CASFAA 2005 High School Relations Committee
Last updated: August 25, 2005

MEETING MINUTES (Final Version)

Committee meeting on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 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

• Despina Costopoulos, CSAC/CA Cash for College - committee affiliate
• Ellen Cunningham, The Education Financing Foundation of California
• Bryan Dickason, California Student Aid Commission (CSAC)
• Cheryl Foster, Azusa Pacific University
• Donna Huber, AES
• David Levy, CalTech
• Nina Martinez, EdFund
• Melissa Moser, Orange Coast College
• Ray Parris, SunTrust Education Loans
• Alfredo Perez, EdFund
• Frank Ramirez, CSU Bakersfield
• Anafe Robinson, LA Mission College, our new CO-CHAIR as of August 2005
• 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 was held at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.  Thanks go out to Melissa Moser for securing us comfortable space in the Faculty House and for the breakfast munchies.

There are four announcements to make:

• Beryl Schantz of EdFund, has left the committee and her position as co-chair in order to pursue her new position as a Legislative Analyst with EdFund.  The committee wishes her the best in her new position and travels
• Nina Martinez of EdFund will be joining the committee to take over Beryl's EdFund-related duties.  She'll go through the slide shows and handle the final editing of all the presentations.
• Anafe Robinson will be the new co-chair of the HSRC for the remainder of 2005.
• Cheryl Foster has accepted a position as a trainer with EdFund.  She'll continue with the committee in her current capacity and will hopefully be presenting at a number of the HS Counselor Workshops.

DISCUSSION ON OUR REMAINING PROJECTS

High School Counselor Workshops
---PRESENTATIONS---
We reviewed most of the slide shows today.  We went through:

• >Morning Update presentation (aka "Federal Program and Application Process Changes for 2006-07")
• CA Cash for College (CCFC) presentation (presented by Despina Costopoulos from CCFC/CSAC)
• Afternoon Section A presentation (aka "Overview of Financial Aid Programs and Other Topics" and "FAFSA Review Line-By-Line" presentations)

David and Ellen suggested that we incorporate the CA Cash for College (CCFC) "FAFSA Line-By-Line" into the afternoon slide presentation.  The committee reviewed a portion of this presentation (thanks to David's handy dandy Flash Drive), and it was decided that we would do this if it can be done before our deadline for review and publishing.

Nina also had copies of the Cal Grant Update slides, but because we (the HS Relations Committee and CASFAA presenters) are not the ones presenting this portion of the workshop agenda, we did not take the time to go through this presentation.  If committee members have comments or suggestions for the presentation, please let Bryan know and he will pass this information on to Doris Keller (the CSAC person who is handling this presentation creation and editing).

Also, Nina had some slides that we will use for our two new afternoon  Section B presentations ("Tips on Evaluating an Offer of Financial Assistance" and "Helping Families Who Don't Qualify for Need Based Aid").  Unfortunately, we are a bit behind on the creation and editing of these two presentations due to the switchover from Beryl to Nina. Nina will head the creation of these two presentations, but as a last plea from Dennis and Anafe, ALL INTERESTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS should contact Nina IMMEDIATELY if you can help with this task.

---WORKSHOP AGENDA---
Dennis handed out a copy of the Workshop Agenda (MS Word document) that covers what we're presenting at the statewide workshops.  As a reminder, the "CASFAA presenters" (our committee members or other CASFAA people) present the "Federal Program and Application Process Changes for 2006-07" in the morning and the "Overview of Financial Aid Programs and Other Topics" and "FAFSA Review Line-By-Line" presentations in the afternoon.  The CSAC/EdFund presenter will handle the "Cal Grant Update" session in the morning and our two new presentations in the afternoon.  Despina is securing speakers from CCFC and others to handle the "California Cash for College" presentation.

The Workshop Agenda is also posted to the High School Counselor Workshops - Details webpage.

---PRESENTERS---
Dennis is working on this part of the project.  He has called and will be calling people who have indicated interest in presenting this year at the workshops. As people commit, he will post this information to the High School Counselor Workshops - Details webpage.  At this time, it appears that we are in very good shape and will be able to cover all the workshop sites.

---REGISTRATION TABLE VOLUNTEERS---
Anafe will be managing this part of the project.  Contact Anafe if you are interested in assisting at the workshop sites.  We usually need between 2-4 volunteers from 7:30am until approximately 9:30am.  This is the time period that most counselors will be arriving, checking in, and obtaining their bag of goodies and workbook.  Our volunteers will check-in attendees, hand out bags and workbooks, and direct traffic.  As CSAC is usually nearby holding their Cal Grant workshops, we need to sometimes screen arrivals to make sure they are attending the correct workshop.

Dennis will post this information (volunteers, presenters, etc.) to the High School Counselor Workshops - Details webpage.

---DUE DATES AND TIMELINES---
Here is the updated group of dates and deadlines we need to contend with:

• September 5: The workbook must be finished and readied to print.  This means we need to have all presentations reviewed and finalized by today.
• Late September: All items that are going into the bags must be at CSAC.  this includes items from our Fund Development project sponsors.
• Early and Mid 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.

Dennis, Anafe, and Nina will discuss the need for a final committee meeting using CCC Confer to review the finished slide presentations.  We would need to do this meeting before September 5.  So, as an alternative, we may consider just posting the presentations to the website and having committee members review the slides on their own time, then submit their comments directly to Nina for any needed finishing touches.

Fund Development update
Dennis indicated that we now have 4 lenders who will sponsor committee.  So far the Sallie Mae Fund, Citibank, and Comerica have indicated they will supply a printed and premium item for the bags.  Also, SunTrust will provide the snacks this year.  Also Donna Huber indicated that AES may also sponsor a bag insert item.  Dennis will keep in contact with the CASFAA Fund Development person to make sure we are on track with our little project.

Financial Aid Night Network (FANN)
Due to time constraints at the meeting and due to Dennis's busier-than-usual July, the first meeting of the FANN sub-committee has been bumped to a future date, To Be Determined.  Dennis will be working on this in August.

Sponsoring a session(s) at the CASFAA annual conference (commitment to professional development of membership volunteers)
We had two ideas put forth for sessions.  Dennis contacted Toni DuBois (she's the conference chair this year), who referred him to Samantha (one of the program committee co-chairs) who is working to find out if there is any open timeslots left in the conference schedule.  Dennis should know something in the next week or two.

MISCELLANEOUS
Dennis told the attending committee members that he won't be returning to the committee next year as a co-chair, so any interested parties should contact the current CASFAA President-Elect, Louise Jones (she works at UC Riverside).  Dennis will be passing along the nicely organized archives of the High School Relations Committee to the new chairs, which includes two beautiful carrying cases of committee papers, old workshop workbooks, and a CD copy of the committee website.