[Oasfaa] SWASFAA update

Mon Jan 5 12:15:07 CST 2015

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<mailto: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<http://www.facebook.com/OUHSCFinancialAid>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/oasfaa/attachments/20150105/7f0ca708/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1364 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/oasfaa/attachments/20150105/7f0ca708/attachment.png>