CCCSFAAA TRAINING COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES

JANUARY 28, 2005

 

Present:          Craig Yamamoto, Tim Bonnel, Sandra Bollier, Francie Campbell, Marianna Deeken, Bryan Dickason, Karen Grumm, Rhonda Mohr, John Muskavitch (consultant)

 

Absent:            Shandel Roberts, Steve Arena

 

Organization Representatives:

 

CASFAA:                     Karen Grumm

Chancellor’s Office:    Tim Bonnel

CSAC:                         Bryan Dickason

Dept of Education:      Marianna Deeken

EDFUND:                    Rhonda Morh

USA Funds:                 Shandel Roberts

WASFAA:                    Francie Campbell

 

  1. Craig welcomed the group.  John will be a consultant and resource to the group and not a regular member.  One of the first tasks is to assemble a Master Calendar of known financial aid training from each organization (listed above).  Craig asked the representatives to send him the information, and he will assemble the Master Calendar and send it to the committee.  This will help us make sure our training plans do not interfere with others.

 

  1. Craig discussed plans to survey the field to get feedback on training needs, presenters, sites, etc. to help us determine our training plan.  Tim discussed a training survey tool at the Chancellor’s Office that can assist us. 

 

  1. Tim asked about how well conference calls and other on-line training has been.  Many stated problems with on-line training such as with CCC Confer:  it is difficult because of distractions, reluctance to ask questions, people do not sign in under identifiable user names, too difficult to “read” the audience (no facial expressions or body language).  The group felt it could be effective for short and focused topics, but not as a primary way to deliver training.

 

  1. The group gave good suggestions on the survey: make it as easy as possible by providing simple answers such as yes/no; send it out to many people, more than just directors, Craig plans to use CCCSFAAA website with emails to all registered members and CFAO-All listserv; Marianna to send ED survey info to Craig.  Craig suggested we complete the survey by email and to have it completed within 2 weeks (Feb 11), and Tim advised it would take a couple of days for him to complete the survey and send it out to the field.

 

  1. Craig asked John for advice on the Spring Flings.  The first crucial detail is to get the sites, and then everything else can follow.  Craig asked Sandra for help to locate a Southern location (previously at Cerritos).  John said the Northern site last year, San Joaquin Delta College, was a great location and had good comments and record attendance, and those from the Bay Area were driving against traffic, and Craig will follow up with Steve.  The Spring Flings are usually held during spring break to deal with parking and facilities issues, not all colleges have the same period for spring break, be careful some colleges are closed on Good Friday, and to be mindful for a Jewish holiday around the same time.  The staring time should be 9:00 or 9:15 and the ending time should be 3:00 or 3:15 to allow for travel.  The Federal update was scheduled last to encourage attendees to stay for the whole day.  Instead of the CSAC/EDFUND updates, Nate Smith from USA Funds did a customer service presentation and received good reviews.  There were 4 break outs in the North, and 3 in the South.  Allow about 1 ¼ hour for lunch.  Charge $25 for members and $30 for non-members to help with food and catering guarantees.  John will provide Craig info on the Vendors and Sponsors:  $250 booth space or $400 for both North and South; 1 sponsor for Breakfast; morning Break; afternoon Break; multiple sponsors for lunch; assigned by receipt of funds (first come concept); John said the Spring Flings made $15,000 profit (thanks, John, for setting the bar high for me to follow you).

 

  1.  John reported problems with registration (our new website was not up yet), and problems with payments.  Craig hoped the new website would help resolve some of this.  Big signs are needed to show Vendors and Sponsors contributions (sponsorship of breaks, lunch, etc.).  John urged Craig to get with Toni for list of vendors and sponsors and to get this out to them soon.  John advised to get working on Scholarship activies, and Craig will contact Scholarship chair, Kris Shear, for scholarship raffle tickets, and to JoAnn Bernard, Treasurer, for gift cards.

 

  1. Craig asked  Tim to review Training proposals:

 

    1. New Directors Training: past couple years only held once, but had been done twice: once in fall limited to new directors, and once in spring for others who may need a refresher or for CSSO’s or other staff.  Travel is covered by Chancellor’s Office, CCCSFAAA helps with dinner.
    2. Spring Flings
    3. Summer FAFSA workshops:  to be held in summer (or maybe late spring in order to partner with high schools before school ends); partner with icanaffordcollege.com and Cash for College, to help clarify message that it is not too late to apply for financial aid and counter the Cal Grant ads currently stating March 2nd is deadline, period.
    4. Statewide All Financial Aid Directors meeting:  invite partners, have a non-threatening discussion with what is going well, and what needs to be improved.
    5. Enrollment Management conference:  not the traditional enrollment management ideas, but rather, how to ensure student success once the students reach our colleges, Pat Hurley made the suggestion and has ideas.
    6. 1040 Workshops with Jim Briggs:  CASFAA sponsors these workshops, but Tim stated CCCSFAAA could sponsor follow up chat sessions via CCC Confer in order to answer specific and difficult situations.
    7. Student Ambassador Training program:  Craig has a successful Student Ambassador program (mainly because he could not hire permanent staff), and it would be targeted to student employees to cover how to help Student Ambassadors  complete BOGW and FAFSA, FERPA, compliance, etc. 
    8. MIS Data Workshops:  promote more participation and presentation with financial aid and technical staff understands MIS data and reporting, and the importance of submitting accurate data, in order to show success of BFAP augmentation funding.
    9. CCCSFAAA Annual Conference.
    10. Cal Grant Training.

 

  1. Rhonda advised EDFUND is working on a new training series in development, in late spring, targeted beginners for 2-3 days, based on NASFAA CORE, but not as intense as WASFAA Summer Institute, wants to partner with CCCSFAAA.

 

  1. Tim reported working on assembling a list of all CCC associations in order to partner with them and perhaps do some financial aid presentations, and this will take some time to do the research.

 

  1. John reported problems with data and MIS on his campus, and the need to do MIS and Financial aid training (see #7h).

 

  1. Craig asked for help to prepare budget requests.  John suggested $1000 for each event as a placeholder to cover coffee, donuts, etc, and that with help from vendors and sponsors and other partners, we would not necessarily use the entire amount.

 

  1. Craig wanted to set up the next meeting and subsequent meetings.  He proposed to set them up for the last Thursday of the month from 8:30 to 9:30, and we can reschedule the meetings if there are too many conflicts.  The next meeting is set for Thursday, February 24, 8:30 to 9:30.