2005-06 WASFAA Committee Chair/Officer Year-End Report

2008-09 WASFAA Committee Chair/Officer Year-End Report

Committee Name/Officer: Federal Relations Committee

Committee Chair/Co-Chair/Officer (Name/Place of Employment/Address/Phone/Email):

Tami Sato – Co-Chair Southern CA College of Optometry Vicki Shipley – Co-Chair NCHELP

Committee Members (Name/Place of Employment – Please identify those new to the committee with an *)

Janet Cantelon - Seattle University* Tia Dunsmore – Bainbridge Graduate Institute* Pat Hurley – Glendale College

Goals:

1. Continue to increase the awareness of federal issues by providing timely information to the membership via the listserv and Newsletter.

2. Encourage advocacy of issues deemed important to the WASFAA members.

3. Review and respond when a consensus position can be reached on key bills, proposals and NPRM’s.

4. Develop and present a session on a current federal issue at the annual WASFAA conference.

5. Be a resource to the WASFAA membership on federal issues and to coordinate efforts with the other state associations that make up the WASFAA membership.

6. Work to increase the size and diversity of the membership on the committee.

Activities:

The 2008/09 year was once again a very active time for this profession and this committee. We continued to keep the membership current on the many pending federal issues which included reauthorization, negotiated rulemaking, the pending parent PLUS Auction and the President’s 2010 proposed budget. These efforts included the following:  Numerous and timely listserv announcements (close to 40) which members indicated they feel is an important WASFAA membership service  Newsletter articles were submitted for each issue with multiple articles written by our newest FRC members for the paper issue provided at the annual conference  Two training sessions have been developed on federal issues at the annual conference

1  We provided a chart to members on the number of students and amount of financial aid in the major student aid programs broken down by each WASFAA state and the WASFAA region in total  Two letters were sent to Congress to support WASFAA’s position: one on a request to delay the Parent PLUS Auction; and another regarding the administration’s budget proposal  We responded to questions posted to the listserv by WASFAA members  Copy of these letters were shared with membership with a listserv message along with a sample letter format in hopes they too would consider making their voice heard on these important issues. According to the results of the membership services survey 47% of responders have answered our call to action and contacted their congressional leaders.  The committee kept in contact during the year via email and conference calls. Two FRC members are involved in the Negotiated Rulemaking meetings and issues regarding the process were discussed at one of the conference calls.

Approved Budget Breakdown and Actual Expenditures to Date: The FRC has no budget and no expenditures

Progress Toward Strategic Plan Goals/Activities: 1. The results from the membership survey indicate that the membership values the information provided by this committee and it is our intention to continue to meet this WASFAA Strategic Plan Goal 2. We have provided the supporting information, letter templates and contact links so WASFAA members were encouraged to make some noise and advocate their input on how provisions and proposals would affect their students and school 3. We were successful in drafting two position letters this year that council approved and these we forwarded on to congressional leaders and the budget committee members. 4. Two sessions will be presented at the annual conference on current federal issues: “What Does Congress Do With All of Those Bills Anyway?” and “The Inside Track on Federal Loan Issues” 5. The 40+listserv messages sent provided timely and concise information about actions and developments in Washington DC. We have heard that some state presidents pass this information directly to their own state listserv. 6. We expanded the size of the FRC this year and they were very active members that participated in the conference call meetings and submitted articles to the WASFAA newsletter.

Suggestions for Committee Chair/Co-Chair or Officer Successor:  Review the newsletter and websites of the NASFAA, NACUBO, NCHELP, CBA, ACE, the Higher Education Chronicle, USA Funds, EdFund, etc. to extract important information that members should know about.  Keep messages short and concise. Try to summarize and use charts that break down long bills or documents. An example is the chart provided that listed the new school disclosures/reports required in the 1100 page HEOA. This is helpful for the many financial aid administrators that do not have time to read extensive documents.

2  In person meetings are not required for this committee and much can be done in a one hour conference call  Because position letters are usually time sensitive an electronic motion and vote is required between council meetings.  The time span between newsletter deadlines for article submission and the actual release of the newsletter to membership makes it difficult to include time sensitive information so general topics are more practical.

Calendar of events/deadlines needed to be met:  Quarterly reports must be developed and written before each quarterly council meeting  A year-end report must be written before the annual conference for the council meeting held the day before  Newsletter article submission deadline dates are available at the WASFAA calendar and sometimes a few days/week delay can be negotiated  Session title and description is required by the program chair of the Conference Committee a few months before the conference so a general description that can address the hot topic in April is recommended  PowerPoint handout and session presentation should be worked on a month before the annual conference