(by Julie Haack, MASFAA Executive Council State Representative for Iowa)
Fall is winding down here in Iowa and the weather is ramping
up! It’s feeling more like the holidays
every day!
We had a great fall conference this month here in my
hometown of Davenport! We welcomed 111
conference registrants to see What’s All the Buzz About? Fifteen of those 111
were newcomers to IASFAA! Our Program
committee did a great job of lining up interesting topics for our seasoned
veterans and some 101 topics for our newcomers.
We kicked off the conference with over 40 people attending
NASFAA training on Needs Analysis, presented by Tim Kremer from University of
Dubuque and Steve Loven from ICAN. They
provided a great history lesson for those who haven’t been around the block
yet, and great guidance into the world of Needs Analysis!
We welcomed a few special guests as well. We had Jesse O’Connell, a NASFAA Policy
Analyst who provided us with the NASFAA update.
Byron Scott, former Training Officer for the Department of Education,
provided his services on his last stop in his training role as he received a
promotion in October. We were very
grateful that he was able to keep his commitment to us! And our very own Aaron Steffens, current
MASFAA President, provided us with the MASFAA update and along with his “Happy”
crew, got people pumped up for MASFAA in Iowa in 2015!
We gave out a number of awards for years of service and had
3 members who will be celebrating retirement this year. Steve Loven from ICAN plans to retire in the
spring, as well as Linda Schwinn from Capri College and Peg Julius from
Kirkwood Community College. We wish them
much happiness and stress free living in their futures!
Our charity this year was the local non-profit group Quad
City Scholars. Quad City Scholars was
created by local business leaders who recognized not all high school students
with college potential were pursuing college degrees. The group operates in area high schools and
provides college and career exploration programs for 9th through 12th
graders with the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities.
They run on strictly donor dollars and use those funds to provide ACT
prep, scholarship assistance, mentoring, and college visits. To help raise funds we had a live auction and
a silent auction and passed around donation jars. We surpassed even our own expectations and
raised over $1,600.00 for the organization.
We were then notified that a local trust had agreed to match all
donations made in November so we really were able to provide an impact for this
group! We are so grateful for all the
generosity in IASFAA!
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