CASFAA 2005 High School
Relations Committee
Last updated:
June 24, 2005
MEETING MINUTES (Final Version)
Committee meeting on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2005
About the minutes of our committee meeting...
NOTE 1: Some links below will open
in a new browser window. These have been marked with +++ after the link.
NOTE 2: Not all items below are listed in the exact order they were
discussed. We have taken the combined discussions on any given topic, regardless
of when it was discussed, and placed these in one spot in the minutes below.
NOTE 3: For the projects we will be working on in 2005: More information
on all our projects is located on additional individual web pages
dedicated to each project. There are links provided below (under the "2005
Committee Projects" section) that will take you to the appropriate web page.
Links to all our projects are also on the main web page.
WELCOME FROM THE COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
Beryl Schantz (EdFund) and Dennis Schroeder
(Glendale Community College/GCC) welcomed the attending members of the High
School Relations Committee (HSRC) to the first meeting of the year. This
year we have a number of new people on the committee, along with a large number of
returning members with many years of experience on the HSRC. We are a
little smaller than last years committee, as some members have moved on to other
CASFAA projects or new jobs. We will still have enough help
in working on all the projects we have this year.
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS (parking, food, restrooms, timetable, travel reimbursement)
Other than general items about the day's agenda and the GCC campus,
Dennis noted that a CASFAA Travel Reimbursement form (PDF
document) was in each member's
folder. This is the official form to use for reimbursement of travel costs
associated with today's meeting. Breakfast and lunch today was provided by
Pat
Hurley, Ed.D., Associate Dean of Financial Aid at GCC.
INTRODUCTION OF
2005 COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Dennis and Beryl asked that the attending committee
members introduce themselves to the group, as we have a lot of new people to the
committee. Below is a list of attending members:
A complete list of committee members is available at this link.
MEETING SCHEDULE FOR 2005
The HSRC in 2004 met five times (and an additional meeting with those who were
presenting at the High School Counselor Workshops) throughout the year. Considering that we have
just as much work to accomplish (if not more) this year, the committee drew up
the following schedule of meetings for 2005:
Additional information about our meetings is available at this link+++.
As we did last year, we will be holding some of our meetings by teleconference. This allows members who could not normally travel to far away meetings to join us in discussing our projects. Also, when it comes time to review the PowerPoint slide presentations for the HS counselor workshops, we can teleconference and view the presentations via the internet. More details on meetings and the teleconference/phone service we'll use will be available later.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2004 COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Our committee in 2004 won the CASFAA Committee of the Year award!
Dennis and Bryan (last year's co-chairs) gave congrats to all the members of
last year's committee that put so much time and effort into all our projects
COMMITTEE BUDGET
Our submitted budget (Excel
document) was approved by the CASFAA Executive Council. The major expense for the committee is the beverage service for the HS counselor workshops. This expense has been covered
by CASFAA in the past, as EdFund and CSAC (our co-sponsors) cover the other
expenses for the workshops (room reservations, materials, travel for some
presenters, and staffing). We have anticipated that the beverage
costs will rise based upon cost increases and because we will probably
have more people attending the workshops.
As part of our budget, we added two Fund Development proposals (also approved by the CASFAA Executive Council) to raise money to cover the cost of the granola bars and a portion of the beverage service costs. We'll talk more about this at our next meeting, as we look at what we want to offer sponsors for helping with these two fund development ideas.
SUMMARY OF
2004 COMMITTEE PROJECTS
Beryl, Dennis, and Bryan (committee
co-chair in 2004) went over the projects of the 2004 HSRC.
