Friday, July 6, 2012

Thank You SCASFAA!!

Dear SCASFAA Colleagues,

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your trust in me with the great responsibility as President of SCASFAA this past year. It has been such a learning experience and shown me what amazing people are in this organization who truly care about its success and future. We had to replace 6 Board members throughout the year and I am so blessed for those who stepped up to help shape our year with some amazing accomplishments. I appreciate your support of my efforts and I was honored to work with such an inspiring SCASFAA Board. Below is my year end report of our very busy and exciting year!

God Bless,

Allison Sullivan
SCASFAA President 2011-2012

                   SCASFAA – Celebrating 45 Years - A Full Court Press to Excellence!!                            
The SCASFAA Board members are as follows:
President:                                           Allison Sullivan
President Elect:                                 Sarah Dowd 
Vice President:                                  Donna Quick
Secretary:                                           Katie Harrison
Treasurer:                                           Missy Lutz
Treasurer- Elect:                               Violette Hunter
Member-at-Large:                            Kevin Perry
Past  Past President :)                      Fred Hardin
Consumer Relations:                       Carol Parker
Counselor Relations:                       Rosalind Stevenson
Diversity:                                           Tamy Garofano
Communications Committee:       Ken Bernard and Kevin Delp
Legislative Relations:                      Ken Cole
Program:                                           Jennifer Williams and Ellen Chiles
SCASFAA Advisory to CHE:            Donna Quick
Site Selection:                                  Sandra Rhyne
Sponsorship:                                    Allison Sullivan

We completed our goals this year to transition the Electronics Committee into the Communications Committee thanks to Co Chairs Ken Bernard and Kevin Delp to encompass our newly formed Blog the SCASFAA Scoop and it also includes the SCASFAA Facebook page. The Communications Committee also transitioned our website from ATAC to Wild Apricot saving our Association over $4,000 a year!

South Carolina was proud to host the SASFAA New Aid Officers Workshop this year at Clemson University and it was a great success!!

Our Annual SCASFAA Conference was held April 1-4, 2012 at the Embassy Suites in North Charleston with a basketball theme ‘SCASFAA - A Full Court Press to Excellence’. 
We had 129 in attendance including 11 vendors and it was a great success due to the hard work of our Conference Committee and Co Chairs Jennifer Williams and Ellen Chiles!  The Board gave away 2 - Half Off Conference Fee prizes to members who signed up within a certain time frame - this helped increase membership to over 400 members this year which is a big increase from the past few years thanks to Membership Committe and Chair Kevin Perry!
The SCASFAA Conference included sessions from NASFAA trainer Eunice Powell, Federal trainers David Bartnicki and Wood Mason, Greg Peoples from the Office of the Inspector General brought to us by the Diversity Committe and Chair Tamy Garofano as well as our SASFAA President Brad Barnett. Also present was our own Jeff Dennis SASFAA President Elect and Nancy Garmroth SASFAA Treasurer. NASFAA President Justin Draeger gave us a NASFAA/Washington update via Skype!
SCASFAA raised over $2,000 at the conference for our charity The Navy Seals Foundation through our silent auction and raffle of a basketball arcade game.
We awarded the following SCASFAA Awards at the conference:
Emerging Leader Award - Ms. Donna Quick
Individuals nominated for the SCASFAA Emerging Leader Award shall be practicing student financial aid professionals who are current members of the South Carolina Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and who have made outstanding contributions to SCASFAA through their leadership and/or involvement in the Association and who have been members of SCASFAA for not more than seven years. Currently elected officers of the Association can be nominated for this award.
Achiever Award – Mr. Jeff Dennis
Individuals nominated for the SCASFAA Achiever Award shall be practicing student financial aid professionals who are current members of the South Carolina Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and who have made outstanding contributions to SCASFAA through their leadership and/or involvement in the Association and who have been members of SCASFAA for more than seven years, but no longer than 25 years. Currently elected officers of the Association can be nominated for this award.
Fearless 9 Award - Ms. Elizabeth Milam
Individuals nominated for the Fearless Nine Service to SCASFAA Award shall be practicing student financial aid professionals who are current members of the South Carolina Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and who have made outstanding, significant, and meritorious contributions to SCASFAA through their leadership, activities, and/or research in financial aid over an extended period of professional involvement, not a single event or activity. Current Elected Officers of the Association cannot be nominated for this award.

Distinguished Service Award:
Individuals nominated for the Distinguished Service Award shall have made outstanding, significant, and meritorious contributions to the advancement of student financial aid. They shall not be current members of SCASFAA.
The SCASFAA Board has chosen 2 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award this year.
Mr. John Courson, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Chair of the subcommittee on higher education (part of the senate finance committee).
Representative Mr.Chip Limehouse, 1st vice-chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, and Chair of the W&M subcommittee on higher education.

