Report from the Past President
Janet Sain

SASFAA Seeks Nominees for 2006-2007!
The Nominations and Elections Committee is currently seeking nominees for the offices of President-Elect, Vice President and Secretary. Participation in SASFAA can be an extremely rewarding experience both professionally and personally. Serving as an elected officer enables you to utilize your leadership and training experiences to improve the profession. For new and seasoned financial aid professionals alike; you can help develop activities that will have a significant impact on the growth of our regional association.

Nominations and Elections Committee Members
(Immediate State Past Presidents or substitutes)

The Nominations and Election Committee will be meeting in Charlotte, NC on October 8th and 9th in order to discuss all viable candidates. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!

SASFAA Recognition Awards
Each year SASFAA has the distinct pleasure and honor to recognize those individuals who have been a major contributing factor to the success of our regional association. This is accomplished in several ways. One of those opportunities is through the recognition of those Financial Aid professionals who will be retiring within the 2005-2006 year. We honor them as Honorary Lifetime Members. If you know of anyone in your state who will be retiring this year, please submit those names to the SASFAA Board of Directors. Please include the years of service and date of retirement if known.

Another honor which is bestowed is that of the Distinguished Service Award. It is in recognition of the individual(s) who have contributed significantly to the success of SASFAA throughout their years of service in SASFAA as well as in their state association and NASFAA. Please submit any nominees to be considered to the SASFAA Board of Directors along with a short bio of their accomplishments.

The recipients of these awards will be honored at the Annual Meeting in February in Greensboro, NC. See you there!

President-Elect Report
Brent Tener

September 2005

Greetings from Nashville. I am beginning the process of forming next year’s Executive Board, and am happy to report that Michael Morgan from Edamerica has agreed to serve as Conference Chair for the 2007 Nashville meeting. The meeting will be held at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel, February 11-14, 2007. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. Other committee appointments will be made as the year progresses.

Preceding our next annual conference in Greensboro, the President’s-Elect of the nine states comprising SASFAA will meet for a day of orientation. We have a great group of incoming Presidents and we look forward to keeping SASFAA a great organization.

I would like to provide the following update as it relates to activities of the NASFAA Board of Directors during the most recent meeting held in New York City before the annual conference. A full description of the discussion that took place, along with helpful background information can be found on the NASFAA website. The following is summary directly from the NASFAA website:

The NASFAA Board voted to:

1. Reaffirm NASFAA recommendations previously approved in 2002 and 2003 with one exception: the Board rescinded its previous recommendation concerning School as Lender (SAL). The Board approved a new recommendation concerning this topic. This revised package forms the basis of NASFAA's platform for this reauthorization cycle.
2. Direct the NASFAA staff to work with the lending community and other entities to find ways to move the NASFAA reauthorization agenda forward, which includes making significant increases in need based grant funding for all needy students.
3. Oppose the School as Lender provisions and oppose the STAR bill in keeping with the guidelines of programs being fair and equitable for all students.

Overall, the legislative proposals adopted by NASFAA's Board seek to preserve both the FFEL and the Direct Loan programs by equalizing and strengthening both programs. To that end, NASFAA supports increasing loan limits, eliminating student fees, and improving and expanding repayment options for all borrowers in each program.

Other items were discussed, and as mentioned earlier, more details are available on the NASFAA website. More to follow after the next meeting to be held in Austin in November.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Greensboro!