In summary:
2004 High School Counselor Workshops: Last year we had 2,075 high school counselors, outreach coordinators and other school personnel attend the statewide workshops. This was a 4% increase in attendance from 2003 (1,995 attended in 2003). Beryl supplied a printout of the numbers broken down by workshop site/location. This information is reprinted in the table below:
| Date | Location | Registered | Attended |
|
Northern California Region |
|||
| October 19 | Redding | 84 | 87 |
| October 20 | Rohnert Park | 122 | 85 |
| October 21 | Emeryville | 285 | 200 |
| October 22 | Sacramento | 330 | 255 |
| October 26 | San Luis Obispo | 78 | 72 |
| October 27 | Bakersfield | 82 | 70 |
| October 28 | Fresno | 186 | 132 |
| October 29 | San Jose | 228 | 176 |
|
Southern California Region |
|||
| November 2 | Universal City | 174 | 130 |
| November 3 | Ventura | 82 | 69 |
| November 4 | San Bernardino | 244 | 219 |
| November 16 | Long Beach | 272 | 177 |
| November 17 | Fullerton | 303 | 226 |
| November 18 | San Diego | 238 | 177 |
| Totals for California | 2708 | 2075 | |
Beryl indicated that the executive summary will be ready soon.
In 2004 we had over $5500 given by sponsors to help this project along. This group included: ALL Student Loans, Comerica CollEDGE Loans, Sallie Mae Fund, SunTrust Education Loans, and Southwest Student Services. This money helped allay some of the costs associated with the coffee we provide at the workshops
Also, we developed and presented two new information sessions in the afternoon portion of the workshops. We developed "Planning, Promoting and Conducting Financial Aid Events" and "Finding and Applying for Scholarships" as new sessions this year. Kudos go out to Bryan Dickason and Doris Keller at CSAC for getting these presentations started and providing their years of financial aid experience to the development of these great sessions.
NACAC/WACAC College Fairs: We had over 30 committee and another and CASFAA and CalSOAP members volunteer their time for the college fairs sponsored by the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the Western regional association. Our volunteers worked at the financial aid table in the Counseling Centers at the fairs, answering student and parent questions. Also, Bryan helped coordinate the shipping of CSAC materials to the volunteers or college fair locations. Some volunteers also assisted in moving extra materials from site to site, to insure that we were able to get the Fund Your Future materials into the hands of the high school students.
Review of CSAC and EdFund publications: As in years before, our committee members submitted their ideas and comments regarding the Fund Your Future materials published by CSAC and EdFund. This is an ongoing project that really helps in the continual improvement and refinement of the well-respected publications produced for our students and their parents.
FANN (Financial Aid Night Network): Although this project has been part of the HSRC list of items to work on, we were too busy in 2004 to get going on this one. But, 2005 is a new year andwe will get this project off the ground.
Professional Development: We sponsored two sessions to be presented at the annual CASFAA conference. A session on finding scholarships (developed by Bobby Grainger at Western Career College) was not presented due to some scheduling issues, but a session by Dr. Karen Myers about working with students with disabilities went off well with those who attended.
2005 COMMITTEE PROJECTS
Beryl and Dennis reviewed the projects the HSRC will be working on in 2005.
Our Committee Goals and Project Descriptions (MS
Word document) were submitted to the CASFAA Executive Committee along with
our proposed budget in January. This document outlined the projects we are
going to work on in 2005. Also, we were asked to submit a
Statement of Committee Purpose (MS
Word document), showing how the High School Relations Committee meetings the
goals and mission of CASFAA. From these documents, here are our projects:
Assist CSAC and EdFund in
review of publications
Our committee is involved in reviewing the Fund Your Future
materials produced by EdFund and CSAC. EdFund
has asked that our reviews be completed and comments forwarded to Christiana
Mullen of EdFund by March 31. Dennis sent an email out to the committee
members asking them to look over the material prior
to our meeting due to time constraints.
David Levy asked if EdFund and CSAC holds focus groups of students and parents to review the materials each year. Also, he asked if they were planning to develop an interactive version of the Fund Your Future materials for the web.
High School Counselor Workshops
As in years past, the main project of the HSRC is to co-sponsor the High
School Counselor Workshops presented in California by CASFAA, EdFund and CSAC.
