Meeting began at 1:55.

I. Opening Remarks by President Rick Renshaw

Welcomed everyone to SWASFAA Conference 2006. Mentioned board
members who were unable to make the meeting or were currently handling
pre-conference activities. Mentioned 2007 board members in attendance. Jackie introduced new board members who were present. Thanked board for being present.

II. Approval of August 2006 Meeting Minutes (submitted by Secretary Pam Jordan)

Minutes approved with two minor changes concerning member presence and absenteeism at August board meeting. August minutes corrected.

III. Officer Reports

1. Treasurer Report – Judy Schneider
   • Written report
   • Registration using internet and accepting credit card payments has worked very well for this conference.
   • Mentioned that with credit card payments, we collect $215 per person but the actual money SWASFAA gets is minus the e-merchant fee.
   • Cashed in CD and transferred funds into savings for investment purposes.
   • Boot Camp registrants all showed up. Report lists registrants for Boot Camp and the conference broken down into schools, banks, etc.
   • Explained that under the Membership Services Expense report, it appears that SWASFAA is -$40,805.14, but that is because Judy had to pay the hotel $35,000 in advance because the Renaissance waited too long to check SWASFAA’s credit with past conference hotels.
   • 2007 membership information will go out November 15, 2006, or soon thereafter.
   • Mentioned that one of the corporate sponsors signed up as a sponsor for 2006, but because of the way the corporate sponsor application on line looks, Judy thought it was for the 2005 conference. She asked Mark Bandre to look into the application on the website to see if we can clarify which year’s conference for which the sponsor is paying.
   • Rick said that after reviewing the budget, he thinks the conference will come in under budget. Not certain yet if we will be under budget for the year.
     
     
2. Past President’s Report – Sherry Foster
   • No written report
   • Said she enjoyed being part of the Board. It is amazing to see what a family SWASFAA is, and gave her appreciation to the Board for working well with her and with each other.
   
   Rick Renshaw called for a motion to go into executive session at 3:10 Jackie LaChapelle so moved and Raul Lerma seconded the motion.
   Regular board meeting resumed after approximately 15 minutes of
   executive session.
   
   Nominations and Elections – Sherry Foster
   • Written report.
   • Gave results of Fall 2006 elections. Will be announced publicly at business meeting.
     
     
3. President-Elect's Report – Jackie LaChapelle
   • Written report.
   • Mentioned she had family situation keeping her from attending some functions.
   • Discussed items concerning finance committee after the written review. Is tabling the information at this time until she has time to read the review more thoroughly. Will talk about it at January 2007 board meeting.
   • Also is tabling 2007 P&P manual at this time.
   • Mentioned that site selection committee will be sending out new information for 2007 board meetings. Dates will be January 29-30; April 30-May 1; September 24-25; and December 11-12 at 2007 conference. Meetings to be held at the Wyndham Hotel in Arlington- DFW South, except for the December meeting at the conference in Austin, Texas.

IV. State President Reports

1. Arkansas – Lisa Hopper
   • Written report.
   • Nov 21 – Little Rock – Decentralized training. Good turnout. Rick asked if they had sufficient materials, and Lisa said they did not. Jo Holland said no states have extra materials.
   • Arkansas will participate in College Goal Sunday will be held for the first time. Will have 28 sites.
   • AASFAA Fall Conference – October 11-13 – Pinnacle Heights area in Rogers, Arkansas. Theme: “Climbing to New Heights in Financial Aid”. Raised over $3100 for scholarships from golf tournament.
   • Elections held – written report gives names of the elected.
   • Changes to Articles of Incorporation and by-laws approved by AASFAA membership.
   • $9000 approved to upgrade website. Trying to allow officers to go to website and add their own reports. Approved a list serve policy that closely resembles the SWASFAA policy.
   • Jo Holland received Distinguished Service award. Jay Simpson, Jana Hart, and Jennifer Ball received the Outstanding Service Awards for 2006.
   • Working on strategic plan similar to SWASFAA plan. John Noah is chair.
   • Retreat planned for December 4 & 5 at Degray Lake Resort to plan for 2007.
   • Site selection selected a site for Spring 2008 conference that is just over the state line in Mississippi. A joint conference with surrounding states may be considered.
     
