[Oasfaa] FW: [SWASFAA Team Chatter] Memories of New Orleans

[Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)]

Here is another great blog post by Andrew.  

Andrew, you've done a great job this year as SWASFAA President, and I know we're all looking forward to seeing what you can do with a second year!

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: Friday, November 14, 2014 3:29 PM
To: Schmerer, Mendy M. (HSC)
Subject: [SWASFAA Team Chatter] Memories of New Orleans

SWASFAA Team Chatter has posted a new item, 'Memories of New Orleans'

Dear SWASFAA Friends:

In the week since the SWASFAA Conference ended, my life has been consumed with catching up on sleep (is that even possible?), responding to emails, putting out work fires, and handling the other administrative responsibilities of my day job. Oh, and laundry! I was on the road from the last week of September through the beginning of November, traveling to NASFAA meetings and state conferences, and there wasn’t time to wash clothes in between meetings. I ended up buying new clothes every time I needed a clean outfit, because even when I can’t find time for housework, I can always find time to spend money. Now I have way more socks than I know what to do with. Would it be inappropriate for me to give them away as Christmas presents to people I don’t like? Of course, I would wash them first—assuming I have time. My schedule is very busy in the next few weeks. I might just spray them with Febreze.

Okay, enough with the sock talk. This is supposed to be a positive blog post, and thankfully, SWASFAA doesn’t have any dirty laundry to air. Last week was a big success, thanks to the people who attended the events in New Orleans. We kicked off the week with boot camp on Monday, and for the next two days, we trained over 80 financial aid administrators, most of whom had under five years of experience. Everyone who attended boot camp is eligible to take NASFAA credential exams in the subjects of application, eligibility, and Direct Loans.
SWASFAA is this close to having the most credentials of any region in the nation, and it would make me very happy if we could be number one. Boot campers, we’re depending on you to make us look good!

Denise Welch chaired the Boot Camp Committee, and I want to commend her for such a fine job. Every time I walked past the training room, I heard enthusiasm and excitement coming from the attendees, and the committee told me that it was one of the most engaging groups they have trained. Financial aid is hard, and according to my friends, it’s very boring (side note: I hang out with morons).
It says a lot about Denise and her committee that they were able to keep the boot campers interested and energized throughout the training.

One of the Boot Camp Committee members, Mendy Schmerer, was also the chair for the Leadership Development Committee. On Wednesday morning, Mendy and her committee offered the very first SWASFAA leadership workshop. Approximately 30 people assembled for the half-day seminar, and we had a lot of fun going through the True Colors Assessment, led by Sarah Webb from the University of Texas in San Antonio. (By the way, someone once made a mean comment about Sarah’s shoes, and it scarred her for life. I really like Sarah and want to reverse the damage by inundating her with positive comments about her footwear. Next time you see Sarah, please tell her that she has nice shoes. Thank you.)

I don’t know how many of you have gone through the True Colors training, but if you have, you will understand what I mean when I say I am a strong green.
According to the data Sarah provided me about green characteristics, “In relationships, I prefer to let my head rule my heart. I dislike repetition, so it is difficult for me to continuously express feelings. I believe that once feelings are stated, they are obvious to a partner. I am uneasy when my emotions control me. I want to establish a relationship, leave it to maintain itself, and turn my energies back to my career.”

Yep. Sounds about right. So I’m going to die alone, and I’ll probably be at work when I finally stroke out. But at least I’m good at analyzing things.

The conference kicked off on Wednesday afternoon with a live jazz band and the keynote speaker, Sally-Ann Roberts, the sister of Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts. Like her sister, Sally-Ann has a morning news show, and she mentioned SWASFAA on her show the next day and showed a few pictures from the conference.
We’re famous! Yay! I hope we can avoid the stereotypical drug problems and relationship scandals that have plagued every other celebrity since the invention of TMZ.

Audra Main was the conference chair, and as you can probably imagine, I tormented her endlessly all year. I think she has forgiven me for abandoning her a few weeks ago during the most stressful period of the planning stage. Over fall break, I left the country for a few days and got “stuck” in Ireland when I missed my flight home, which ruined my plans for keeping this vacation a secret from Audra. That’s another blog post unto itself. Needless to say, Audra was not happy with me when I checked in at the Cliffs of Moher on Facebook. She said that once she figured out where I was, she wanted to push me off the cliffs. While I was in Europe, poor Audra was dealing with an overbooked hotel situation and last-minute program changes. If I wasn’t such a strong green, I might have experienced the emotion weak people refer to as “shame.”
Yes, I am a bad person. But Ireland is gorgeous. You should go there and send pictures to Audra.

In all seriousness, Audra did a great job with the program. Since we are friends, we can give each other a hard time and laugh about it afterward. We had fun planning the conference, and she worked very hard to make sure that everyone’s training needs were met and that all the attendees had a good time.

Speaking of good times, how much fun was the mini-Mardi Gras parade? The Local Arrangements Chair, Leatrice Latimore, wanted us to experience something that was authentically New Orleans, and we had a blast at the Thursday night event.
I’ve never been to a real Mardi Gras, but now it’s on my bucket list.

Next, I want to recognize all the exhibitors who attended the conference and gave us such good information about their services. The associate members bring a lot of value to our conferences, and I appreciate Craig Poleman for chairing the Corporate Relations Committee and helping to organize the exhibitor room.

Finally, I want to thank all the people who attended boot camp, the leadership workshop, and the conference. This last year has been a blast. Yes, occasionally it’s been hard—and at times I’ve been terrified that I’m going to fall flat on my face. I never aspired to be president of SWASFAA—or of anything, really. I’m a behind-the-scenes person. I don’t like the spotlight, and I hate public speaking. If you want to know the truth, I was dreading this year.
But being president of SWASFAA has been the best professional experience of my career, and I am so grateful to Laura Coponiti for asking me to run for office a few years ago. Laura and I worked together at the registration table for our state conferences for a number of years, and I can’t believe that now we have both served as president of our regional association.

I’m starting to get sentimental. I should crush down these feelings before I embarrass myself.

Stay tuned for lots more SWASFAA fun in the near future. We’re already planning next year’s training events, and my head is full of potential articles for this blog. I’m excited that I get to serve another year as president of SWASFAA. When there was a vacancy in the president-elect position earlier this year and the board asked me to remain in the role for another term, I was hesitant to agree—until I thought about all the things I still want to get done. I appreciate everyone’s support this year, and I look forward to another great year serving all of you.

Andrew Hammontree, SWASFAA President

You may view the latest post at
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://swasfaa.org/b/general/nola/&k=7DHVT22D9IhC0F3WohFMBA%3D%3D%0A&r=3FzektddOA%2BuX1sZs6OX4Y4OSdCLjHnFYl%2FJvLARkCU%3D%0A&m=QJr4%2BRLPy4utyioRodaellDkoase%2FW1i8R%2BtPEawN5o%3D%0A&s=e44f7d60429a1b4d0992847c331993f54f9d5550e957ecdf9f6bc29113e8c07b

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