TASFAA Community Blog
2018 SASFAA Conference registration has been extended!
Hotel Cutoff New Date January 16th. Please take advantage of the conference room rate of $145 plus taxes / night. Click here to book your room TODAY
Open Registration will end January 16th. Take advantage of the conference rate of $275. Additional fees will be assessed to registrations on or after January 17th. Click here to register TODAY
Conference Sessions include . . .
See You in Alexandria, VA
SAVE THE DATE!
2018 TASFAA Conference & 50th Anniversary Celebration
April 22 – 25, 2018
Embassy Suites, Murfreesboro Tennessee
On behalf of the TASFAA Conference Committee, I would like to invite you to TASFAA’s 50th Anniversary Celebration in April 2018. We will send detailed conference information when registration opens in February. There will be more surprises and special guests than you can imagine! You don’t want to miss this event as we will be Honoring the Past and Building the Future!
In order to make this the best possible conference, we need your help with the following items:
Call for Sessions: This is your conference and we want to make sure we are providing sessions on the hottest topics that are impacting you. Please email any session recommendations to Leah Louallen at Leah.Louallen@tn.gov by January 10, 2018.
Former TASFAA Members: We are inviting all former TASFAA Members to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. We don’t want anyone to be left out! Please think of all of our friends who have retired or moved on to other careers or states and would want to join us. We will create a database of these friends to send direct conference communication. Please email Karen Hauser at K.Hauser@vanderbilt.edu with the name, mailing address, email address and/or phone number of our friends from years past.
Get these dates on your calendar so that you don’t miss out on this celebration! It wouldn’t be the same without you there!
Kind Regards,
Leah Louallen2017-18 Conference Chair
Check out this interesting read submitted by your TASFAA Diversity Committee 2017
Racism is Literally Bad for Your Health
Please check out our 2017 FALL Training page - we are having training in the West, Middle and Eastern part of the great state of Tennessee.
Choose your desired location and get "Bonafide"!
https://www.tasfaatn.com/fall-training-2017
Please remember the family and friends of Mary Hendrix. Mary was a former Financial Aid Director at Walters State Community College and a former TASFAA President. To view memorial information for Mary or to share a memory or message in the Guest Book, please visit http://www.elainehendrix.com/marymemorial.
Hope your summer and Fall registration has gone well! Is enrollment up? Did you have issues processing 399s? Well training is right around the corner. The TASFAA Fall Training Series will be held October 31 in the west, November 1 in the central state and November 2 in the east. Make sure you SAVE THE DATE for the date in your area.
We know that David Bartnicki will join us for a federal update but other sessions and exact locations have yet to be determined.
If you have any suggestions for topics – please email Lester McKenzie, TASFAA Training Chair at lmckenzie@tntech.edu.
Registration and lodging for the 2017 FSA Conference are now open! Visit http://fsaconferences.ed.gov/ to make your reservations today!
The 2016-2017 year is wrapping up at our institutions as well as in TASFAA. Our theme this year was Education is Key. I can attest to the fact that I gained an educational experience from my role in TASFAA this year! Serving as your association president has been a highlight in my career. I want to thank your board and committee chairs as well as all those who volunteered throughout the year. Your commitment and support of the mission and efforts of TASFAA makes us an outstanding organization. As I look back over the year I see that our mission was accomplished with great trainings and participation from our members.
This spring TASFAA sent advocacy letters to TN Senator Alexander and TN Congressman Roe with proposals to assist families in the FAFSA process as a result of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool issue. The good news is, TASFAA got to follow up by sending each of them thank you letters for the verification relief granted on April 24th! We will take relief any way we can get it!
Our annual conference was a huge success. A shout out of thanks goes to your conference planning committee! We had 272 registered attendees, 16 vendor/sponsor friends supporting us, 50 presenters, and 28 moderators. A great time was had by all - especially at BingoJ! Thank you for your generosity in giving to our conference sponsored charity, End Slavery TN. A check, in the amount of $1,656, was sent to ESTN on your behalf!
Transparency is critical for our success. As always, the recordings of association business are maintained on our TASFAA website. Feel free to stop by there and check it out. Speaking of success, TASFAA is seeking volunteers for the 2017-18 year. Charles Harper is in planning stages for the next year with a board transition meeting scheduled in July. Committees will be formed to implement fall trainings, hill visits, FAFSAA frenzies, and the annual conference.
I will be heading to the SASFAA transition meeting next week as one of my final duties. Marian Dill, who is the director of financial aid at Lee University and TASFAA past-president, has done an outstanding job as SASFAA President. I have thoroughly enjoyed serving on the SASFAA board under her leadership.
Again, I want to thank you for this opportunity to serve as your TASFAA president.
Karen
PS: Join TASFAA on Facebook!
TASFAA Governmental Relations
The following information was sent to SASFAA for the April State Legislative Update. It is being shared with the TASFAA members.
On March 6, some members of the TASFAA Board of Directors attended the higher education budget hearings held by the Tennessee House of Representatives’ Finance, Ways and Means Committee. Testimony was provided by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the University of Tennessee System, the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation supporting their budget requests for the 2017-2018 Fiscal Year.
Thirty-four legislative bills have been offered impacting various higher education related programs between the House of Representatives and the State Senate. TASFAA has begun to review the bills to determine if follow-up should be made related to the impact on postsecondary institutions and students. (These bills were sent to TASFAA members via email on March 31)
On March 29, TASFAA members Marian Dill, Ron Gambill and Dick Smelser participated in the SASFAA Hill Day visits in Washington D.C. They met with four Congressional members or staff and attended meetings with the Senate HELP Committee staff and staff of the House Education and Workforce Committee. A reauthorization white paper was discussed during the meetings. The trip was very successful.
Ron Gambill
Advocating on the Hill. What does that look like for TASFAA? Our organization has had the opportunity to participate in visits to the US Capital twice a year. Well, what about the State of Tennessee? We have a Hill! One of the TASFAA goals this year was to take your sector reps along with other board members and visit the Tennessee Senate and/or House Education Committee while they were in session. The motive was to show the committee our interest as an association and meet with our legislators to thank them for their efforts in funding state financial aid programs.
Tennessee is fortunate to have a governor who knows education is key to the livelihood of individuals and the overall health of our state. On Monday March 6 a small group of TASFAA board members visited a House Finance Budget Hearing. THEC\TSAC along with UT president Dr. DiPietro and TBR chancellor Dr. Tydings submitted comprehensive reports regarding the 2017-18 budget proposal. The hearing was informative and proved that Tennessee public higher education opportunities remain strong with attention on the future.
Speaking of future – have you registered for the TASFAA 2017 annual conference? There will be opportunities to network with colleagues, discuss relevant issues in open forum sessions, learn and reinforce knowledge regarding federal and state regulations and processes. You won’t want to miss our opening keynote speaker Sunday night. Mr. Bowman will ignite you with positive confirmation that what you do every day is key to making our world a better place. We will have guest speakers from the NCAA, FBI, US Department of Education, and leaders from within TASFAA providing professional and timely information. Don’t miss this opportunity!
Contact Us: administrator@tasfaatn.com