     
2. Louisiana – Alvina Thomas
   • Written Report
   • Decentralized training
   • Fall conference – October 25-27- Lake Charles. Theme was “LASFAA – Paving the Way to Student Success”.
   • Held a “Hope, Help and Healing” session during awards ceremony, and gave a special pin to each person affected by the hurricanes.
   • LASFAA 2006 award winners listed in report.
   • Held first silent auction and golf tournament - $3000 raised.
   • One of the scholarship recipients spoke at LASFAA and thanked the organization.
   • Decentralized training by videoconference to be held November 15. Members like that format.
   • College Goal Sunday – members from Gear UP, Trio, governor’s office, high school guidance counselors, guarantee agency will be involved.
   • Kim Bruce from Louisiana Delta Community College received Professional Development Scholarship to attend Boot Camp and SWASFAA conference.
     
     
3. New Mexico – April Chavez – Unable to attend
   
   
4. Oklahoma – Kristi Emerson
   • Written report.
   • OASFAA Board met September 19 at Meridian Convention Center.
   • October 24 had HERA training with Dave Eliot.
   • October 25-27 Fall conference. Theme: Get Your Kicks on Route 66. Table decorations designed to reflect identity of various Oklahoma towns on Route 66.
   • Citizens Caring for Children – service project.
   • Board met after conference – needed new delegate at large to replace Scott Carr from Oral Roberts University.
   • Appointed Irala Magee from Northwestern Oklahoma State University to complete Scott’s term.
   • Decentralized Training to be held November 17 at Rose State College. Pam McConahay and Herb Brubaker will be the trainers.
   • Purchasing materials for each school - free training – no registration fee.
   • Plans for spring conference April 11-13 at Renaissance Hotel in Tulsa.
   • Slate of nominees in written report. Election will be held during November.
   • Kristy said she enjoyed her three years on the Board of SWASFAA and the
     incredible experience it has been.
   • Sherry Gladney asked about Oklahoma treasurer-elect position and how it worked. Kristy explained that treasurer-elect is non-voting member, but is prepared for being actual treasurer when the time comes.
   • Mark Bandre said some states divide duties between treasurer and treasurer- elect for checks and balances.
   • Rick mentioned that Judy Schneider will be leaving as Treasurer for SWASFAA at the end of 2007.
   • Rick asked if Oklahoma paid a stipend and Kristy said they do not.
   • Lisa Hopper said Arkansas is considering paying a stipend to the Treasurer.
   • Sherry Gladney said Louisiana pays the treasurer a stipend, but not sure if they
     would for a treasurer-elect.
     
     
5. Texas – June Hagler
   • Written report.
   • New Board member added because a Board member was elected to an officer position. New Board member is Tommy Young from Panola College in Carthage, Texas.
   • Annual Conference was success. Record attendance, record sponsorships, and everything went well. Gave credit to all who assisted to help make President look good. June also gave credit to Pat Jost, who assembled the committees a couple of years ago in preparation for 2006.
   • Report lists annual conference sites for future up through 2011. 2007 TASFAA conference will be in Galveston, Texas at the Galveston Convention Center/ Hilton Resort.
   • Report lists board meeting dates for December 2006 through October 2007.
   • December planning retreat, which will include working on an emergency plan.
   • Looks forward to hosting SWASFAA in Austin in 2007 and said those working on the conference should ask for assistance from the Austin area school members.

V. Delegate at Large Reports

1. Arkansas – Jo Holland
   • No additions to Arkansas President’s report.
     
     
2. Louisiana – Sherry Gladney
   • Added information on upcoming training.
   • Members asked about cost of materials for Decentralized Training and why it increased. $52 a set now. Materials provided have been expanding according to Jo Holland. Jo thinks materials will go up each year for cost of mailing and the increase of information provided.
     
     
3. New Mexico – Kim Huddleston
   • Elections held.
   • NMASFAA will participate in College Goal Sunday – Feb 25,2007 4-6 sites selected.
   • Spring conference – March 2007 at Embassy Suites in Albuquerque.
   • Last board meeting for Kim – thanked everyone for sharing in the experience and making it such a rewarding experience.
     
     
4. Oklahoma – Sheila Fugett
   • Nothing to add to OASFAA president’s report.
   • Sheila did announce that she will retire at the end of June 2007. Everyone wished her well.
     
     
5. Texas – Raul Lerma
   • Decentralized Training sites and dates listed in written report. Eight planned.
   • TASFAA had to cut off registration to the 2006 conference – so many people wanted to go. Even had to do without a head table to make room. Conference was held in San Antonio October 11-13, 2006. 57 sponsors with 742 registrants.
   • Inducted Jimmy Parker into TASFAA Hall of Fame and named Jim Anderson from Texas Tech as Rookie of the Year (Trailblazer Award).
   • 2007 conference will be in Galveston.

   Rick introduced Brent Tener of SASFAA as our visitor, who gave a few comments Brent said he appreciated the invitation to visit. Mentioned that in SASFAA Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida had hurricane to deal with also, so could related to Louisiana challenges.

   HERA training has been completed in the SASFAA region.

   This year in SASFAA, they are going to work on finding people to run for office. Planning a leadership workshop to talk about leadership in general. Will have 3 delegates from each state – 27 in all. SASFAA paying the cost, and states will choose who to send. Will spend ½ day, full day, and another ½ day training. They also will look at who the up and coming people are coming through the states to groom for leadership. As SASFAA President, Brent is concerned with how the states are doing. Said he worked with Judy Schneider on NASFAA committees before and is somewhat familiar with SWASFAA.

VI. Standing Committee Reports

1. Annual Conference – David Page (presented by Vicki Hendrickson)
   • No written report.
   • Welcomed everyone to Tulsa.
   • Regarding budget said we should be $10-000 to $20,000 under budget.
   • Said Jeff Baker e-mailed last week and said he would not be able to attend but Fred Sellers will be attending.
   • Mentioned room issues. Said we still have individuals who have duplicate rooms, according to the hotel roster handed to David today. David said that is the biggest problem with the conference – people booking rooms that they do not use.
   • Thursday night event is going to be awesome, and urges board members to remind everyone to attend, even if they do not want to dress formally.
   • Rick said he could not have asked for a better conference chair. David was awesome.
   • Mark Bandre said he thinks we should send out a letter to those who had duplicate reservations to let them know this causes problems and many of the attendees could not get a room at the Renaissance because some overbooked.
   • Alvina said maybe we should institute a cancellation fee for those who do not release rooms soon enough.
   • Rick said NASFAA has a room cancellation fee if rooms are not released by May 15 for the July conference. Said we should try to get our corporate sponsors to help with this in the future.
   • Rick also said there are getting to be issues with getting Department of Education officials. Is disappointed we did not get Jeff Baker.
   • Alvina said at LASFAA they got Kevin Campbell and said they had to send questions ahead of time. Kevin asked questions about the questions, wanting them clarified because trainers have to be so careful about what they tell schools.
   • Rick said the trainers are getting concerned about saying things that are not approved by Washington, so it is causing uncomfortable situations at conferences.
   • Brent Tener said SASFAA has encountered the same thing. Sometimes it is hard to get trainers to really come in and train. States have issues also, so it is hard to get a trainer to come to a regional conference, if there is a conflict already with a state conference.
   • Rick said he wants to hear what the membership has to say about Jeff Baker not being here. He wants our delegates to find out from their state members so they can report it at leadership conferences and sessions during this next year. Wants feedback to NASFAA on this, and it is so important, Rick will try to speak to Jeff personally when he is in Minneapolis at the November NASFAA board meeting.
     
