SASFAA “Spotlight” Shines on the...
Mississippi Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA)
Patrick James, President

MASFAA had a very successful fall training workshop at Hinds Community College in November 2003. With over 100 people in attendance, Soraya Weldon and Teresa Bost did an excellent job presenting the material for the NASFAA decentralized training. We changed from a multi-day fall conference to a one day training workshop because of the budget cuts most of our member schools are experiencing. The one-day workshop has been held on a centrally located college campus the past two years. Based on attendance and workshop evaluation comments, this one-day event is an affordable alternative to a two and one half day conference.

This year MASFAA sent six individuals to the NASFAA Leadership Training workshop in Washington, D.C. The workshop was from Sunday, March 7 through Tuesday, March 9. In addition to training sessions we visited our state congressional members to ask for their support for financial aid legislation. This was a great experience for MASFAA’s leadership and we hope to continue to send new leaders to this training.

MASFAA’s fourth annual Financial Aid 101 will be at the Duncan Gray Center just out-side of Canton. The dates for it are April 13, 14 and 15. We began offering a stand alone workshop for new aid administrators because of the amount of information exceeded the time we had at our new aid workshops held prior to our conferences. Financial Aid 101 is an affordable opportunity to provide new staff with financial aid basic training. In addition to financial aid training, this workshop offers a wonderful event for people new to the financial aid community and/or MASFAA to make contacts with other financial aid professionals. Registration is currently available on the MASFAA website at www.msmasfaa.org.

Our annual conference will be in Biloxi, MS at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 7-9, 2004. This is our first conference at the Beau Rivage and we look forward to a new venue. The conference committee is working on finalizing the program, lining up speakers and entertainment. The conference room rate is $109 a night plus tax and the deadline to book a room in our room block is May 7, 2004. Conference registration will be available through the MASFAA website in the next few weeks.

MASFAA will use online voting again this spring for our officers’ election. We voted last spring online for the first time at the conference and this year we will also collect absentee votes through our website. Although we experienced some delays with people using the online voting for the first time, the overall election process went very smoothly. We look forward to expanding the use of our website through other automated processes. The Electronics Services Committee continues to update and revamp the MASFAA website. Please keep your contact information up to date on our Web page, www.msmasfaa.org. MASFAA members should take advantage of the information on our Web page and see what’s in store for you over the coming months

During the final days of my MASFAA presidency, Millsaps College will host the Third Annual Mid Level Workshop June 27-29, 2004. This two and one half day workshop is filled with quality training intended for individuals with at least three years of financial aid experience. The first SASFAA/SWASFAA Mid Level Workshop was also at Millsaps two years ago. Mary Givhan, Financial Aid Director at Mississippi College, is the SASFAA coordinator for this workshop. The registration fee of $300 includes all instructional materials, housing and meals. For additional information, see the SASFAA website or contact Mary Givhan at 1.601.925.3319 or email her a Givhan@mc.edu.