From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Mon Jan 5 12:15:07 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 18:15:07 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] SWASFAA update Message-ID: Greetings, OASFAA friends! I hope you all had a wonderful break and were able to come back reinvigorated and renewed for the Spring term, for 2016 aid year set up and processing, and all the other things that await us! Now that I'm back to work (who had a hard time listening to that alarm this morning??), it's time to get back on track with a few things. State Delegates serve SWASFAA for 2 year terms, and 2015 marks the beginning of my 2nd year as your Oklahoma delegate to the SWASFAA Board. Below is a summary of the November meeting. The first meeting of the 2015 Board will be January 26th and 27th, in Arlington, Texas. Should you have any questions or concerns that I can take to the Board, please let me know. * The 2014 SWASFAA Board met for the final time on November 4th at Harrah's New Orleans, the site of the annual conference. Andrew Hammontree, SWASFAA President, has been busy with travel. In late September, he traveled to DC to meet with the NASFAA Executive Board and other regional presidents. The chief topics of conversation were challenges facing regions and how NASFAA can serve the regions, and the length of tenure the regional representatives have on the NASFAA Board. * In early October, Andrew then attended the state conferences for Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In mid-November, Andrew returned to New Orleans for a NASFAA Board meeting. * Boot Camp, the Leadership Development workshop, and the annual conference were held in New Orleans the week of November 3rd. Each had fantastic registration numbers (86 for Boot Camp, 235 for conference, and 30 for Leadership) and all garnered very positive feedback. Eighteen vendors exhibited at the conference, 10 of which were new to SWASFAA. * SWASFAA membership, as of the end of October 2014, when compared to membership at the same time in 2013, had increased by 38 member institutions. * Election of 2015 Board members was held September 2nd-11th. Janell Valdez, New Mexico, will serve as the President-Elect in 2015, and new Delegates-At-Large were voted into office for Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. * Marilyn Schwarz, Oklahoma's Philo Brasher Emerging Leader Award winner, was able to attend the Leadership Workshop and the conference. Given Marilyn's new role over Institutional Research at Murray State College, she will no longer be in financial aid. The workshop and conference were a sort of send-off for her. Marilyn, thank you for your service to OASFAA through the years! * The Board approved the site and dates for the 2015 SWASFAA Boot Camp and Conference, so mark your calendars for November 2nd-6th at the beautiful Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. * Andrew wants to reintroduce the Mid-Level Training for SWASFAA members and has asked me to chair the Mid-Level Training Committee. Not only will this potentially serve the mid-level administrators, i.e., counselors, more adequately than Boot Camp, but should also serve to remove some of the burden from Boot Camp, as Boot Camp has become quite large. Be ready for more details very, very soon. * Another of Andrew's goals is to also increase the webinars that SWASFAA offers. To offer a unique aspect that other trainings often do not, SWASFAA wants to retain the "best practices" perspective that was used for professional judgment in 2014. The topic for the initial webinar will likely be verification. Keep your eyes open for details on those as well. If you have any suggestions for topics and/or presenters, please let me know so I can pass those along! Again, if you have anything that I can take to the Board, I will happily do so! Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817 (p) (405) 271-5446 (f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu Tue Jan 6 16:08:15 2015 From: Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu (Main, Audra D. (HSC)) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 22:08:15 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] OASFAA Awards and Recognition Message-ID: <49E4B16EF0F0AA43810A3109DF3C0A30221EA8BB@COUNTACH.hsc.net.ou.edu> OASFAA members, It is that time of year again to honor those who have made contributions to the association and to the profession with the following awards. Please review the award criteria and submit nominations for each award to me by February 1, 2015. The recipients will be announced at the Spring 2015 conference. * Philo Brasher Emerging Leadership Award: This award was established by SWASFAA in honor of Philo Brasher who served many years in the association. The OASFAA Board of Directors selects a member, which is announced at the spring conference. The recipient should be an individual that has served OASFAA and made a contribution to the Association. OASFAA will pay the registration fee to the SWASFAA annual conference on behalf of the Oklahoma award winner. OASFAA will also match the $250 that SWASFAA donates to the general scholarship fund of the recipients' school. * Honorary Membership Award: Honorary Membership in OASFAA is the highest honor that the Association can bestow on a person who is neither a member nor affiliated with a member organization. Since this is the highest award that OASFAA can give, the individual receiving it must have made truly outstanding contributions to the Association and to the profession over a sustained period of time. It is not expected that honorary membership