussed,
among other things, complexity in the process, school rankings, the Perkins Loan Program, etc.
Hill visits to Senator Menendez’s office and they were able to meet with a staffer. Jim offered that the Senator
could come to a conference, no response yet…
Jim is working on committee chairs for next year. The dates for the retreat are still scheduled for June 11 th and
12th. Housing still needs to be locked in with a contract.
Karen shared that when they brought up the minimum wage change and federal work study during the visits, the
aids were not yet aware of the unintended consequences of having less hours available for students to work.
Vice President/Finance Report – Tammi Hussey
A CD did mature in January and will be applied to scholarships. The one that matures in April may need to be
applied there as well.
Treasurer- Christine Petersen
Christine distributed the Balance Sheet and P&L.
Many have registered for the Spring Conference and even one payment has come through. Christine has received
one of three outstanding Spring 2013 Conference payments! There was a bounce back from one of the other
outstanding payments. Christine has also received payments from those who are attending various trainings.
Carmen volunteered to reach out to some of them to try to help get some to submit their payment.
Doug suggested that we consider transferring some payments received to savings prior to making any big
payments to try to generate additional interest for future conferences.
Sharon asked if ATAC bills separately for different processes. Christine said that they do. Sharon knows that there
was a lot of work done for CGS, so Christine should expect that to come through and wanted to be sure that it was
being charged to CGS. It is likely that the August payment covered all changes, but Christine will check.
Karen recommended changing the “crime coverage” description under insurance to “Liability.”
Wil made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report. The motion was seconded by Jim. The motion passed
unanimously.
Secretary- Joanna Cellary
Joanna thanked everyone for their patience and changes with the minutes due to her broken arm.
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
Christine made a motion to accept the minutes from February 7, and was seconded by Lucy. The motion passed
unanimously.
HESAA Update – Gabrielle Charette
Governor proposed his 2015 fiscal year budget at the end of February. There was not a higher education
stakeholder briefing. The Governor proposed $355.161 million for TAG which includes a $14 million increase over
the current year's funding. The Governor also proposed a 2% across the board increase to all TAG awards.
Part time TAG the Governor is proposing $9.782 million; STARS and STARS II $8.535 million; the Governor's Urban
Scholarship $700,000.
The Legislature announced its budget hearing schedule. Higher Education Services will be discussed in the Senate
on April 8, 2014 at 10 am and in the Assembly Budget Committee on April 30, 2014 at 10 am.
STARS and GUS recruitment rosters have been sent out.
The NJEI calculator is now available.
The 2014-2015 Applicant Roster is now available. Verification flags will begin at the end of March/beginning of
April.
Spring Pre-Disbursement rosters are due back today by 4:00 p.m.
Pilar will be hosting her annual training session on May 2 at Brookdale.
The 13-14 low income thresholds will be maintained for 14-15: Independent students are $8,200 for student and
$8,200 for the spouse and $3,000 each additional household member; for dependent students, $8,200 per parent
and $3000 for each additional family member (including the student).
Deadlines – HESAA is in a holding pattern based on some of the feedback Gabrielle has heard. As of now, HESAA is
not planning on moving forward in 15-16.
The NJ CLASS loan applications are up and the credit will not expire in the normal 90-day window and HESAA will
let us know when that will expire.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Awards and Recognition/Sunshine – Catherine Boscher-Murphy (presented by Doug)
1. have received names for plaques
2. working with Collegiate on plaques - have received a quote and will finalize details this weekend.
3.have sent the following cards:
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
Joanna - feel better
Cynthia - thinking of you (her youngest son is having some medical issues)
Carney McCoullough - condolences for her husband's passing
4. Still need names for the certificates for Scholarship - Cathi knows Cynthia was moving ahead with that stuff.
5. Will contact our retirees to attend the Spring Conference for their recognition. Typically, NJASFAA provides
lunch for them free – Cathi has to get the number to Ed and Danielle about a week prior. NJASFAA does allow a
guest but NJASFAA does not advertise this...upon request only.
6. As the conference gets closer, Cathi will supply the luncheon schedule to all the involved parties so everyone can
keep the schedule moving.
Christine shared that Jean Brine has reached out and she is feeling well!
College Goal Sunday – Grace Ann Giglio & Sharon Austin
Final reports are due on Mach 28th to Sharon. There is a lot more interest for additional locations next year. There
is an upcoming forum on June 18-20 in Scottsdale AZ that NJASFAA usually send the chairs and USAF pays. Grace
Ann and Sharon cannot attend, but have thought about inviting Eileen Buckle from OCC to attend since their site is
very successful.
Grace Ann and Sharon have agreed to chair the committee again next year. They will meet on April 1 st to create
the final report for submission to USAF shortly thereafter.
Conference –Danielle Barbee & Ed Gonzalez
The spring conference will be held on April 9th at the Pines Manor in Edison. The registration fee is $90 and the
agenda was posted this week. One recommendation for next year is that the following year’s membership fee be
an automatic add on.
There will be two general sessions, National Student Loan Clearinghouse (including 150%) in the morning and the
state update in the afternoon. There will be two concurrent sessions: Public service loan forgiveness programs and
Trends in Student Aid and College Pricing from the College Board.
Lunch will encompass the business meeting, awards luncheon and service awards. The morning break will again be
30 minutes and include inviting people to meet the committees at designated stations. Committees are
encouraged to bring literature and plan to discuss.