Our committee is involved in many aspects of the workshops, including the
following tasks:
---TASKS---
Beryl discussed the tasks that EdFund performs, which include the development of a mailer to the counselors, maintaining a ListServ, creating the artwork for all materials, and scheduling the workshop locations. Bryan (CSAC) indicated that he provides an email contact point for counselors who request materials after the meeting or who have questions that went unanswered from the workshops.
Beryl brought along an example of the mailer that will be sent to high school counselors and outreach personnel. Also, Beryl showed an example book cover using the same artwork for the 2005 workshops. Dennis found an example of this artwork on the EdFund website. It looks a little like this:
---GENERAL---
We again discussed the possibility of changing
the name of the workshops, as we are attracting a larger number of
non-counselors to the workshops. These include foster youth workers, ILP
(Independent Living Program) personnel, Upward Bound staff, outreach
coordinators, private consultants, career counselors, and independent
counselors. No new names for the workshops were given, but this is an
ongoing discussion that we hope to find a solution to someday.
---MATERIALS---
Dennis showed some examples of past
booklets that all attending counselors receive the day of the workshop. Inside
the booklet are the printed versions of the PowerPoint presentations, reference
materials, and forms the counselors need regularly.
In addition to the booklet, we also hand out bags with other items to all the attendees. Last year we included the following items:
We will probably add some items for this year. It was suggested that we consider or review for consideration:
It was also suggested that our committee co-chairs (Dennis and Beryl) contact our vendors for example informational CDs or DVDs they have produced. This way we could determine if any of these items should be included in the bags for counselors. Also, it was suggested that consider the creation of an online library of material, possibly at the CASFAA website, where counselors could go to get materials, information, or contacts. This could also be part of our FANN project.
---SESSIONS---
The committee discussed the sessions
that we normally present, and suggested ideas for new sessions. A number
of ideas were suggested, including the following:
Someone suggested that we address in our sessions the types of students that we try to assist with financial aid:
A matrix could be created, with each grouping having specific information on how to assist these students in finding appropriate assistance.
Beryl asked that anyone who could send example Award Letters from their colleges to please do so (email to Beryl or Dennis, or mail to either of us). Someone asked if we could ask attendees "What topics do you want to see next year?" on the evaluation form.
Dennis suggested that we also look at creating large signs to put outside the meeting rooms for the workshops, utilizing the artwork used on the workbooks.
---CALENDAR
AND REGISTRATION---
Beryl passed out a tentative calendar of
dates and geographic areas for the workshops (document not available to post
to the website).
Here is a
summary of dates/areas for the 2005 workshops:
|
October 2005 Training Calendar |
||||||
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 23 | 24 | 25 Redding |
26 Santa Rosa |
27 East SF Bay |
28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
|
November 2005 Training Calendar |
||||||
| 1 Bakersfield |
2 Fresno |
3 South SF Bay |
4 Sacramento |
5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 Central Coast |
9 Ventura County |
10 San Gabriel Valley |
11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 Inland Empire |
16 South Bay LA |
17 Orange County |
18 San Diego |
19 |
It was also asked if the dates above conflict with any other training events put on for UC, CSU and independent college counselors. Also, we will need to confirm the date(s) of anticipated events in the fall, including the LA Mayor's Cash for College event. If anyone gets wind of dates for these types of events, let Dennis and Beryl know so that we can attempt to adjust the calendar to best accommodate our attendees.
CSAC mails information to a mailing list of high schools in the state, and Bryan includes an e-mail to a list of counselors. Other groups (AVID, CalSOAP, Mesa) receive the announcements. EdFund also maintains a listserv of high school counselors that's used for getting the word out about the workshops.
Beryl indicated that most people register through the website, but they also receive quite a few by fax and mail still.
Financial
Aid Night Network (FANN)
This is the year we really really really want to tackle this project. We
envision that this would be a web-based information center for high school
counselors and other related personnel to find qualified financial aid
presenters. Also, we could include
information and links to financial aid materials, presentations, and additional
contacts. Our committee's
charge is to create and maintain a FANN website and insure that proper
resources are made available to people accessing the website.
