Report from Virginia (VASFAA)

It’s an extreme honor for me to serve as the VASFAA President, and as a member of the SASFAA Board of Directors. The members of VASFAA are quite proud of the fact that the SASFAA President Elect, Guy Gibbs, and the Vice President, Zita Barree, are from Virginia. We also have capable and committed representation in the form of committee chairs, including Erik Melis, Electronic Services; Carol Mowbray, Special Projects; Karen Koonce, Budget and Finance; and Marie Bennett, Legislative Relations. That, coupled with our committee representation shows the commitment of the financial aid professionals in Virginia to SASFAA – SASFAA committee members include Jolene Burke, Conference; Liza Bruce, Diversity;, Michael Poma, Membership; Gary Spoales, Newsletter; Mike Hawkes, Lender Liaison; Marilyn King, Federal Relations, and Michael Barree, instructor, NAOW. We’re also proud to host the 2008 SASFAA Conference.

This year marks the first time in VASFAA’s history that the Association will not have two conferences during the year. Two years ago, the Board of Directors voted to hold an annual conference in response to a continuing budget crisis in the Commonwealth and shrinking budgets within individual institutions. In order to provide beneficial training opportunities, the Association is planning a myriad of training activities this fall to compensate for the elimination of our fall conference. These training opportunities will include NASFAA decentralized training at several sites in the Commonwealth during the fall, as well as support staff training. The highlight of the fall, however, will be the first VASFAA Leadership Symposium, to be held in Charlottesville on November 15 and 16. The symposium is by invitation to the institutional financial aid leaders in Virginia and is limited to 75 participants. We’re pleased to have Dr. David Breneman to present the overview and give the participants the charge for the symposium. Dr. Breneman, Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, is an economist and authority on the finance and economics of higher education. His three decades of experience include service as a professor, college president, think-tank scholar, and dean. His recent writings focus on the vexing issues of state financing of public higher education. Following his charge, the participants will prepare a position paper that will be used as point paper by the VASFAA Leadership during the upcoming General Assembly Session in January and in conjunction with the VASFAA Winter Board meeting.

Another first for the Association is the signing of contracts for the VASFAA Annual Conference for the upcoming three years. Traditionally, the President Elect has picked the sites for his or her conference, but in keeping with the idea of planning ahead, the board approved the location and hotel for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Annual Conference. We’re very pleased to have negotiated with the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hilton, which is a brand new luxury hotel scheduled to open around December of this year. This new facility, located on the oceanfront, offered the Association very competitive accommodations rates (within the Commonwealth’s per diem rate guidelines) for the next three years.

Several other items are new this year. The Association adopted a revised policy on Vendor and Sponsor contributions and appropriate recognition for contributions. To promote fairness and equity among our valued colleagues who support the Association with monetary resources, the Association will recognize them based upon contribution level and a lottery system of choice for sponsorable items. Sponsored items or events are given point levels and our partners are given points based upon their level of sponsorship. A lottery is held to determine the order in which sponsored items or events may be supported by the vendor.

As many or our fellow state organizations and SASFAA have transitioned to ATAC for web services, VASFAA will also be moving to ATAC for hosting and managing our web site, so look for a new and improved VASFAA web site soon! (www.vasfaa.org)

Finally, as portions of our state were devastated a year ago by Hurricane Isabel and this year by Gaston, we can identify with Florida after their two encounters in one month, and our thoughts and prayers go out to our colleagues, their families and those affected by Charley and Frances.