     
2. Membership – June Hagler
   • Written Report.
   • Increase in membership for 2006.
   • OSU won the membership drawing, and won a free conference registration.
   • Rick asked for a comparison of who is a member of a state and not of SWASFAA. Committee did not get it completed, but did get New Mexico comparison completed. 5 in New Mexico who are members of NMASFAA, but not members of SWASFAA.
   • Will transition information for Lori Perry (new membership committee chair) to get access to SWASFAA database by going through Mark Bandre and ATAC. Said transition needs to take place prior to January 1 to extend memberships, so members could get in and take care of what they need to do to close out their committee. Rick said June needs to pull out information from database before November 15, because we cutover to the new year’s database on November 15.
   • Discussed statistics on written report.
   • 45% of all eligible institutions in the 5-state region are members of SWASFAA.
   • Membership increased about 4% from 2005 to 2006 according to figures available.
   • Suggests that there be two members on membership committee from Texas – south and north to better cover the 47% of all eligible institutions from the five-state region that are in Texas.
   • Will get more information on the SWASFAA listserv about SWASFAA membership.
   • Mark asked if the application needs to be changed. June said that the form is fine, but the entire process of figuring out how to count the membership numbers and how to report them is a learning process.
   • Most feedback about not joining was because people were not coming to the conference, so they saw no reason to become members.
   • Various things that SWASFAA does in relation to training needs to get out to the schools, so they know the role of SWASFAA and how important it is and how it sponsors training.
   • Rick said that Decentralized Training needs to be advertised as a joint state/SWASFAA event.
   • Rick said P&P manual does not prohibit the membership committee having more than one member from a state.
   • Rick thanked June for her work. June did not know, of course, she would be TASFAA president before the end of the year, and have two big jobs. June got a good start on working toward membership organization of the committee.
     
     
3. Boot Camp – Janette Carson
   • Written report.
   • Boot camp currently in session so Janette not attending board meeting.
   • Rick said that 79 people signed up and all showed up.
   • From what Rick has heard, Boot Camp is going great. Appears that the Boot Camp attendees are not being overwhelmed and are handling all the information
     well. Approximately 30 attendees staying for the conference.

VII. Other Committee Reports

1. Archives – Earl Hudgins
   • Sent written report. Earl hospitalized at time of meeting. Has been working on getting everything scanned, and is trying to create a CD archive.
   • Rick asked that anyone who has any of the missing items Earl asked for at
     the August board meeting, to please get them to Earl.
   • Rick passed around a card for the Board to sign to send to Earl. Rick said he is working from his hospital bed, and sending photos for the conference.
     
     
2. Awards – Sherry Foster
   • Written report lists retirees.
   • Lists Philo Brasher Rookie of Year awards
   • 37 receiving 20-year certificates, 17 receiving 25-year awards, 7 receiving 30-year awards, 7 receiving 35-year awards, and 1 receiving 45-year award.
   • Thanked committee members and listed their names in report.
   • June suggested that the form to nominate people for awards be changed in its order. Rick said Lori Perry should get with Mark to get web page fixed. Jackie suggested that years of service, and anything else important be changed to a required field.
   • Kimberly Bruce is professional development scholarship winner.
     Kimberly is from Louisiana Delta Community College.
     
