SASFAA Annual Report 2004-2005 continued...

Site Selection Committee
Ron Gambill has been the chair of the Site Selection committee for several years and he has provided excellent leadership in this critical area. His expertise in analyzing contracts was invaluable and in the course of the year saved the association some sizable expenses.

Some of Ron’s many responsibilities included: Providing site selection guidelines to the SASFAA state presidents at the first summer board meeting; visiting viable sites and evaluated them using the SASFAA site facility guidelines and hotel checklist; providing the Board a site report with recommendations and a tentative contract for proposed sites; and working with the President-Elect to secure SASFAA Board meeting sites and contracts for the following year’s Presidency. In the overall scheme of things, Ron made sure the proposed sites provided a physical environment conducive for conferences,
committee meetings, Executive Board meetings and professional development workshops.

During the year, Ron secured the 2008 annual meeting site approval from the Board to meet at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia for the dates of February 16-20. He also secured hotel sites for the July and October Executive Board meetings at the Sheraton in Greensboro and The Peabody respectively; and, the Conference Committee meeting as well.

In addition to his Site Selection duties, Ron also acted as the Hotel Liaison for the Conference Committee, which was at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta this year. This added commitment meant more meetings, more time and energy, and more work to be conducted and Ron accomplished all these extra tasks with an extremely positive attitude and the results were tremendous for the conference.

Some of Ron’s recommendations for next year included:

Special Projects Committee
Along with the SASFAA Management Institute and the Long-Range Planning Committee, the Past Presidents Council was a branch of the Special Projects Committee. Under the co-leadership of Ron Day and Susan Little, four major issues were addressed: 1) Levels of Membership, 2) Voting Expansion of the Board Members including Construction of the Board, 3) Financial Issues, and 4) Training Activities. A report was offered to the Board back in the Fall which was advisory in nature, but some very valuable insights were offered. The insights offered in the area of Training Activities and Financial Issues were discussed and recommendations are now in place; for example, Contract needs for each training activity was proposed.

The first two issues were determined to need further discussions and evaluations. A proposal to form an Ad Hoc Committee comprised of Carol Mowbray, Susan Little, Ron Day and nine state representatives appointed by the current State Presidents was approved by the Board. An initial meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee was conducted during the Annual Conference. Both issues were discussed at length and the committee decided that the current structure of the Board was sufficient to meet the needs of SASFAA. But the structure should be re-evaluated during the Long Range Planning process and discussed at the LRP retreat. This discussion should also include the topic of Levels of Membership. All recommendations would then be presented to the Board.

Sponsorship Committee
Bob Godfrey served a second year on the Board as Sponsorship Chair. This was one of the most successful years SASFAA had experienced in working with our various sponsors and vendors. Bob was extremely successful in securing ample sponsorship for the annual conference, as well as meal functions at the Board meetings, Committee meetings, the Management Institute, the Multicultural Leadership Symposium, and the New Aid Officers Workshop. And this was above and beyond the regular sponsorship levels secured during the initial solicitations for vendor/sponsorship commitments in August. In appreciation for all their support, SASFAA and Bob coordinated a Reception to say thank you during the annual conference in Atlanta and in lieu of gifts, SASFAA donated those funds to the Ronald McDonald community service project in their name.

The use of the website and listserv helped expedite the dissemination of information and Bob worked closely with the ESC to ensure that accurate and up-to-date information was provided to the vendor/sponsors.

Our ability to accommodate space for the vendors was determined by the amount of exhibit space available at the site hotel. We were extremely fortunate that the Hyatt Regency had more than ample space in order to accommodate several requests of double booth spaces and even one request for a triple booth space. This may not be true in the future and a close analysis of exhibit area availability should be conducted at all future conference sites.

Bob made the request at the initial board meeting for activities from each Committee that would be seeking sponsorship this year. Sitting as an ex-officio for the Conference Committee afforded Bob the opportunity to coordinate the needs of sponsorship within the framework of the conference agenda. The same is true with the New Aid Officers and Mid-Level Workshops to be held in June.

A great deal of time was spent in communication with the Treasurer to both request invoices be sent to sponsors and to inform the Treasurer of sponsorship commitment levels. Due to their combined efforts, all sponsorship commitments have been paid. And the sponsorship income levels were not only met, but exceeded the originally set budget.

Some recommendations included: