President's Message
March 24, 2004

Spring is here again and as most of our students prepare to wind down for the year, most of us are gearing up for awarding cycle and our peak processing time. The older I get the quicker these cycles seem to come around.

At the beginning of my term, I asked that the new TASFAA Board members be provided with a copy of the TASFAA Vision and Preferred Vision and the Communication Plan that the Public Relations Committee worked very hard to develop a couple of years ago.
As we progress, I think it is important that our entire membership be reminded of that and how I feel we are doing working in these areas:

Training and Education
TASFAA continues to provide opportunities to our members ensuring access to information and training. I hope that staff is encouraged to participate in the upcoming Regional Rallies. These offer a wonderful chance for those that may not normally attend our annual conference. Information concerning registration for the New Aid Officers Workshop in May is also available for all those “new comers” to our profession. This is a great opportunity to provide much needed knowledge as well as the all important networking. Those new to Financial Aid will quickly learn that networking becomes the most useful tool to have.

Technology
We continue to embrace technology. Although this is a wonderful tool to have, we also need to make sure that in changing from “snail mail” to electronic communications we have not missed something. This was very apparent in the recent attempts to update our membership. A robust web site offers the association great opportunities to communicate more information and to be able to do so often, however we need to make sure that we evaluate all policies and procedures to reflect this change over.

Outreach and Early Awareness
In addition to all the work that is done by our committee in this area, it is also time to recognize everything being done by all TASFAA members. Jim Lane is currently working on a mechanism by which we can access outreach/early awareness activities throughout the state. This would be great information to have for several reasons. As we work with the Financial Aid Steering committee, it has become even more obvious that we need to let our legislators know about all of the efforts that are being made by our TASFAA membership as an organization and as individuals.

Legislative
TASFAA has made a commitment to ensure our involvement in the legislative process impacting state and national financial aid programs. TASFAA’s Legislative Committee along with TG once again hosted a reception in Washington, D.C. for our Texas delegation. In addition, TASFAA is covering the expense for several of our members to be part of the mandated Financial Aid Steering committee. These members along with Coordinating Board Staff members and TG staff members has taken on a huge task for evaluating all financial aid programs throughout the state. The end product will be a report that will be submitted to the Legislature with recommendations that hopefully will be given serious consideration for future planning.

Partnerships
Lately, I have really learned to use the thesaurus tool on my computer. I found something very interesting today; words tied to Association - partnership, collaboration, and alliance. Those of us that have been involved in this profession for awhile understand the importance of partnering and networking and know that TASFAA could not survive without the support of our associate members .

Working on the Financial Aid Steering committee has made me even more aware that only by working together can we be successful in communicating the same message to those responsible for the state of financial aid and make a difference.

Our vision for Partnerships states “Partnerships provide a viable avenue for TASFAA to contribute to many valuable initiatives that serve our constituencies. Collaborative efforts with TG and ATLE provide a uniform form on matters of student lending and access to higher education. “ One way in which and strengthen our commitment to all those involved in the financial aid profession and, at the same time, increase our leadership skills is to support and participate in our partners’ activities. I strongly encourage as many of you as possible to attend the upcoming ATLE and TG conferences.

This TASFAA year is almost half over. I can't believe it. I also can not believe that I am actually now recognized by the staff at the El Paso Airport!!! I truly feel that we are doing many things to be proud of and I want to encourage each of you to be involved in some way.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,
Linda