     
3. Site Selection – Don Buehrer – Unable to attend
   • Written report.
   • 2010 contract signed for Sheraton New Orleans.
   • Working on New Mexico for December 2009. At this time between Hyatt Regency Tamaya December7-1, and downtown Hyatt. Rick asked what the Board suggested. Kristi moved that we go with Albuquerque Downtown Hyatt. Alvina seconded. Motion passed.
   • Mark asked if the application needs to be changed. June said that the form is fine, but the entire process of figuring out how to count the membership numbers and how to report them is a learning process.
   • Most feedback about not joining was because people were not coming to the conference, so they saw no reason to become members.
   • Various things that SWASFAA does in relation to training needs to get out to the schools, so they know the role of SWASFAA and how important it is and how it sponsors training.
   • Rick said that decentralized training needs to be advertised as a state/SWASFAA event.
   • Rick said P&P manual does not prohibit the membership committee having more than one member from a state.
   • Rick thanked June for her work. June did not know, of course, she would be TASFAA president before the end of the year, and have two big jobs. June got a good start on working toward membership organization of the committee.
     
     
4. Decentralized Training – Jo Holland
   • Written report gives training schedule for Fall 2006 and presenters.
   • Discussed how much you get out of attending the training for the trainers in D.C. Even people within SWASFAA met each other for the first time. NASFAA very responsive to any questions that came up during training sessions in various states that have taken place so far.
   • NASFAA staff also great to work with and gave a lot of support during the training of the trainers.
   • All materials are being used, and more people than ever have signed up. Said that Louisiana is doing a great job of video conferencing and feels it will be a good move for the future for everyone.
   • Rick asked if all five states have sent their $500 yet. Jo will work with Judy on getting all to pay.
     
     
5. Long Range Planning – Charlie Bruce – Unable to attend
   • Told Rick he needs feedback from the Board for his presentation done at beginning of the year.
     
     
6. Electronic Initiatives – Mark Bandre
   • No written report because there are ongoing improvements to the website as the general order of business. Asked members to give him more ideas for improvements needed.
   • Believes it has improved over the past year. Stated adding the acceptance of credit cards is an important step.
   • Wants to work with Paula on how to keep previous year’s databases in history.
   • Jackie has asked him to continue to work as Electronic Initiatives chair for 2007.
   • Rick asked again what the Board thinks about making some web pages accessible to the public. He said most associations do have contact information open to the public. Some even have photos of committee chairs.
   • Sherry Gladney said Taina had mentioned that if we open it up, we should not have direct phone numbers listed.
   • Rick said we could have Jackie ask members to provide what information they are willing to give out on the public website.
   • Jackie said it is okay to have it open to the public, as long as her private line is not available to the public, but it could be available to members. Rick said that may be a problem – separating numbers open to some and not to others.
   • Rick asked if it was okay to have contact information just be name of person, school and e-mail address. Everyone agreed.
   • Rick said Joe Wilcox will not be able to continue as SCAN editor. Wants committee chairs to get a summary of their events or accomplishments of the year to Joe by early next week to get into the last issue of SCAN for 2006. Jackie is looking for replacement. Jackie would like for New Mexico or Oklahoma person to do it, because she needs representation from those two states.

   Adjourned 4:45 Tuesday.

   Reconvened at 8:30 Wednesday, Nov. 8.

7. Continuing Education – Taina Savoit
   • Report lists committee members.
   • Stayed within budget for Mid-Level Workshop. Saved by conference calling and having some sponsorship from the lender committee members who paid their own way to meetings.
   • Reminded the Board that the committee has expenses each year for organizing and travel even when SWASFAA is not hosting the conference.
   • 2007 mid-level will be June 16-19 at Crowne Plaza Suites in Arlington, TX. Free hotel shuttle to airport.
   • Report lists recommendations and suggestions for future workshops, especially having registrants book and pay for their own hotel, and have a lower registration cost instead of the past $300.
     
     
8. Corporate Sponsorship – Craig Poleman
   • Written report but unable to attend meeting.
   • Rick asked if turnout is too low for the 3 corporate business sessions, should we refund the $500 back to the corporation? Kristi suggested we wait and see how many attend these sessions.
   • Craig did a great job, according to Rick, with getting sponsorship, and the setup in the vendor room is great. 49 corporate sponsors for the conference supporting SWASFAA with a total of $98,000.
   • Report gives numbers for sponsorship and lists levels of sponsorship.
   • Report states that corporate sponsors have expressed the desire to receive a list of conference attendees.
     