will be granted in recognition of a single accomplishment, but for continued efforts over a period of time. Honorary membership will be conferred only with the approval of the majority of the Board of Directors. Honorary members are extended the same membership privileges as Associate members. * Distinguished Service Award: This award is intended to recognize a practicing student financial aid professional at an institution. He/she should have contributed unique and long lasting efforts to the association, the profession, or the cause of financial aid in Oklahoma. In general, presentation of the awards will occur at the spring conference of the association. * Partner Award The Partner Award may be made by the Association to another individual, not a practicing aid administrator, whose efforts are important to advancing the profession or the needs of students in Oklahoma. The following guidelines should be observed in selecting recipients of the award: 1. A solicitation for nominees for the award should be made to all members through a posting on the OASFAA website and through the listserv. 2. Nominations must be made by active members and must be supported by two other members of the association. 3. Only active members of the association are eligible for nomination. 4. The Advisory Committee shall evaluate nominations for the award and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has the final decision regarding the selection of recipients. 5. No current member of the Advisory Committee or voting member of the Board of Directors is eligible for the award. Please e-mail your nominees for the Philo Brasher, Honorary Membership, Distinguished Service, and Partner Awards, to me with the reasons you believe the person should be chosen to receive the award by Friday, February 1, 2015. Thank you for your continued support of OASFAA. If you have any questions please let me know. Sincerely- Audra Main Financial Aid Counselor OUHSC Financial Aid Office 1106 N. Stonewall, Suite 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118 (405) 271-5446 fax Confidentiality Notice This e-mail, including any attachments, contains information from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which may be confidential or privileged. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by a "reply to sender only" message and destroy all electronic and hard copies of the communication, including attachments. [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Fri Jan 9 10:31:05 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2015 16:31:05 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] Interesting perspective Message-ID: If you haven't read your NASFAA Today's News yet, I'd recommend reading this article when you've got a moment. In our field, it can be really easy to get bogged down in the negatives--administrative burdens, tightening or non-existent budgets, student and parent complaints, systems issues, institutional politics, the list can go on and on. However, I believe that in any given day, in any situation, you've got to find the positives. Sometimes they can be harder to find than you'd like, but they are there, I promise. Regardless of your political ideology, your personal perspective, and even your own personal experience with college costs, for so many of our students, loans are an unfortunate necessity. We certainly all have our own opinions regarding higher education and the value, cost, and investment that it entails. However, in a complex world, with a complex issue like funding a higher education, when you talk to parents and students about what can be such a bleak, but necessary, topic like student debt, these might be a few points you want to highlight. We all know what positive impacts come from having informed and knowledgeable borrowers! http://www.nasfaa.org/Main/fa-news/opin/Commentary__11_Uniquely_Positive_Things_About_Federal_Student_Loans.aspx Thanks, and everyone have great Friday, and try to stay warm! Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817 (p) (405) 271-5446 (f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Wed Jan 14 10:46:09 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 16:46:09 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: [swasfaaL] TACFEP Symposium Invitation to Present In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: FYI Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK? 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817?(p) (405) 271-5446?(f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ ?Become our fan on Facebook:? www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -----Original Message----- From: SwasfaaL [mailto:swasfaal-bounces at swasfaa.org] On Behalf Of swasfaal at swasfaa.org Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 10:37 AM To: swasfaal at swasfaa.org Subject: [swasfaaL] TACFEP Symposium Invitation to Present Subject: TACFEP Symposium Invitation to Present List: swasfaaL Date: January 14, 2015 From: Mark Mielke moneywise at tamu.edu ------------------------- Texas A&M University's Money Wise Aggie, located within Scholarships & Financial Aid, will host the 2015 Annual Texas Association of Collegiate Financial Education Professionals (TACFEP) Symposium on May 18 & 19. TACFEP consists of financial literacy educators from Texas colleges and universities, as well as other financial literacy leaders throughout the state. Financial literacy leaders from other states have attended previous symposiums and are welcome to attend this year's meetings. Attendees have a variety of interests such as minimizing and repaying credit card