CASFAA 2005 High School
Relations Committee
Last updated:
June 24, 2005
MEETING MINUTES (Final Version)
Committee meeting on WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2005
About the minutes of our committee meeting...
NOTE 1: 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.
| Quick links to information below:
Members attending today's meeting Update on California Cash for College Discussion on our remaining projects |
MEMBERS ATTENDING TODAY'S
MEETING
Alisha Archibald, University of Redlands
Sarah Coleman, Comerica CollEDGE loans
Cindy Contreras, EdFund
Despina Costopoulos, CSAC/CA Cash for College - committee affiliate
Ellen Cunningham, The Education Financing Foundation of California
Cheryl Foster, Azusa Pacific University
Donna Huber, AES
Alfredo Perez, EdFund
Frank Ramirez, CSU Bakersfield
Anafe Robinson, LA Mission College
Pat Robles-Friebert, Sallie Mae
Dennis Schroeder, Glendale Community College CO-CHAIR
Karen Shepherd, Financial Aid Advisory Services
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
Today's meeting is being run on the CCC Confer teleconference
service, paid for by a grant from the
California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. We will
have at least one more meeting using the teleconference feature of
CCC Confer. We will probably have at least one meeting using
both the teleconference and videoconference features in order to
review the presentations for the High School Counselor Workshops.
WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR JULY
MEETING DATE
Bryan pointed out to me (in a email prior to our meeting) that the
CASFAA Mini-Conferences will be held in SoCal the week of July
18-22, and the Los Angeles Mini-conference is being held on the same
day as our planned meeting. Because of this, we will need to
reschedule our next meeting (using the CCC Confer teleconference
service) for another date in June or July. The planned
AGENDA for this meeting
is already posted, so everyone has an idea of the topics we want to
cover at the meeting. Dennis and Beryl will come up with a
list of possible dates, then Dennis will email the committee to find
the best date for the most members.
WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR AUGUST
MEETING DATE
A number of
outside commitments of various committee members for our
August 10th meeting date will cause us to move this meeting also.
Dennis, Beryl, and Melissa (our meeting host at Orange Coast
College) will come up with a list of viable dates in August, then
Dennis will email the committee to try and find the best date for
the most members. The planned
AGENDA for this meeting is also posted to our website, so
you have an idea of what we'll be covering at the meeting.
UPDATES ON OUR SPRING PROJECTS
Dennis went over the status of our two springtime projects.
NACAC/WACAC College Fairs
First of all, Dennis and Beryl would like to thank all the members
of the committee, other CASFAA members, and all others who
volunteered to help answer students and parents questions at the
WACAC and NACAC spring college fairs. Dennis, as he visited
three of the SoCal fair sites and talked to various NACAC personnel
and high school counselors in the Counseling Centers, received only
positive remarks from all about our involvement. Also, through
our assistance at the fair sites, students and parents were able to
get their questions answered by trained professionals in the
financial aid field.
Dennis asked for commentary from committee members who attended the fairs throughout the state. Here are some of those comments:
Sarah Coleman attended the fair in Pasadena and commented that we "outshined the Department of Ed people." There were two representatives from USDE at the fair located at the far end of the table, but they were quite a bit more staid than us, as we had a livelier group in our section.
Karen Shepherd said that things worked well at the St Mary's site, even though there wasn't a financial aid sign or specified area. Also, there appeared to be little publicity to get people over to her to assist attendees with financial aid questions, but overall things worked out well.
Ellen Cunningham indicated that this was the 3rd year for Chela to sponsor and handle the San Francisco site. She indicated that Lindsey Schlauch (one of the two NACAC Fair Directors covering the California sites) was "fantastic" to work with. Also, Ellen indicated that they used the EdFund/CSAC "Credit for College" booklets at the San Francisco fair and they went over well.
Cindy Contreras said that about 3500 students and parents attended the fair at CSU Stanislaus. She went through quite a few of the Fund Your Future workbooks, and any extra that she had she left for the CSUS Financial Aid Office.
Donna indicated that the buttons seemed to draw some people in to ask questions. She suggested that we look at tabletop signs to help fairgoers locate us at the sometimes very long table of the Counseling Center.
It was suggested by some in the group and Dennis that we look at getting lanyards and nametags for volunteers, so parents and students can identify us. Also, lanyards would allow some of use to hang our "NEED MONEY" buttons from something other than our shirts (where the pinback can create a couple of holes in your clothes).
General commentary from the group showed appreciation for the buttons created and supplied by Donna Huber and AES. The buttons were very popular, with some fair attendees really wanting to take a button home. Dennis indicated that committee members can forward their extra buttons to him so that we can pass them on to the volunteers in 2006.
Dennis indicated that next year's committee chairs can look at creating signs for all the fairs that are fancier than the ones provided by fair sites (when available). This would include a hanging sign for the backdrop at the Counseling Center, and tabletop and tablefront signs.
Dennis also indicated that he and Beryl would be sending out "Thank You" letters to the WACAC and NACAC personnel we worked with in coordinating our efforts for the fairs this year.
Review of Fund Your
Future materials for CSAC and EdFund
Dennis and Beryl just wanted to thank all committee members who
helped in reviewing the Fund Your Future
materials produced by EdFund and CSAC. EdFund
has asked for input every year so that they can keep updating one of the best
series of publications for students and counselors available
anywhere.