     
9. Legislative Issues – Judy Cramer
   • Written report.
   • Has a small committee, and at this point, just has Julie Berg from OSU active on the committee.
   • E-mails NASFAA’s legislative person weekly for updates.
     
     
10. Local Arrangements – Vicki Hendrickson
    • Working on conference, so has no report. Kristi encouraged everyone to come to Thursday night event.

    Janet Dodson, NASFAA Chair, arrived and spoke with the Board. Will present NASFAA leadership award to Karen Krause at Thursday banquet. Asked Board to always bring up concerns about aid administration to NASFAA.

VII. Old Business

1. Disaster Recovery Plan
   • Sherry Gladney heading up this project.
   • Written disaster recovery plan had been sent to Board after August board meeting for members to view and make suggestions.
   • In addition to suggestions made at last Board meeting, plan calls for steps to handle conferences and workshops in case of natural disaster. Suggests clause that covers plan for alternate sites and to be sure contracts with conference sites have information covering what, if anything SWASFAA will owe the site in case
     of a cancelled meeting.
   • Plan to cover elections.
   • Plan for what President can decide upon and how many other board members needed to be a part of decisions.
   • Sherry said that she had a lot of feedback from members. The plan can still use some fine tuning, but basically it would give Board members a plan of action.
   • Sherry compared what her committee came up with to the P&P manual to make sure they match.
   • Rick said he thinks some of the plan needs to be given to committees with a charge to implement the part that affects them. Jackie will decide about that during her term.
   • Discussion followed concerning ATAC’s ability to handle its own disaster. June asked if some of the items in the plan would affect constitution and bylaws, since elections and leadership are concerned.
   • Rick suggested under “Conferences and Workshops” that SWASFAA
     purchase business interruption insurance. Lisa moved to adopt the plan, and Raul seconded as written by the task force and amended through discussion taken place at current meeting. Motion approved. Jackie will propose at next board meeting how she plans to implement the plan.

VIII. New Business

1. Rick stated that officers need internet access while on the road. He asked the Board to approve a plan that SWASFAA pay for internet access at meetings for officers. June moved to add internet access during board travel to the room charges to be covered by SWASFAA. Sheila seconded.
   
   
2. Rick mentioned that some associations offer a gift to the school of the President because that school allows the person to be out of the office for an extended period of time. This covers the extra work others in the office have to handle to cover the office. Rick suggests $3000 given to the school and not limit it to a scholarship. Give it to the school and suggest it be used for Financial Aid office operations.

   Discussion followed. It was decided that the Finance committee would review the idea and make a recommendation to the Board in January. Rick suggested $3000, but said the finance committee may want to make it a variable amount per approval by the Board up to $3000. Rick recommended that the Finance Committee look at it. Jackie will have David Page, who is head of finance committee research the idea and meet on it with his committee and present a recommendation at the April board meeting.

   Rick told Board he appreciated everyone’s hard work and work toward keeping within the budget. Thinks Jackie is already on the way toward a good year.

Meeting adjourned at 10:40 a.m.

Additional Business via E-Mail

On November 28, 2006 Rick sent and e-mail to the Board members asking for approval to sign contracts with the hotels hosting the 2009 Albuquerque conference, and the 2007 board meetings in Arlington, Texas. Copies of the contracts were attached, and are saved electronically and in written form. Rick received approval from the Board to sign the contracts by November 29, 2006.

Summary of Motions

Motion made by Jackie LaChapelle to go into executive session Tuesday, November 7. Seconded by Raul Lerma. Short executive session held.

Motion made by June Hagler to authorize SWASFAA Board to pay internet costs at hotels for officers during SWASFAA meetings and conferences. Sheila McGill seconded.

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