Materials for the business meeting, including committee reports, should be forwarded to Danielle Barbee (at least
200 copies) at 249 University Ave, 3rd Floor, Newark, NJ 07102 by April 3rd. Danielle has a large amount of leftover
portfolios which will be directed to the award recipients and guest presenters as well as Novice. If there are others
that should receive them, please let Danielle know.
Ed recommended taking inventory of extra items from prior conferences so that we can distribute them
appropriately.
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
There are 64 registrations for the Spring Conference, so please remind your campus or committee members to
register ASAP so that numbers can be better estimated. They are aiming for 175, and attendance is usually over
200.
Constitution & By Laws – Evelynne Blatt
No Report
Development – Ed Hill
There are nine committed vendors for the spring conference and two are waiting due to potential conflicts. Ed
reminded everyone that while the vending fee is waived if the vended at the Fall Conference, they must still pay
the conference fee.
Electronic Initiatives – Yato Suzuki (presented by Doug)
Upon further discussion about connecting the membership fee to the spring registration, there doesn’t appear to
be a significant number of people who are not selecting to register and that it may be a disservice to require
people to register without allowing them to option out.
A. Since Yato’s last update of October 3, 2013
a. Yato has worked with Training and professional development to get their sessions up monthly
with one currently up for March 21st
b. The Conference registration is up and running
c. The Novice Training has been also put up with final fees due to update the registration process.
B. The election process is in its final stages with a few tweaks made by Karen Sokol. Further testing is
needed but should be up soon.
C. The website redesign has completed at this point but with all the training and conference and registration
processes ATAC is waiting to launch it until after the Spring conference to make sure there are no issues.
Government Relations – Patty Pappas & Gedalya Green
No report
Membership – Pilar Sanchez
There are currently 422 members down from 471 last year. Pilar reminded everyone to make sure that their
committee lists are updated online in order to ensure that membership certificates will be accurate.
An email was sent out yesterday to recruit members in general.
Mentoring – Wil Casaine
No report
Multi-Cultural – Pearl McMillan
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
No report
EASFAA sent out a March calendar through their list serve.
NJACSA – Mark Singer
No report
Non-Traditional Concerns – Jean Brine (presented by Evelynne)
The last meeting in February was great, they discussed training opportunities available, related professional
organizations, veterans aid in additional to financial aid, campus-based aid and minimum wage, changing and
adding locations, enrollment reporting, default rate information, 1098-T processing and student concerns, loan
request form, financial literacy, other compliance issues, and the need to do an R2T4 even if the student attends
for 15 minutes in clock hour.
Christine asked about wages for students in work study positions and most schools do have different pay scales
depending on the student and the job. Doug mentioned that Rutgers Newark had to suspend the program over
winter break and spring break due to the wage increase.
At the next meeting in March they will go over our consumer information to ensure that they are all in compliance
and using best practices.
Novice Training- Pilar and Tammi
The event will be held June 5th and 6th at the Whyndam Hamilton Park Hotel and Conference Center in Florham
Park.
The committee proposed charges for Novice of $199 for double occupancy and $249 single occupancy. The price
includes food, housing and facilities costs. The estimate is for 30 people and NJASFAA would be paying a significant
portion of the actual costs at $120 for double occupancy and $155 for the single occupancy.
NJASFAA had to guarantee 30 rooms for the overnight, so if too many people select the double occupancy,
NJASFAA will still have to pay for those rooms. Discussion followed to offering single occupancy rooms only. Wil
offered that if needed, some of the Mentoring budget line could be used to subsidize the event as the event will
help develop mentees for future years.
Pilar passed around the tentative agenda for people to sign up for first and second choices for presenting.
Tammi will send out information on Monday or Tuesday with some options based on the costs discussion and
executive council can motion and vote at that point.
Public Relations / Speakers Bureau – Michael Livio
NJASFAA Executive Council Meeting Minutes
HESAA
3/14/14
Mike will be taking pictures at the Spring Conference and plans to complete a cleanup on the Speakers Bureau as
well prior to the end of the year.
Scholarship – Cynthia Montalvo (presented by Doug)
42 applications were received of which 38 were valid. There were applicants from all five sectors.
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Graduate Students: 10 applicants
4 year private Institutions: 6 applicants
4 year public institutions:10 applicants
Community Colleges: 9 applicants
Non-Traditional/Proprietary: 9 applicants
The committee will meet on March 21st at Felician College to select the scholarship recipients
Training and Professional Development –Carmen Ferrari
The February 21st session for Veterans Benefits had 39 attendees representing 25 colleges. Surveys indicate that
there was a wish for more presentations via webinar and many schools wished that their VA “people” were there.
The March 21st event will be Ed Hill presenting on Student Loan Default Management.
TAG Processing and State Verification will be held on May 2nd
The committee will try to get a support staff training in before the end of the year as there was concern that this
population hadn’t been served with the previous trainings. Christine will work on a motivational speaker for the
event and the event is likely to be held on May 23rd.
The committee is still in need of a co-chair for the committee for next year. Carmen is interested in documenting
who presented and on what topics historically so that they will have a resource for finding and supporting
presenters moving forward. Karen mentioned that the EASFAA website has subject matter experts under the
Leadership link.
Old Business
None
New Business
None
The next meeting will be held on May 9, 2013 at Caldwell.
Karen moved to adjourn the meeting; Tammi seconded. The motion was passed; meeting adjourned at 11:51 AM
Minutes submitted by: Joanna Cellary 2013-2014 Secretary