Both of these legislators have been champions of higher education funding, including merit and need-based aid for students, even during the past few years as other areas have been cut drastically.  They have been instrumental in maintaining funding for student aid in our state.

SCASFAA’s "Better Half" award:
Ms.Christy Bartnicki – Federal Trainer David Bartnicki’s wife and the inscription on the crystal plate stated “Behind Every Good Man Is A Great Woman”.
RETIREES:
The Jerseys we will be retiring at our SCASFAA Conference this year included Mr.Bill Whitlock - Tri County Technical College, Ms.Toni Cave - SC Tuition Grants Commission, Mr. Glenn Shumpert - USC Aiken, Mr. Chris Baker - Bob Jones University and Ms. Arlene Mathis - Central Carolina Technical College – surprisingly none of them are in attendance at the conference this year I am sure they are busy with other things that retired people do whatever that is maybe gardening, hunting and playing golf J - along with their shirts they received a certificate of appreciation for their excellent service to SCASFAA.
25 YEARS OF SERVICE:
We had one person who has been a member of SCASFAA for 25 years and that was Mr. Keith Reeves. He was awarded a certificate and a 25 year pin. Unfortunatley he was not able to attend the conference this year and told me that this is only his 2nd SCASFAA he has ever missed and regretted not being able to be there.
LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP:
The SCASFAA Board awarded Lifetime memberships to Mr.Bill Whitlock - Tri County Technical College and Mr. Glenn Shumpert - USC Aiken both these retired gentleman have served SCASFAA in a variety of capacities and are mentors to many!
HONORARY MEMBERSHIP:
The SCASFAA Board awarded Mr. Kim Jenerette with a Honorary Membership this year - Kim has served SCASFAA for 20 years and is moving to Ohio but will always be a part of SCASFAA!

SCASFAA awarded 2 scholarships to those members institutions that were drawn from a list of those who served and volunteered on committees this year the winners were:
Ms. Jennifer Williams – Diversity Committee member – Clemson University $1000 SCASFAA Scholarship goes to a student of their choice.
Ms.Allison Sullivan – Diversity Committee member – USC Upstate $1000 SCASFAA Scholarship goes to a student of their choice.

SCASFAA New Aid Officers Workshop was held November 9th 2011 at Columbia College thanks to our new SCASFAA Vice President Donna Quick with 27 in attendance and the NASFAA Core materials were used for training. We are planning on having more training workshops and webinars throughout the year.

SCASFAA Fall Updates were offered to SCASFAA members this year via WEBX our Federal Update was presented by Federal Trainer Michael Roberts and our State Update was presented by the SC Commission on Higher Education.

South Carolina hosted College Goal SC  with help from Consumer Relations Committee Chair Carol Parker February 18th2012 at over 10 institutions across the state helping hundreds of parents and students complete the FAFSA!

Training for Counselors and Mentors (T4CM) was also held in February thanks to Counselor Relations Committee Chair Rosalind Stevenson. SCASFAA members trained High School counselors across our state on Financial Aid and we also sent out the FACE the FACTS newsletter to them. 

March Madness webinars were offered to SCASFAA members via a March Madness Calendar:
Department of Education Business Officer Q & A Webinar discussion on March 6th 2012.
COD Training and Direct Loan Update March 8th 2012.
Fundamentals of Title IV Administration Training Workshop March 19th 2012.
R2T4 and the Treatment of Modules March 21st 2012.


The results of our SCASFAA ELECTIONS for the 2012-2013 year were brought to you by the Elections Committe and Past Past President Fred Hardin  - the results are as follows:

President Elect - Katie Harrison - SC Tuition Grants Commission

Vice President - Missy Lutz - Piedmont Technical College

Secretary - Ellen Chiles - Greenville Technical College

Treasurer - Deborah Williams - Piedmont Technical College

Member at Large - Alicia Hugee – USC Aiken

Other 2012 SCASFAA events:
SCASFAA Leadership training was offered by VP Donna Quick this year on May 31st, 2012 and the hot topic on the agenda was Satisfactory Academic Progress.
SCASFAA transitional  Board meeting was June 4th-5th, 2012 and the 12-13 SCASFAA President Sarah Dowd took over the helm with the ceremonial passing of the gavel! The SCASFAA Conference next year will be held in Greenville SC April 7-10th 2013.

Submitted by:
Allison Sullivan
SCASFAA President 2011-2012

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