Virginia State Report
Tom Morehouse, VASFAA President

Happy Summer!

The VASFAA Annual Conference was held at the brand new Hilton Oceanfront in Virginia Beach, May 22-25. It was the intent of the Board to have a SASFAA-caliber conference to mark our switch to an annual event. I don’t believe that I will exaggerate when I say it was a resounding success. We attracted a record 356 registrants (our previous high attendance was 275). Our opening general session featured Jean Chatzky from the Today show who spoke to us about personal finances. ECMC added to the event by presenting her book to attendees. We featured a Washington insiders session with Brett Lief, President of NCHELP, Maureen Budetti, from NAICU, and Kathleen Smith, President of Education Finance Council, with the event moderated by Ron Gambill. We had a teambuilding event on the beach (who would have thought that sandcastles could be so different!). Our Tuesday night dinner club featured Mike Rayburn, a real talent with a gift for comedy. Biz Daniel, conference chair, Mike Hawkes, training chair, and Michael Poma, membership chair, and their respective committees all made this conference one to remember! Of course, any of the SFAA conferences couldn’t be possible without the support of our partners in the student loan industry, and our conference was marked by another record showing by these partners – 39. This success was due in part to the efforts of Jolene Burke, who had to leave the conference for medical reasons (she’s doing fine!).

During the conference, the association held its annual election of officers. The results of the election are as follows:

President-Elect	Erik Melis, George Mason University
Treasurer-Elect	Kerrie Roth, Old Dominion University
Secretary	Leslie Thomas, George Mason University
Representative-at-Large (2 years)	Angie Hawkins, Virginia Wesleyan College
Representative-at-Large (2 years)	Keith Wellings, Hampden Sydney College
Representative-at-Large (1 year)	Melissa Collum Wyatt, SCHEV

The association also voted to fix the board composition at four representatives-at-large, rather than one per one hundred. The association has varied over the past several years from three to five representatives, with the tendency being towards four. This change should help stabilize the governance and organizational structure, allowing for better continuity from year to year.

One of the themes that Brad Barnett, our President-Elect, and I shared was that of continuity. I believe that we worked very hard to provide that to the association by many of our actions, such as contracting with the Hilton Oceanfront for three years, establishing standard goals for each committee, and ensuring open lines of communication. Brad marks the start of his year with the Board transition at Graves’ Mountain Lodge in Syria, followed immediately by the SASFAA Board transition.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the entire Board, the Committee Chairs and their members, the vendors and sponsors, and the entire membership for their support, participation and efforts to make this a great year. It has indeed been my pleasure to serve as your President and it has been the highlight of my career in the financial aid community. It has also been a pleasure to be associated with the Board of SASFAA and to serve with elected officers and the other state’s presidents—quite a remarkable group of professionals. Thank you.

To quote Garrison Keillor, "Be well, do good work and keep in touch."

My thanks to all those dedicated VASFAA members who support both the organization and the profession by the labors and their deeds.

See you at the Beach!!