CASFAA 2005 High School Relations Committee
Last updated: July 6, 2005

MEETING MINUTES (Final Version)

Committee meeting on TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 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 2: For the projects we are working on in 2005: More information for all our projects is located on additional individual web pages dedicated to each project. There are links provided below (under the "Discussion on our projects" section) that will take you to the appropriate web page. Links to all our projects are also on the main web page.

MEMBERS ATTENDING TODAY'S MEETING

• Alisha Archibald, University of Redlands
• Sarah Coleman, Comerica CollEDGE loans
• Cheryl Foster, Azusa Pacific University
• David Levy, CalTech
• 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
• Kim Tillman, Citibank
   

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 may have one more meeting (after our August in-person meeting) using both the teleconference and videoconference features in order to review the presentations for the High School Counselor Workshops.

Also, Dennis announced that both he and Beryl will not be returning as co-chairs of the committee in 2006 due to other commitments and work.  If you are interested in leading the committee, give Dennis or Beryl a call.  There aren't any required items that need to be completed in 2005 for a new chair, but there are a few things you can start on for our spring projects, if time permits.

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 will email a list of viable dates in August to committee members to try and find the best date for the majority of 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.

DISCUSSION ON OUR REMAINING PROJECTS

High School Counselor Workshops
---SESSION TOPICS---
We discussed different session ideas the committee had from our past meetings.  Three ideas from previous meetings:  a "state issues" session about AB540, Chafee Grants, and Registered Domestic Partnerships; a session on understanding SAR comments; and a session on electronic GPA submission for the Cal Grant program.  David Levy also brought forth two topics to consider, based on information he gleaned from focus groups he's involved with: A session on tips to evaluating an Award Letter, and a session on helping families who don't qualify for need-based financial aid.  Two other topics discussed (but we'll save for consideration in 2006): a session on strategies to help families plan for financing a college education, and a session on financial literacy.

After discussing all the possibilities, we decided to create the following sessions:

• Tips for evaluating an Aid Award Letter, including the sub-topic of Stretching your Dollars.  We will try to utilize information available from FastWeb, the College Board and NASFAA in our presentation.
• Helping families who don't Qualify for Need-Based Financial Aid, including information for those with high incomes/high EFCs and students whose residency statuses make them ineligible for federal and state aid.  This session will also talk about the proper use of consultants.

So, the next step is for COMMITTEE MEMBERS to volunteer to help Beryl (who will head up this task) in creating the two presentations.  We have a short timeline, as we need to have them ready and as close to finalized before our August 4th committee meeting.  All members of the committee interested in this project should contact Beryl immediately.

---PRESENTERS---
We discussed the need for both new and returning speakers for the 14 sites across the state.  So far, Dennis (who will be coordinating the selection/placement of speakers this year) has heard from Cheryl, Frank, Anafe and Jack from the committee, and Susan Murphy for their willingness to present at the workshops this year.  Also, Dennis will be contacting Lynn Fox, who has presented at many previous workshops for us, to see if he is interested this year too.

If anyone is interested in presenting, please contact DENNIS to go over the expectations of our speakers.  Frank suggests that newcomers who are considering presenting should attend a session of moderate size like Bakersfield (where he presented in 2004) to see how the overall flow of the presentation works.  Cheryl has similar sentiments, as she says the high school counselors can be a different group to work with compared to financial aid personnel.

---BAG ITEMS, BAG STUFFING---
Dennis referred to the list of items we've stuffed into bags in prior years.  If there are items we want to add this year, please let Dennis and/or Beryl know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE as we will need to finalize the list and insure that we can obtain the items and ship them to our "stuffing" location (to be determined).

It appears that we currently have just about all the items want to include already on the list, but we will be looking to add something (either in the bag or in the reference section of the workbook) for CA Cash for College, some information on the Chaffee grant program (for foster youth), and possibly something on avoiding scholarship scams.

