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President’s
Message Happy New Year! Welcome back for the spring of 2008. I am so excited about the possibilities for TASFAA during this year. We have seen significant change in our industry and guess what, that means change will continue. With that said, I would like to begin with a quote:
I think we can all relate to that quote! I have witnessed much flexibility over the past year within our TASFAA organization. As financial aid professionals, we experience change almost on a daily basis, so we are masters at being flexible. It’s inevitable that we will see some significant change in how we do business over the course of this next year. While we know new adventures are coming, it is also important for us to focus on the many TASFAA accomplishments during 2006-07. First, we had an awesome board led by my friend, Kathy Bassham. The board developed a comprehensive strategic plan and worked very hard to build programs and guide us through some stormy weather in our financial aid world. Next, we had more than 140 people volunteer to serve on committees during 2006-07. What a great accomplishment! It is great to have so many people getting involved in TASFAA. Volunteers served in many capacities. They trained more than 900 financial aid professionals through our training committees. How incredible is that! We are able to serve our students better because we are committed to learning as much as possible. Volunteers also helped to train high school counselors, many committee members kept us informed through newsletters, web communication, and databases that track the excellent work we do, and we have members that kept us abreast of legislative issues and also ensured that we are updating our policies and procedures and constitution and by-laws. Other members were committed to building our membership in TASFAA and people to serve in elected roles. We also had a fantastic Fall Conference in October. It is always good to come together to learn and celebrate! I think that we should be very proud to have so many people committed to serving each other, our students and the community at large. TASFAA Rocks! Now that we have celebrated our accomplishments over the past year, we must begin to focus on the future of TASFAA. With that in mind, we need to look at change strategically and remember that we are products of our own environment. That means we as an organization must make the commitment to change and look to the future. The TASFAA board worked diligently this past year to develop a strategic plan. The plan outlines three major initiatives for us to focus on so that we can fulfill our mission and reach our vision. Strategic Initiative #1: Financial Aid Education – We will do this by continuing to focus on training financial aid professionals as well as other partners that help us spread the word about financial aid opportunities for students. Strategic Initiative #2: TASFAA Infrastructure – We must build and secure our infrastructure by completing a disaster recovery plan, developing an investment policy and creating leadership programs for the organization. Strategic Initiative #3: TASFAA Fiscal Stability – So that we can continue to provide training and outreach, we must ensure we have a secure financial plan for the future. If we are going to become the leading authority on financial aid in Texas, we have to be able to support that vision financially. We will do this through increased communication to the TASFAA community and the development of contingency plans and an annual budget review process that looks at our accomplishments and programs throughout the year. This annual budget review process will provide the tools needed to make necessary change and to allow us to think more strategically about our future. Wow, that’s a lot to accomplish! Our strategic plan is a living, breathing document that will continue to change as TASFAA moves forward. I am excited about the possibilities and so proud to be part of such a great team of professionals. It is truly an honor to serve as the 2007-08 TASFAA President. I leave you with this famous quote as we move forward in TASFAA:
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