UPDATE ON CALIFORNIA CASH FOR COLLEGE
Despina Costopoulos, Coordinator of CA Cash for College (CFC) joined our meeting
today to talk about the 2005 series of CFC workshops held throughout the state
from January through March, 2005.
Generally, the evaluation information from workshop attendees was positive and indicated the workshops were useful in helping them prepare their FAFSAs. Also, which is key to our committee and the information on CFC we inserted into the High School Counselor Workshop presentations, nearly one-half (46%) of respondents indicated they had heard about the workshop through their school counselor or teacher, which was an increase from the 13% of respondents who indicated this for the 2004 workshops. Despina said that we could certainly consider that the exposure given at the HS Counselor Workshops helped get the word out to counselors, career counselors and other outreach personnel at the high schools.
As discussed later in our meeting, Dennis anticipates that we will continue to provide CFC information in the 2005 HS Counselor Workshops to help spread the word about this resource. We'll be talking about this more at our next two meetings as we work to incorporate CFC into the presentation time at our workshops.
Cindy Contreras ask Despina if her (Cindy) workshops can be connected to CFC. Despina indicated that she would get the Central Valley regional coordinator's information to Cindy so that they can connect on this idea.
Despina also announced the ongoing Reality TV show that CFC created. The cashforcollege.tv website has information about this program, and it has shown in some markets throughout the state already. Despina also indicated the main californiacashforcollege.org website is going through some major updates right now, but continue to check back for new information.
DISCUSSION ON OUR REMAINING PROJECTS
High School
Counselor Workshops
---SESSION TOPICS---
We discussed different session ideas the committee had from our first meeting,
including the following:
It appears that we may be able to combine some of the topics together for an afternoon session. We discussed putting a session together with the following topics:
These could be put into session for TRACK B, the afternoon sessions aimed at continuing and experienced counselors and outreach personnel. We would continue to use TRACK A for a review of federal and state aid programs and a line-by-line review of the FAFSA.
In order to better narrow down what we will do for the afternoon sessions, Dennis will ask Beryl to have the evaluation information from the 2004 workshops available before our next committee meeting. This way we can see how well our sessions on "finding scholarships" and "presenting a financial aid event" fared with the attendees.
Some of the topics listed are already incorporated in the morning session, including information on SARs, when to file, what happens next, and information about electronic filing of the FAFSA and Cal Grant GPA information.
I anticipate that we will continue to put aside time in the morning to have a small presentation on CA Cash For College, which we will work out the details with Despina over the next two meetings.
---PRESENTERS---
We briefly discussed the need to find
qualified presenters for the workshops from within our committee and from the
CASFAA membership. Cheryl indicated that the workshops in the northern
part of the state (excluding Sacramento due to its size now) tend to be more laid
back than some of the southern sites. For example, San Bernardino (Inland
Empire area) tends to bring out a harsher group of counselors who have deeper or
more probing questions for our presenters. So, for a less experienced
presenter, they may want to consider starting with a smaller site before taking
on a larger or more boisterous crowd.
Frank said that it really helped that he already knew a lot of people when he presented in Bakersfield. For committee members who want to present at the workshops but have not done one before, Frank and Cheryl both recommend that you sit in on a future HS Counselor Workshop presentation to get a feel for the vibe of the audience. High School counselors are quite different from our financial aid colleagues, so it takes some different skills to get through the presentations and answer their questions. Although the experience can be challenging, we always receive high praise for the presentations and for the time we allow to answer questions and address our audiences' concerns.
For our next committee meeting, our plan of action on this project is:
Sponsoring a session(s) at the CASFAA
annual conference (commitment to
professional development of membership volunteers)
Last year our committee put
forth two ideas for sessions to be held a the annual CASFAA conference.
This year, we would like to have at least one session put forth from
the committee.
It was suggested that we present a session on "Promoting a Financial Aid Event," modeled partly on the presentation we used at last year's HS Counselor Workshops. It was also suggested that we have a session about fraud, but this topic may already be covered by the USDE's Office of Inspector General (OIG) who's covered this in the last few years in their own sessions. But we'll keep the idea out there in case we find out that CASFAA doesn't have the OIG coming to present this year.
For our next committee meeting, our plan of action on this project is:
Financial Aid Night Network (FANN)
We discussed the desire to have this project finally start this year
under our committee. A few members indicated that they would
be willing to work with Dennis on a sub-committee, looking at the
basic steps to take to make our dreams come true. The first
steps for FANN are:
Cheryl indicated that New York or New Jersey have a FANN-like operation, and that we (i.e. Dennis) has some information on this that he'll share with the sub-committee as we develop our FANN project.
Despina indicated that she would like to be involved with the project, as FANN and Cash for College have some similar aspects to their mission and goals. Ellen said that she would forward a WACAC Speakers Bureau brochure (used with Admissions Office personnel) as an example of a printed item our FANN project could look at producing in addition to the website.
BEFORE our next committee meeting, Dennis will take emails and calls from committee members interested in working on the FANN sub-committee. From this, the sub-committee will try to meet (probably by telephone) in June or early July, so that we can start on the steps to creating useful FANN materials.
This page was created on May 23, 2005