debt and student loans as well as other financial topics to help students and clients make smart personal finance decisions. We are anticipating 50-100 attendees. Symposium information and updates will be posted at http://tacfep.com/symposium/tacfep2015/. We invite you to submit a presentation for consideration to be part of the symposium program. Sharing your knowledge and insights on financial literacy topics will help college educators throughout the state teach students more effectively. TO SUBMIT A PRESENTATION FOR REVIEW: Complete the attached form, TACFEP Invitation to Present, and email it as an attachment to moneywise at tamu.edu by the deadline date of February 15, 2015. Make the email subject line TACFEP SYMPOSIUM PROPOSAL. After we review the submissions, we will notify those who submitted accepted proposals by March 15, 2015. Mark Mielke, CFP Advisor Scholarships & Financial Aid Texas A&M University Click the link to view the attachment Attachment 1: TACFEP Symposium Proposal Form http://www.swasfaa.org/ListLock/L65f4Mo2QXN3TjrZ.pdf -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001.txt URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Thu Jan 15 13:38:55 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:38:55 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: [SWASFAA Team Chatter] SWASFAA Resolutions for the New Year In-Reply-To: <6705c780faa648c6456cb131f3c95d43@swasfaa.org> References: <6705c780faa648c6456cb131f3c95d43@swasfaa.org> Message-ID: Here's something to brighten your day in what has probably been a crazy 2 weeks. And by the way, don't you just love coming back from the relaxing time off around the holidays to enjoy the launch of the Spring term? C'mon, I know you do! Andrew's new blog post is at http://swasfaa.org/b/general/newyear/. The SWASFAA Board is meeting in Arlington on January 26th and 27th. As your Delegate to the Board, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments that I can take to the meeting, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks, and enjoy that giant ball of fire in the sky. In case you'd forgotten how the sun makes you feel, go outside, turn your face to the sky, (close your eyes, of course!), and soak up some much needed vitamin D. Thanks! Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK? 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817?(p) (405) 271-5446?(f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ ?Become our fan on Facebook:? www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -----Original Message----- From: SWASFAA Team Chatter [mailto:blog at swasfaa.org] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 1:02 PM To: Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC) Subject: [SWASFAA Team Chatter] SWASFAA Resolutions for the New Year SWASFAA Team Chatter has posted a new item, 'SWASFAA Resolutions for the New Year' Dear SWASFAA Friends: This year all my New Year?s resolutions revolved around SWASFAA projects. It?s not that I don?t have other ambitions, but my personal goals are the same thing year after year: exercise regularly, work hard, travel to a foreign country that I will one day own, and don?t kill anyone no matter how much I think he or she deserves it. I decided a while ago that these should be lifestyle choices; therefore, I no longer bother to call them ?resolutions?. But since I will only be SWASFAA president through 2015, I felt it was appropriate to make a few SWASFAA-related resolutions to help keep me on track: I resolve to increase the number of webinars that SWASFAA provides. Last year we offered a free webinar to our members, and even though I was worried that the technology wouldn?t work well, in the end everything went smoothly and we got a lot of positive feedback. This year I want to offer at least three webinars to the SWASFAA membership. Now that we have proven that we can do it, we need to take advantage of the technology. I resolve to bring back Mid-Level Training, which will focus on training for counselors and other financial aid administrators who have been in the industry for at least five years. During the lean years, SWASFAA had to cut back on some of their training events because we needed to be conservative with our resources. We still want to stretch our funds as far as they will go, but I?m ready to take some risks. Furthermore, NASFAA has agreed to subsidize certain NASFAA credential exams as long as we use trainers who are credentialed in their subject area. We want to take advantage of this offer, which expires on June 30th, so we have to act fast. More details are forthcoming as soon as we work through the weeds, but in the meantime, mark your calendars for April 28-30. I resolve to communicate, communicate, communicate. I would so much rather be accused of over-communicating than under-communicating. I also resolve not to try to do everything on my own. SWASFAA has a very strong board and dedicated committees who can help me to get the information in the hands of the membership. I?m going to blog as regularly as my schedule allows, and hopefully you?ll see lots of information on the listserv and the SWASFAA website. People need to know what?s going on in our association. I resolve to have fun. This one shouldn?t be too hard, because I really enjoy being involved in SWASFAA. Everyone has been so supportive and generous, and they tolerate my sense of humor even when they?re not sure if it?s appropriate. But sometimes I take things way too seriously. I have to stop and remind myself to relax. Fortunately, I have enough friends who will keep me in check when I go overboard. So those are my New Year?s resolutions for SWASFAA. We will send out much more information in the weeks to come about the training opportunities for 2015. In the very near future, you will get an email about how to renew your membership for 2015. If you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section or email me directly at ahammontree at francistuttle.edu. You may view the latest post at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__swasfaa.org_b_general_newyear_&d=AwIDaQ&c=qRnFByZajCb3ogDwk-HidsbrxD-31vTsTBEIa6TCCEk&r=-Lnq0C7sCiFyP0whbJJ3dxf5JnVjhYZXejVPgZDRGLk&m=W-RCXmIvCVdRpeyj9ZXRxTHy1V59D319tPuGp9ny9CI&s=ws9DCdDDw0_0beRrjmI4IZ7jvEl5akBAcQYigzb4kP0&e= You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. From sdaffer at rose.edu Wed Jan 21 09:02:04 2015 From: sdaffer at rose.edu (Daffer, Steven W.) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:02:04 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] Cooperative agreements Message-ID: <953649DC1D2C1B468809728EE2C8086D20062C5C@Vesta.admin.rose.cc.ok.us> We have a student in one of our cooperative agreements that is only enrolled at the other school for the spring semester. RSC is the home school and awarding the degree. Normally they are enrolled at both schools and we just use a consortium agreement to include the hours at the other school. Do other schools award aid to a student in one of these programs who is not enrolled at your school for the semester? This is a new twist for me. Thanks, Steve Steven Daffer | Director, Financial Aid | Rose State College | 6420 SE 15th Street | Midwest City, OK 73110 | p: 405.733.7424 | fax: 405-736-0359 | e: sdaffer at rose.edu [RSC-email-tag] Confidentiality Notice: This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 5898 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Wed Jan 21 13:27:52 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:27:52 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] SWASFAA Board meeting reminder Message-ID: Next Monday, the SWASFAA Board and committee chairs will meet in Arlington for its first meeting of the 2015 term. Andrew Hammontree, of Francis Tuttle Technology Center, is serving as SWASFAA President for a second consecutive year. If you know Andrew, you know he is just a little bit of a goal oriented guy, and this second year is going to give him some fantastic opportunities to accomplish those goals. I know he has wonderful ideas for SWASFAA to better serve its membership, and more importantly, he has the follow through to make those ideas come to fruition. Dustin Davidson, of Moore Norman Technology Center, is serving as OASFAA President for the 2014-2015 term, and as such, represents Oklahoma on the SWASFAA Board during the 2015 SWASFAA year. I am serving the second year of my 2 year term as Oklahoma Delegate at Large. I am also serving as the Mid-Level Committee Chair for that newly resurrected committee. I will have a LOT of details about Mid-Level training very, very soon, so be on the lookout for a barrage of emails about it. While committees are still being formed, I'm sure Oklahoma will be represented well. If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, let me know! As Delegate, my primary responsibility is to act as the liaison between SWASFAA member institutions in Oklahoma and the SWASFAA Board. Should you have any questions or concerns about SWASFAA's missions, goals, and initiatives (trainings, conference, webinars, etc.), please don't hesitate to reach out to me, or to Dustin or Andrew so we can ensure that your issue is addressed appropriately. Thank you, Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817 (p) (405) 271-5446 (f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From lcoponiti at usao.edu Thu Jan 22 08:58:46 2015 From: lcoponiti at usao.edu (Laura Coponiti) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 08:58:46 -0600 Subject: [Oasfaa] Short survey Message-ID: <000f01d03653$ec2ea610$c48bf230$@usao.edu> Hello All, Our education department is wanting some information on what other schools are doing about the Teach Grant, so I would appreciate if you could answer a few questions. Does your school participate in the Teach Grant? If so, are all your education majors eligible or do you have restrictions? Have you had any issue with the program? And anything else you think I might need to know. Thanks in advance for your help. Stay warm! Laura Coponiti Director of Financial Aid Troutt 112 University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma 1727 West Alabama Chickasha, OK 73018 405-574-1350 (office) 405-574-1220 (fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10002 bytes Desc: not available URL: From AHammontree at francistuttle.edu Thu Jan 22 13:11:15 2015 From: AHammontree at francistuttle.edu (Andrew W. Hammontree) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:11:15 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: [swasfaaL] SWASFAA Membership Renewal Time for 2015 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <846b73f56bbd48e6a96f8ee2b284966c@XCH-APP-01.francistuttle.edu> Hi everyone, January 1st marks the beginning of the new year for SWASFAA membership. (I know, I know, it's confusing that we run on a calendar year instead of a fiscal year, but that's how it was set up a long time ago.) Information on how to renew your SWASFAA membership is below. We're trying very hard to provide training throughout the year, so it's important to renew your membership now in order to take advantage of the upcoming spring events. In the next few months we will have a webinar on verification that is free to SWASFAA