North Carolina State Report
Sharon Oliver, NCASFAA President

The North Carolina Association for Student Financial Aid Administrators experienced a year of excitement, growth, and rewards. The excitement began when North Carolina was selected as the recipient of the 2004 NASFAA State Award for Service to Financial Aid Profession with the submission of the Neophyte List serve. This indeed is an honor and a privilege which led to even greater opportunities throughout the year as we focused primarily on training and volunteers.

Training
We were fortunate to provide to our members two pre-conference workshops sponsored by the Department of Education on relevant topics such as "Return of Title IV, Analyzing Data and Conflicting Training" and "Federal Student Aid Audits and Program Reviews." The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) provided the material for the NASFAA Training session on "Federal Stafford and Direct Loans." Also, they assisted in conjunction with our New Aid Officers Training with providing a symposium on "Professional Judgment" and training for New Aid Administrators. The support staff committee rendered workshops on "Insights on Effective Communication" and "You and Your Attitude". For the participants who joined us for our fall and spring conferences, they were enlightened by our keynote speakers Hallerin Hilton Hill and Mike Rayburn. There were over twenty-five (25) informative sessions to choose from at each conference.

Volunteers
The success of the association is contingent upon the volunteers and their level of commitment. Volunteerism was highly promoted through several avenues on this year. The president’s message for the fall newsletter was "Volunteers Make a Difference". Also, we established a volunteer booth at our spring conference and conducted a session on NCASFAA Idol 101. Additionally, the Executive Board members attended the New Aid Officers Workshops and briefly shared their roles and invited new members to become actively involved in the association. During the fall conference, new members were selected to serve as moderators.

Accomplishments
A special thank you is extended to the Executive Board for their dedication, enthusiasm, and loyalty to NCASFAA. Our primary goals for this year were to develop future leaders and provide excellent professional training and develop programs considering members experience, institutional type and level of responsibilities. We successfully achieved the following goals:

Transition Board Retreat
The transition board retreat will be held on June 20-21, 2005, in Greensboro, NC at Ashford Suites. The executive board members have submitted annual reports that will be used to prepare goals and objectives for 2005-06 and budgets.
Through NCASFAA’s Executive Board, committees, website and members, we will continue to strive to develop and strengthen the professional competency of student financial aid administrators and encourage members to take advantage of the training opportunities and services available.