LASFAA is on the move and it is all about the Training Committee. Educating our new aid officers and support staff led the way over the past few months.

The Financial Aid Support Staff Training (F.A.S.T.) workshop was held on Friday, March 2, 2007, in Lafayette, LA. The theme for this F.A.S.T. workshop was "Revitalizing Within for a Professional Outcome". Ann Lockridge and Jason Orgeron presented on the Financial Aid Process, Customer Service, Team Building, and Time and Stress Management. Mr. Steve Morgan also spoke to the F.A.S.T. participants as a motivational speaker.

The F.A.S.T. workshop was a huge success with 60 attendees from all over the State participating. Each participant received a goodie bag and a certificate of participation. Based on the response from the evaluation forms, F.A.S.T. proved to be a tremendous success.

Note: Generally, the F.A.S.T. workshop is held in November of each year, but due to Hurricane Katrina, the event was not held in year 2005, and the 2006 training was postponed until March, 2, 2007.

LASFAA Boot Camp was held on Thursday, March 15, 2007, in Lafayette, LA. The theme for Boot Camp this year was "Exercise Your Mind to Shape Your Future.” LASFAA received an overwhelming response to the Boot Camp with 73 registered members attending. The initial response for this Boot Camp was unprecedented. 108 individuals registered for Boot Camp, but due to space limitations, LASFAA had to deactivate registration and limit the attendees to only Financial Aid Administrators who had 6 or fewer years of Financial Aid experience.

The eight folks below shared their time and knowledge with the Boot Campers as their presenters. In addition, the entire LASFAA Board and committee chairs took time to visit with the Campers during their training.

• Mary Sue Rix – Overview of Programs
• Emily L. Jones – ACG/Smart
• Trivia Garret – Pell Grant
• Taina Savoit – Student Eligibility
• La'Charlotte Clark – Verification
• Kenn Posey – Professional Judgment
• Sharron Robinson – FFELP
• Antoinette Brown – Return of Title IV

Each attendee of the Boot Camp was given a training booklet, a copy of the NASFAA Core materials, and a wonderful duffle bag filled with goodies. A reception was held after Boot Camp giving the campers an opportunity to be the first to meet and greet our vendors.

All of the training in Louisiana is not done yet. The Training Committee is planning a "Leadership Developmental" function which will be held on Thursday, May 3, 2007, at ULL in Lafayette, LA. Keep a lookout for more information on LASFAA’s spanking brand new website. Pop in and visit us at www.lasfaa.org.

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