members. Later in the spring we will offer Mid-Level Training in Arlington, TX. Anyone who attends Mid-Level Training will be eligible to take free NASFAA credential exams in Direct Loans, R2T4, and perhaps other subjects areas still to be determined. Mendy Schmerer is chairing this event, and we will post more information as soon as we iron out some more details. I look forward to serving another year in my role, and I hope to see lots of my Oklahoma friends at the training events. Thanks, Andrew Hammontree SWASFAA President (405) 717-4336 -----Original Message----- From: SwasfaaL [mailto:swasfaal-bounces at swasfaa.org] On Behalf Of swasfaal at swasfaa.org Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 1:33 PM To: swasfaal at swasfaa.org Subject: [swasfaaL] SWASFAA Membership Renewal Time for 2015 Subject: SWASFAA Membership Renewal Time for 2015 List: swasfaaL Date: January 21, 2015 From: Taina Savoit tsavoit at mcneese.edu ------------------------- Happy 2015 to the SWASFAA Membership! It is time for you to renew your SWASFAA membership dues for 2015, but before you do, I wanted to share some updates with you about SWASFAA for this year that are exciting. President Andrew Hammontree will be continuing his blog to keep the membership updated, so please visit it at http://swasfaa.org/b/. This was started by Andrew at the beginning of 2014, so it is fun to go and read about this past year and a welcome for this new year. In addition to our blog being a success during this past year, we will continue to be offering some webinar training throughout the year. The Training Committee will be conducting these Best Practices webinars free to our members. You will be sent registration information and more details closer to each of the webinar training sessions. Please remember that you must have paid your membership to sign up for the webinar. Our annual conference and boot camp planning are already underway for Albuquerque, New Mexico. The boot camp will be held November 2-4, 2015 with the conference being held November 4-6, 2015 at the Sandia Resort and Casino Hotel. We look forward to you renewing your membership or joining your regional association by February 28, 2015. To learn more about the benefits of SWASFAA membership, please visit our website at http://swasfaa.org/docs/members/memberbenefits.html along with the membership application being available at http://www.swasfaa.org/docs/forms/memApp.html. Attached is a helpful sheet to provide guidance of how to keep your institutions membership database updated, so please reference this or let me know if I can assist. Please feel free to let me know if you need any assistance with your membership renewal or where to begin if you are new to our association and would like to learn more at tsavoit at mcneese.edu. Taina Savoit, Chair SWASFAA Membership Committee -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SWASFAA Membership Database Guide.docx Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document Size: 16400 bytes Desc: SWASFAA Membership Database Guide.docx URL: From cpacheco at ou.edu Fri Jan 23 15:21:30 2015 From: cpacheco at ou.edu (Pacheco, Caryn L.) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 21:21:30 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: 2015-2016 Seven Easy Steps to the FAFSA Tutorial In-Reply-To: <7148F83EF7F71A4A972674E3212918AC0AB056C1@sa134.sa.ucsb.edu> References: <7148F83EF7F71A4A972674E3212918AC0AB056C1@sa134.sa.ucsb.edu> Message-ID: <1E1F49ABBD3E6B44B42C49D4FF7FDA6A01C5CA2E82@IT-AIRSTORM.sooner.net.ou.edu> This is a pretty good video outlining the step-by-step process of filling out the FAFSA. As indicated below, feel free to add this to your website or use it in presentations. Enjoy! Caryn Caryn L. Pacheco | Director of Financial Aid Services The University of Oklahoma | 405.325.9627 | This communication, including any attachments, may contain private and confidential information and is intended only for the addressee. Forward only to authorized persons. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message and attachments. This E-mail (including the attachments) is covered by the electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C.?? 2510-2521, is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. From: COSUAA Membership [mailto:COSUAA-L at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU] On Behalf Of Mike Miller Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:16 PM To: COSUAA-L at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU Subject: 2015-2016 Seven Easy Steps to the FAFSA Tutorial Colleagues, Attached you will find a link to our 2015-16 version of Seven Easy Steps to the FAFSA: A Student's Guide to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You can either use the direct link or you also have the option to download the files so you can embed the tutorial on your departmental websites. As always, these are for all to use. We provide these tutorials to do our part to help needy families all over the country, not just those who come to UC Santa Barbara. Please share the links with other colleagues (including high schools and community organizations) as you see fit. Also, this will be posted to YouTube soon and we will also post a tutorial for the IRS Data Retrieval tool in the near future. Thank you for your time, efforts, and service to students! Generic Version http://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/fafsasimplification/ Generic Version Download http://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/fafsasimplification/7_easy_steps_generic.zip Michael M. Miller, Ed.D. Director Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships University of California, Santa Barbara (805) 893-2118 Mission Statement: The University of California, Santa Barbara Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships provides students with the financial resources and related services necessary to achieve their educational goals. We are committed to providing accurate, user-friendly, responsive, and respectful service to students and their families. We administer federal, state, and university aid and scholarship programs in accordance with applicable policies and regulations while striving to be an innovative and service-minded department. "Don't look backwards, you're not going that way." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu Mon Jan 26 08:32:48 2015 From: Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu (Main, Audra D. (HSC)) Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:32:48 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] OASFAA Awards and Recognition - DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1 Message-ID: <49E4B16EF0F0AA43810A3109DF3C0A30221F58DC@COUNTACH.hsc.net.ou.edu> OASFAA members, It is that time of year again to honor those who have made contributions to the association and to the profession with the following awards. Please review the award criteria and submit nominations for each award to me by February 1, 2015. The recipients will be announced at the Spring 2015 conference. * Philo Brasher Emerging Leadership Award: This award was established by SWASFAA in honor of Philo Brasher who served many years in the association. The OASFAA Board of Directors selects a member, which is announced at the spring conference. The recipient should be an individual that has served OASFAA and made a contribution to the Association. OASFAA will pay the registration fee to the SWASFAA annual conference on behalf of the Oklahoma award winner. OASFAA will also match the $250 that SWASFAA donates to the general scholarship fund of the recipients' school. * Honorary Membership Award: Honorary Membership in OASFAA is the highest honor that the Association can bestow on a person who is neither a member nor affiliated with a member organization. Since this is the highest award that OASFAA can give, the individual receiving it must have made truly outstanding contributions to the Association and to the profession over a sustained period of time. It is not expected that honorary membership will be granted in recognition of a single accomplishment, but for continued efforts over a period of time. Honorary membership will be conferred only with the approval of the majority of the Board of Directors. Honorary members are extended the same membership privileges as Associate members. * Distinguished Service Award: This award is intended to recognize a practicing student financial aid professional at an institution. He/she should have contributed unique and long lasting efforts to the association, the profession, or the cause of financial aid in Oklahoma. In general, presentation of the awards will occur at the spring conference of the association. * Partner Award The Partner Award may be made by the Association to another individual, not a practicing aid administrator, whose efforts are important to advancing the profession or the needs of students in Oklahoma. The following guidelines should be observed in selecting recipients of the award: 1. A solicitation for nominees for the award should be made to all members through a posting on the OASFAA website and through the listserv. 2. Nominations must be made by active members and must be supported by two other members of the association. 3. Only active members of the association are eligible for nomination. 4. The Advisory Committee shall evaluate nominations for the award and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has the final decision regarding the selection of recipients. 5. No current member of the Advisory Committee or voting member of the Board of Directors is eligible for the award. Please e-mail your nominees for the Philo Brasher, Honorary Membership, Distinguished Service, and Partner Awards, to me with the reasons you believe the person should be chosen to receive the award by Friday, February 1, 2015. Thank you for your continued support of OASFAA. If you have any questions please let me know. Sincerely- Audra Main Financial Aid Counselor OUHSC Financial Aid Office 1106 N. Stonewall, Suite 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118 (405) 271-5446 fax Confidentiality Notice This e-mail, including any attachments, contains information from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which may be confidential or privileged. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by a "reply to sender only" message and destroy all electronic and hard copies of the communication, including attachments. [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu Thu Jan 29 09:35:08 2015 From: Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu (Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 15:35:08 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] FW: [swasfaaL] Congratulations to Lisa Blazer, the NASFAA Chair-Elect for 2015-2016 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: What great news for NASFAA! Now her talents and abilities can be shared with all NASFAA members rather than just the SWASFAA region! Mendy Schmerer, M.Ed. Oklahoma Delegate to SWASFAA Assistant Director Office of Student Financial Aid University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1106 N. Stonewall, Rm 301 Oklahoma City, OK? 73117 (405) 271-2118, x 48817?