We discussed the need to set criteria for anyone who would be listed as a contact person through FANN. The example Volunteer Form (MS Word document) gives some good ideas for what we would need to look for in a volunteer. It was suggested that we try our best to determine the actual quality of the people looking to volunteer. This includes the listing of languages a person speaks AND is comfortable in using when doing a presentation. It was also suggested that we create training for presenters, possibly including a nomination or certification process to this for quality assurance.
Dennis and Beryl will create a sub-committee group in May/June to tackle this project. Anyone interested in working specifically on this project should let Dennis and Beryl know.
Ongoing commitment to
professional development of membership volunteers
In prior years we've been
able to offer a variety of professional development opportunities
for committee and CASFAA members through the work involved with the HS Counselor Workshops, NACAC/WACAC
college fairs and by sponsoring or presenting at the CASFAA Mini-Conferences and
/or CASFAA annual conference.
It was suggested that we consider presenting a session at the CASFAA annual conference. Ideas for the session included:
We will flesh out these ideas at one of our next meetings, as the deadline for submitting session proposals will not come until later from CASFAA. Also, we will have new opportunities for professional development if we get our FANN project off the ground this year.
Maintain a permanent CASFAA presence at the NACAC/WACAC College Fairs
The National Association for College
Admission Counseling (NACAC) and Western regional association (WACAC) hold
annual college fairs in April and May. Members of our committee and other CASFAA
volunteers will work at the Financial Aid table in the fair
Counseling Center. Our presence at the prior three years fairs has
greatly improved the quality of financial aid information at the fairs for
students and parents.
---GENERAL---
Donna has volunteered herself and AES to
produce buttons for all the volunteers. We will have "NEED MONEY?"
emblazoned on a green background for the buttons. She'll ship these out
before the fairs to key workers at each site.
Signs at the fairs are usually handled by the local fair coordinators. Dennis will try to ensure that our sites have at least a generic FINANCIAL AID sign posted in our area of the Counseling Center. Also, we can look at making special signs for the fairs next year, due to time constraints.
---DATES
AND
LOCATIONS---
This year, we would like
to have representatives at all the college fairs to answer financial aid
questions for students and parents. The
NACAC/WACAC Project page has all the information, to date, on
volunteers and our needs. If you see a spot you can fill in,
please email Dennis.
We would like to have at least 2 volunteers in each timeslot.
Ellen Cunningham iindicated that the San Francisco area fair is already set and stocked with volunteers from CCSF, USF, UCSF, and Chela. Also, our San Diego dates are being handled by EdFund volunteers.
--MATERIALS---
Materials needed for each of the
workshop should be secured by the people volunteering for the workshops.
We would like to use this year
the following items when possible:
We would like to use just the items listed above, so that we know that we are maintaining control over the type of information students will receive from us. This way, we avoid and controversies with NACAC and WACAC by maintaining a non-commercial status with our materials.
If you are volunteering at any of the sites and you have need extra 2005-2006 Fund Your Future materials, contact CSAC/EdFund as soon as possible for ordering items. Keep in mind that we do not normally ship materials to the actual fair sites, as handling costs at the convention centers are highly prohibitive. As we will probably have 2 or more people at each fair site, try to share the burden by having each person bring some materials, so that you'll have enough for your timeslot. Also, if you are working a morning session and there is a later session that day, feel free to leave excess material behind for the late session people.
CASFAA NEWSLETTER ARTICLES
A schedule of
deadlines and publishing dates for the CASFAA newsletter was included in the
agenda for the meeting.
As in past years, our committee has submitted two types of articles for
publication. One type is an update on our committee's activities and projects,
and the other is articles (usually penned by Cheryl Foster) on public
speaking and presentation styles. Dennis and Beryl will continue to submit
updates on our committee's projects and activities, and Cheryl will write some
articles for submission.
CASFAA Newsletter dates:
| Issue | Articles Due | Print Date |
| May/June | May 6 | June 3 |
| July/August | July 8 | August 5 |
| September/October | September 2 | September 30 |
| November/December | November 4 | December 2 |
This page was created on April 15, 2005