Index of Updates
February/March 2007
Beth Asmus
2007 CCCSFAAA President
It’s official. Karen’s past; Susan is past-past;
Craig is past-past-past; Rob was way back when; and, Toni served
as president a decade ago. I suddenly find myself with two jobs – serving
as your president and my regular day job as Dean, Special Programs
at College of the Canyons. Both posts are new to me. That equates
to lots of change. And CHANGE is what we financial aid professionals
thrive on! Right?
Congratulations to the 2006 Conference Co-Chairs John Muskavitch
and Toni DuBois and their hard-working Ontario conference committee.
CCCSFAAA hosted another outstanding conference, setting the bar
even higher for next year’s conference committee.
Be sure check out who we honored as CCCSFAAA
Award Winners at
the 2006 conference in Ontario. CCCSFAAA presented it first ever “Lifetime
Awards” to two life-long, very dedicated student financial
aid advocates. We count ourselves very fortunate and recognize
that our profession is full of talented, caring people who continuously
and passionately advocate for accessibility and affordability
for the community college students in the state of California.
CCCSFAAA is bringing one-day Spring
Training events to your
area soon. The Spring Training events offer prizes, presentations,
federal and state updates, interest sessions, great food and
professional networking. All this is in the works for you and
your staff and these events are dedicated completely to California
Community College financial aid programs and training. It’s
the best bargain around at $10 for CCCSFAAA members and $40 for
non-members. I’ll see you there!
Save The Dates – December 13, Thursday through December
15, Saturday for the 2007
CCCSFAAA Annual Conference. Conference
co-chairs Brad Hardison and Andi Schreibman promise an entertaining
and informative conference in the beautiful city by the bay -
San Francisco. Pssst! There have been rumors of a CCCSFAAA talent
show…..stay tuned and check the web page for updates.
CCCSFAAA welcomes Bryan Dickason serving as CSAC Liaison to
the executive board for 2007. Bryan is a long-time friend to
the community colleges, financial aid professionals and students
in the State. Also new to the executive board for 2007 is Donna
Huber who will serve as the California Lenders for Education
(CLFE) Liaison. CCCSFAAA’s other liaison appointments include
Maria Escobar, EOPS Liaison, and Tim Bonnel and Richard Quintana
from the California Community Colleges System Office. You can
check out all these dedicated volunteers on the “About
CCCSFAAA” web page.
You’d be amazed how many people it takes to keep our association
strong, informed and moving forward with a united voice of advocacy
on student financial aid issues affecting the 109 California
Community College’s students and financial aid programs.
Executive board members, regional representatives, liaisons,
committee chairs and appointees to state-wide committees and
workgroups. And, great news, there is always the room for one
more – YOU! CCCSFAAA is a volunteer organization. We are
only as strong as our volunteers. WE need your talent, abilities,
opinions and participation. Membership on a committee benefits
your colleagues, students and parents, and provides an opportunity
for personal and professional development. So go ahead, complete
the volunteer form located at www.cccsfaaa.org/docs/forms/memVolunteer.html.
Don’t hold back – raise your hand ….. volunteer!
Exciting things are happening in the Federal
Issues arena.
Two of our segment’s very own resident experts on all
things federal, Linda Michalowski (Vice Chancellor, CCC System
Office) and Patricia Hurley (Associate Dean Financial Aid,
Glendale College) have been appointed to serve on NegReg committees
convened on General Provisions and the new ACG/SMART programs,
respectively. CCCSFAAA will provide testimony at a federal
hearing at College of the Canyons on March 5th on the “Affordability
of Textbooks”.
Kris Shear (Santa Rosa Junior College) State
Issues committee
chair, and her crew, are busy planning a full day of legislative
advocacy in Sacramento for the Day at the Capitol event on Wednesday
March 28. Keep your eye on the web for breaking news. CCCSFAAA
will maintain a presence at future California Student Aid Commissioner
Meetings to provide a community college’s view on all things
Cal Grant, CASHEE, CHAFEE and IPA.
One of CCCSFAAA’s goals is to increase the number of members
who participate in work of the association during 2007. We also
want to forge a path for future leaders by providing opportunity
and training to volunteers within our ranks. One way to promote
this idea is to extend a standing invitation to any member who
desires to attend an executive board meeting and see “how” we
work. Three regional guests joined us at the San Diego meeting
in early February. Let me know if you’d like to join us
at a meeting. Here’s the remaining 2007 executive board
meetings dates and locations.
March 26 Sacramento
May 8 Riverside
July 26 Half Moon Bay
October 23 Bay Area (TBA)
CCCSFAAA has built a wonderful resource and tool for its members
on it’s website at www.cccsfaaa.org. CCCSFAAA is committed
to identifying and implementing new features to improve web services
for CCCSFAAA members. If you have an idea about how the website
can be improved or if you are looking for a challenging and rewarding
volunteer position as an apprentice webmaster, please contact
Dennis Schroeder (Glendale College) or me.
All the best,
Beth
Beth Asmus
CCCSFAAA President