(p) (405) 271-5446?(f) Mendy-Schmerer at ouhsc.edu http://www.ouhsc.edu/financialservices/SFA/ ?Become our fan on Facebook:? www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -----Original Message----- From: SwasfaaL [mailto:swasfaal-bounces at swasfaa.org] On Behalf Of swasfaal at swasfaa.org Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 8:42 AM To: swasfaal at swasfaa.org Subject: [swasfaaL] Congratulations to Lisa Blazer, the NASFAA Chair-Elect for 2015-2016 Subject: Congratulations to Lisa Blazer, the NASFAA Chair-Elect for 2015-2016 List: swasfaaL Date: January 29, 2015 From: Andrew Hammontree ahammontree at francistuttle.edu ------------------------- I'm very excited to share the news that Dr. Lisa Blazer was elected to serve as the NASFAA National Chair-Elect for 2015-2016. Lisa is currently the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and she is a former SWASFAA and TASFAA President. This is very exciting news for our region. The last SWASFAA member who served as NASFAA National Chair was Charlie Bruce from Oklahoma State University in 2002-2003. Congratulations, Lisa! We are proud of you and excited to see what you do as the National Chair! Andrew Hammontree SWASFAA President -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001.txt URL: From Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu Thu Jan 29 10:49:07 2015 From: Audra-Main at ouhsc.edu (Main, Audra D. (HSC)) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 16:49:07 +0000 Subject: [Oasfaa] OASFAA Awards and Recognition - DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1 Message-ID: <49E4B16EF0F0AA43810A3109DF3C0A30221F6790@COUNTACH.hsc.net.ou.edu> 2 DAYS LEFT OASFAA members, It is that time of year again to honor those who have made contributions to the association and to the profession with the following awards. Please review the award criteria and submit nominations for each award to me by February 1, 2015. The recipients will be announced at the Spring 2015 conference. * Philo Brasher Emerging Leadership Award: This award was established by SWASFAA in honor of Philo Brasher who served many years in the association. The OASFAA Board of Directors selects a member, which is announced at the spring conference. The recipient should be an individual that has served OASFAA and made a contribution to the Association. OASFAA will pay the registration fee to the SWASFAA annual conference on behalf of the Oklahoma award winner. OASFAA will also match the $250 that SWASFAA donates to the general scholarship fund of the recipients' school. * Honorary Membership Award: Honorary Membership in OASFAA is the highest honor that the Association can bestow on a person who is neither a member nor affiliated with a member organization. Since this is the highest award that OASFAA can give, the individual receiving it must have made truly outstanding contributions to the Association and to the profession over a sustained period of time. It is not expected that honorary membership will be granted in recognition of a single accomplishment, but for continued efforts over a period of time. Honorary membership will be conferred only with the approval of the majority of the Board of Directors. Honorary members are extended the same membership privileges as Associate members. * Distinguished Service Award: This award is intended to recognize a practicing student financial aid professional at an institution. He/she should have contributed unique and long lasting efforts to the association, the profession, or the cause of financial aid in Oklahoma. In general, presentation of the awards will occur at the spring conference of the association. * Partner Award The Partner Award may be made by the Association to another individual, not a practicing aid administrator, whose efforts are important to advancing the profession or the needs of students in Oklahoma. The following guidelines should be observed in selecting recipients of the award: 1. A solicitation for nominees for the award should be made to all members through a posting on the OASFAA website and through the listserv. 2. Nominations must be made by active members and must be supported by two other members of the association. 3. Only active members of the association are eligible for nomination. 4. The Advisory Committee shall evaluate nominations for the award and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has the final decision regarding the selection of recipients. 5. No current member of the Advisory Committee or voting member of the Board of Directors is eligible for the award. Please e-mail your nominees for the Philo Brasher, Honorary Membership, Distinguished Service, and Partner Awards, to me with the reasons you believe the person should be chosen to receive the award by Friday, February 1, 2015. Thank you for your continued support of OASFAA. If you have any questions please let me know. Sincerely- Audra Main Financial Aid Counselor OUHSC Financial Aid Office 1106 N. Stonewall, Suite 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73117 (405) 271-2118 (405) 271-5446 fax Confidentiality Notice This e-mail, including any attachments, contains information from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which may be confidential or privileged. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by a "reply to sender only" message and destroy all electronic and hard copies of the communication, including attachments. [FB-f-Logo__blue_29] Become our fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 1364 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: