President's Message
By Guy Gibbs, President 2005-2006

Did you attend the 43rd Annual SASFAA Conference? If not, you missed a great conference. “Financial Aid Unmasked” was the theme of the conference, and I feel confident that those attending the conference left with a better understanding of where we are as a profession and what will be facing us in the future as we find better ways to assist student and their families in finding ways to meet educational costs. Over 850 attendees found their way to Greensboro in spite of the weather in much of our association’s geographic area.

The conference committee, under the very capable leadership of Lisanne Masterson, did a fantastic job putting together a series of general and concurrent sessions dealing with the most pertinent issues facing the profession. From a humorous opening session that set us in the mood for the conference, to federal updates, to issues of diversity, to the 60+ concurrent sessions, I hope that everyone found something of interest. Training was the keynote word for this conference.

Over $7,500 was raised for the Victory Junction Gang, the charity identified for this conference. The Victory Junction Gang is a camp started by the NASCAR racing family of Kyle Petty in memory of his son. The camp is open to kids with special medical needs that otherwise would not be able to attend other camps. We are so very pleased that we were able to sponsor this camp as our charity and for the generosity of our many attendees for their contributions. SASFAA also contributed to the charity by giving funds in recognition of our sponsors and speakers rather than giving individual gifts.

Congratulations are extended to Lisanne Masterson of NCASFAA, Sandy Neel of TASFAA and Deborah Byrd of AASFAA, on their election to the positions of President-Elect, Vice President and Secretary respectively. They will begin their service to SASFAA in July 2007.

Congratulations are also extended to Karen Koonce who was presented the NASFAA State and Regional Leadership Award. This award was announced at the NASFAA conference last summer in New York City; however, it was official presented to Karen by David Gelinas, NASFAA Chair, in Greenboro.

SASFAA also recognized Clark Aldridge and David Gelinas. Each was presented the SASFAA Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor that SASFAA can bestow. The award is only presented to those individuals that have made outstanding, significant and meritorious contributions to the advancement of student financial aid.

Special Appreciation Awards were given to Bill Mackie and Lynda Sayer for their contributions to SASFAA over their many years of service to the financial aid profession. To Curtis Whalen was given a SASFAA Honorary Membership.

As president of SASFAA, I would like to thank the NCASFAA membership for their hospitality and hard work. They spent countless hours preparing for our visit and exhibited true “Southern Hospitality.” And to each of you, I would like to thank you for your personal support this year and for your continued support of SASFAA. You are truly an amazing group of professionals.

Guy F. Gibbs
SASFAA President 2005-2006