Report from the VASFAA President
D. Sherwin Hibbets

On Track for “Going the Distance”! – Comments from the Commonwealth (… of Virginia, that is!)
VASFAA held its Winter Board meeting on January 29-30, 2004 in Charlottesville, VA. Items acted upon included adoption of a proposal that we begin voluntary compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (which is not presently required of non-profit organizations). Also, we are planning a Leadership Seminar for experienced and new aid officers. Other items covered were the completion of our Association inventory of property and determination of old equipment disposal. Additionally, VASFAA submitted its “Get to Know VASFAA” (aka “The VASFAA Vision”) piece for consideration in NASFAA’s State Award review.

The Awareness Committee, chaired by Angie Hawkins, has had several productive events. Efforts included obtaining Governor Mark Warner’s proclamation of January as “Financial Aid Awareness Month,” a call-in show on a Richmond, VA television station on January 19, as well as the Super-Saturday event hosted at five sites throughout the state on February 7, 2004. This event assisted students and parents with FAFSA completion as well as provided opportunity for them to have financial aid questions answered.

We could go on with further details of other Association work that is underway, e.g., the Experienced Aid Officers’ Workshop concept that is being re-worked into a Leadership Seminar, the Strategic Plan for the Association being prepared for updating and extending, the Policies and Procedures Manual being updated, two upcoming Support Staff Workshops in March and April, and of course, the Spring Conference details that are being ironed out for another great professional development experience in May. Other committees are also hard at work, including those that are in transition.

Speaking of committees in transition, the Vendor-Sponsor Relations Committee is in that situation. Recently, Committee member Michael Poma was asked to step up to fill the role of Chair for the remainder of the year due to the resignation of the previous Chair, Tanya White. We are grateful for the solid start of the Committee in the first half of the year under her leadership. Even with Michael’s recent acceptance of the appointment, he has already been moving things forward to continue ensuring the Committee’s successful year.

The Leadership Seminar has been developed by the Experienced Aid Officers’ Committee by revamping the originally planned Experienced Aid Officers’ Workshop. The format of the seminar is geared toward teaching leadership skills (personal and professional) to a relatively small group of individuals (around 50-75). The VASFAA Executive Board is charged with identifying and promoting methods for developing future leaders within VASFAA, as well as identifying individuals who have the potential to be future leaders in the Association. During the January 2004 Board meeting the Board voted unanimously to sponsor a limited number of individuals to attend this seminar with the goal of developing future leaders for the Association. Some of those selected by the Board to attend will include the New Financial Aid Professional of the Year and the Chair(s) of the Committee(s) of the Year.

Conferences and Training

VASFAA and SASFAA
VASFAA is excited to have two of its own elected at the recent SASFAA conference in Birmingham. Guy Gibbs of Northern Virginia Community College was elected to the position of President-elect, and Zita Barree of Virginia Commonwealth University was elected to post of Vice President. The colleagues of Virginia know that these two individuals will do an outstanding job for SASFAA as they have already done in Virginia!