Board Meeting Minutes - September 2011 (updated)
by Lani Swanson
November 02, 2011
NeASFAA September 16th, 2011 Minutes
Present: Peggy Tvrdy, Terri Graham, Mark Krings, Kay Dinkelman, Hylee Asche, Wendy Olson, Mary Jo Smith, Tom Ochsner, LeAnn Hoffman, Lisa Gdowski, Jodi VandenBerge, Rose Ohlsen, Matt Petr, Ritchie Morrow, Brien Alley, Beth Sisk and Matt Johnson
Meeting called to order at 9:35 by President Peggy Tvrdy.
The Agenda was presented. Terri Graham moved to approve the agenda and Kay Dinkelman seconded the motion. The motion carried.
The minutes from the June 17th meeting were presented. Some small corrections were presented for updating. Tom Ochsner moved to approve the minutes with the corrections. Matt Petr seconded the minutes. The motion carried.
Minutes from the Special Ballot Initiative addressing the definition of the NeASFAA Membership were presented. Other than a correction to a misspelling there were no changes. Tom moved to have the minutes approved. Terri seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Officer Reports
President: A written report was submitted. The highlights of the report include Peggy’s attendance at NASFAA. She stated that this was a great and exciting conference. She reported that the conference had a good mix of presenters from the Department of Ed. along with other financial aid professionals.
She also reported that NASFAA has selected NeASFAA to be one of the training locations for our spring conference. Eileen Welsh from NASFAA will present. Because we were selected, we discussed the possibility of inviting some of the surrounding state associations to our
conference. Peggy stated that she would email the presidents of the closest states including: Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas.
Past President: Terri reported verbally that Jessica Mohon will attend RMASFAA in her place.
President Elect: No Report
Treasurer: She reports that 22 members have paid their membership.
She also states that she is looking to see if there are any ways that we might be able to better invest our reserves. There are a few CD’s that are maturing in September and October and is checking to see if by combining some of them we might get a little better rate.
Secretary: No Report.
Sector Representative Reports
Private Career: No Report
Two-year Public: No Written Report
Four-year Private: A written report was submitted. The sector email Brien back asking about upcoming training opportunities. The respondents asked that we consider training on the new verification rules perhaps even before the spring conference. The second respondent asked that we do some training on the new rules about repeat coursework, requesting that the topic cover developing policy on how to manage this.
Four-Year Public: No written report. Matt reported that he contacted the sector for topics/issues and he received on responses.
Associate: A written report was submitted. Laura Schultz – Wells Fargo, asked if there was a
policy regarding associate members advertising on the list serve. She saw a training advertisement posted to the list serve.
This prompted a discussion about what our policy is or should be. Wendy Olson will be researching this and will report back. She will be looking into what other associations’ policies are to see how other associations treat advertisements on list serves. This research should include what is alowable with regard to products, training, etc.
Committee Reports
Association Governance: No written report. Terri reports that she will be charging each of
the members of the committee to read a section of the policies, procedures and bylaws. She will have them focus on watching for language that might affect membership issues especially in light of the new membership structure and electronic processes.
Awards: A written report was submitted. Erin reports that she has received some birth announcements and to continue to report them as we learn of them. She also asked about the conference theme and whether there might be interest in another photo contest.
Communications:
A written report was submitted. The report brings up several points addressing the challenges of getting a newsletter up and running in way that is manageable and sustainable. Wendy’s requested that the board give her direction on how best to do this so that the membership would find this relevant and interesting. The committee and the board agree that some form of a newsletter
would be an asset to the NeASFAA community if we can formulate how to put together the right information at the right time in the right format. The board feels that a newsletter would be a way to help build relationships in the NeASFAA community. Wendy will be soliciting from the membership to help answer some of these questions.
We also discussed what sort of policy and permissions we should have for the publishing of photos on the website, facebook page, etc. This was left for further discussion and perhaps taking the discussion to the full membership.
Corporate Development: No written report. Mary Jo stated that she will contact Misten Thompson to see if the committee can do anything for the Support Staff Workshop.
Finance and Audit: Written report provided. The audit was completed July 27th. The audit did not have any findings and commended Kay Dinkelman for doing an excellent job.
Membership: Written report was submitted. The report outlines several updates to the membership.
Communications asks that once Jessica has the membership roster finalized that this is forwarded to them so that the web may be updated.
Nominations and Elections: No written report. Tom reports that he will be contacting the membership for nominations soon.
PDC: Written report submitted. PDC asked if the leftover NeASFAA bags could be used for the support staff workshop. The board supported this use of the leftover bags.
Based on the feedback the board has received, PDC will proceed with organizing a fall Workshop. PDC will be working on the location, cost and format for the training.
RMASFAA 2012: No written Report. The theme for the conference has been decided. A logo for
the conference is being developed. Speakers are being lined up.
Old Business
The bylaws update to the definition of membership change was briefly discussed. The motion for this change had passed. Terri will be updating the bylaws accordingly.
Looking at the reserve policy was discussed at the last meeting. Terri will be looking at other organizations’ policies to see if there are any policies that might make sense for us to adopt.
Kay Dinkelman discovered that the April 3rd, 2011 minutes had not been approved. Copies of these minutes were provided to the board. No corrections or updates were noted. Matt Johnson moved to approve the minutes. Kay Dinkelman seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
At the last board meeting there was discussion about adding the role of parliamentarian to someone on the board. The discussion led us to the conclusion that it might be best to have the president elect fill this role and know Robert’s rules. This would help the president elect to have a better grasp of the rules when this person assumes the presidency. The president elect would also be equipped to help the president when there are procedural questions during meetings
Terri Graham moved to – Add the duties of Parliamentarian to the President Elect in the Policies and Procedures manual. Matt Petr seconded. In the ensuing discussion Matt Johnson offered the following amendment: The role of the parliamentarian is to read and know Roberts Rules and to assist the President in Board and Business meetings to help ensure meetings are run in an orderly fashion according to these rules. Discussion followed on the amendment. Terri accepted the amendment so that the motion now reads: Add the duties of Parliamentarian to the President Elect in the Policies and Procedures manual. The role of the parliamentarian is to read and know Roberts rules and to assist the President in Board and Business meetings to help ensure meetings are run in an orderly fashion according to Roberts Rules. Matt Petr seconded the motion. The motion carried.
New Business
Shareen Thewke contacted Peggy about her change of position to the University of Nebraska Central Administration. She asked about her continued membership and how this would be classified. The board’s direction was that she needs to apply for membership to open this discussion.
Kay Dinkelman found an error in the budget calculation for the 2011/2012 budget. In the income section of the budget it was found that the reserve line item was not correct based on estimated membership income. It was listed as $5,035 when in fact it should have been $6,535. This makes the income total $28,640. The leadership Conference total should be $3,000 for two persons attending and a line item for PDC was added for $75 in meeting expense when planning the Spring Conference since this often takes full days. Matt Petr moved to approve these corrections and updates. Kay Dinkelman seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Adjournment: Tom Oschner moved to adjourn. The meeting was adjourned.