---TIMELINES---
Dennis went over some important dates:

• The week of July 18: All presentations need to be done and readied for review at our August committee meeting.
• The week of August 8: Wording of the agenda (including CFC) and accompanying explanatory paragraphs need to be finished and submitted.  The paragraphs go into printed items (including the agenda) so counselors can choose which afternoon session(s) to attend.
• September 12: The workbook must be finished and readied to print.
• Mid-September??? (guess at this time): All items that are going into the bags must be at our "stuffing" location.
• Early October???: Bags are stuffed and ready to go.
• The week of October 3: We'll do our Train the Trainers session through CCC Confer A/V conferencing.
• October 25: First workshop in California.

Because of the time span between our final in-person meeting (August 4) and the date the workbooks must be finished (September 12), we have a few weeks where we can still make adjustments to the presentations, the selecting of materials for the bag, and the selecting of reference items.  If needed, we will hold ONE MORE MEETING (using CCC Confer A/V conferencing) to go over the FINAL VERSIONS of any presentations we wanted to re-review, and discuss any open items.

---REFERENCE ITEMS---
We reviewed the list of reference items included in the back of the workbook, asking to see if we should add anything to the items listed.  David Levy forwarded links to some NASFAA materials regarding financial aid consultants and evaluating an award letter.  The items will be forwarded to Beryl so that her workgroup can figure out whether the items can be incorporated into the presentations we are creating and into the workbook reference section.  Also, a link to the College Board website section for helping parents will be reviewed for possible ideas.

It was asked if it was possible to have a draft version of the FAFSA bound into the back of the workbook (in addition to the loose copy that is included with the workbook).  Depending upon timing, we'll see if we can do it this year.  The reason for a bound copy would be so counselors (who tend to refer back to the workbook throughout the year) would always have a copy to look at.  The reason for the loose copy (which we've supplied in previous years) is for ease of handling when presenting the afternoon sessions on the FAFSA.

Any other ideas should be forwarded to Dennis and/or Beryl AS SOON AS POSSIBLE for possible inclusion in the workbook or for creating our two new presentations.

Fund Development update
Dennis indicated that we have now 3 lenders who are providing for support of our committee.  So far Sallie Mae (most likely through the Sallie Mae Fund as in 2004) and Citibank have indicated they will supply a printed and premium item for the bags.  Also, Ray and SunTrust have indicated that they will provide the funding for the snacks this year.  (After the meeting, Dennis was informed that Comerica CollEDGE loans will also participate in the printed and premium item for the bags).

We would like to have 5 lenders participate in the bag item portion of our Fund Development project (which will raise a total of $5500 towards our committee's expenses), so other lenders or organizations that would like to get involved should contact Dennis right away.

Dennis and Beryl will take time in late July and early August to review the printed materials supplied for the bags to insure they meet the requirements we set forth in our project description statement approved by the CASFAA Executive Council.

Financial Aid Night Network (FANN)
Dennis indicated that he had received emails and calls from a number of committee members interested in working on this project.  He will be contacting these members to schedule a planning meeting for the end of July.  We will probably meet using CCC Confer, unless everyone is in the same geographic area and can make an in-person meeting.

If you are still interested in working on this project, but have not contacted Dennis, do so NOW!

Sponsoring a session(s) at the CASFAA annual conference (commitment to professional development of membership volunteers)
We had two ideas put forth for sessions:

• Cheryl suggested doing a "FAFSA Line-by-Line" presentation.  She's done one before the CCCSFAAA conference, but she and most other committee members could not remember if they've ever done this session topic at the CASFAA conference.
• Pat suggested a session on "issues of research regarding financial aid and college access," as she knows there are two people (Dr William Tierney, Director of the Research Institute: Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at USC; Dr Harry Pachon, President of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute) who have done combined research on a similar topic.  Pat will contact the two to see if they have something that we could put forth as a session.

Dennis will contact Toni DuBois (she's the conference chair this year) to find out what we need to do to submit our ideas for sessions.

MISCELLANEOUS
Dennis asked Cheryl if she would like to submit an article for the upcoming July/August issue of the CASFAA Newsletter.  As the deadline date has been moved up to July 1st, Cheryl wasn't sure if she would have one ready before she left for the NASFAA conference.  Also, Dennis will try to submit an article on the committee's work.