Reflections
By Linda Gonzalez-Hensgen, TASFAA President

Looking at Marcus’s message to you at this same time last year, he mentioned the changing fuel prices and a war that lasted 3 weeks. Well, I never thought I would see the price of gas today be almost $2.00 and that the “short” war would still be going on. For some reason, this years Memorial Day commemorations and celebrations meant more to me than ever. I think that, as unfortunate as war is, it has helped me better understand how lucky we are to live in this country.

It is a busy time for most of us in our offices and TASFAA has also been busy…..

At the last meeting, the work of the Financial Aid Steering Committee was presented to us in the form of a draft report. It was amazing to see all of our discussions put in a format. I have to commend Jane Caldwell for putting it all together.

During our last board meeting, we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with the attendees of the New Aid Officers Workshop. It was a great opportunity for that group to meet the Board but it also was very uplifting for me to see all of that energy in one place. I want to commend Rick Renshaw and his committee for a great job. NAOW is one our most visible endeavors so it is always important that we do a good job with it.

Richard Silva and the Nominations Committee have solicited candidates for this year’s election of officers. We are still in need of candidates for our Treasurer Elect position. It will be very difficult to replace Patrick, but this position would provide someone with an awesome experience.

Arnold Trejo and the Conference planning committee are hard at work on our Fall Conference in Corpus Christi, October 6 – 8, 2004. I hope all of you have seen his announcement on the listserv. The theme “Changing Tides, Changing Lives” is great and truly does reflect what our profession does…change the lives of those we help. I encourage any of you interested in submitting a proposal for a session to do so. Arnold and I are especially looking for things as Best Practices, Processing and Technology Innovations and Enrollment Management. I have no doubt that this will be the best ever program.

At the May meeting the board also voted to move forward with a possible change to our Constitution and By-laws that would allow for our Associate members to be represented on our TASFAA Board. Many of us feel that this change is long in coming. Our Associate members are an important component of our association. They provide not only financial sponsorship, but many are very involved as committee members and chairs. Allowing them to have representation on the Board will provide us with input from all constituents. We will be seeking comments from the membership through the listserv and hope to get a vote in time for our fall conference.

TASFAA is only as good as those who are willing to be involved. Pat Jost recently put out a “call for volunteers”. I encourage all those that are interested to submit a Volunteer form. All of you in a supervisory position, please encourage someone in your office to volunteer if you are not able to do so yourself. This is a great opportunity to help your staff grow professionally and personally.

Hope everyone survives the long hot summer!! Again, thank all of you for giving me this opportunity.