Travels with Nick

Submitted by Nick Prewett, MASFAA Past President

Representing MASFAA on the state conference circuit has been a highlight of my service as president.  As you know, MASFAA consists of nine states and the MASFAA presidents split up the
states and visit three conferences per year.  I was even lucky enough to visit one state twice!  Through my travels, I drove 2,080 miles and flew 7,642 miles.  I had the distinct pleasure of attending four 50th anniversary parties and celebrating all things that are financial aid association related.  I thought I would share something that I will always treasure from my state visits.

Indiana (January 2017): I will recall Indiana as the first state that I visited.  The memory I will always treasure is cruising around greater Indy with Alex DeLonis in his sweet vanilla smelling car as fluffy flakes of snow fell from the sky.

Illinois (April 2017): This was an exciting conference in the suburbs of Chicago.  By far, Illinois had a unique set-up for snacks at a conference with different types of beef jerky.  A shout out to Michelle Trame for letting me ride in the third row (or torture row) of her SUV.  I am sure that my back and I will always remember that.

Minnesota (May 2017): When I think of Minnesota I think of lakes, so of course this was held at Madden’s on Gull Lake.  I am not sure you could get much more stereotypical Minnesota than having a conference on a lake, with pontoon boats, fried walleye, glow in the dark golf, bingo, and a buffet of hot dishes.

West Virginia (November 2017): Any visit to West Virginia is not complete without listening to some John Denver.  I will never forget attending the board meeting and someone saying that the board is just like Mayberry, where everyone has different hats and they trade them around the table each year.  What a fun place to visit is Charleston.  Who doesn’t love Karaoke at a conference?

Missouri (November 2017): This was by far the largest state conference that I attended and had pomp and circumstance associated more with the Academy Awards than a conference.  There was a red carpet walk, photographers, tuxedos, and stars of the past, present, and future.

Michigan (January 2018): The Henry Hotel in Dearborn overlooks the Ford offices and is in a great location.  This was the 2nd 50th that I was able to attend.  Professional casino games, great charities, and cool sessions.  I could even see Canada from my hotel room.

Iowa (April 2018): Iowa stands out for their 50th, not because they brought back their past presidents, but because they also brought back their first IASFAA president.  Dueling pianos led by the son of a former financial aid director lead you to one heck of a celebration.  I also learned that in Iowa adding a lime to Busch Light was a way to “make it a classy beer.”

Ohio (October 2018): 50th parties and casino themes seem to be a thing.  OASFAA threw a formal night and had their past presidents share some inspirational quotes and inside jokes that made a number of people blush.  As a first, the entertainment crew had so much fun that they stayed late at no charge.

Wisconsin (April 2019): When I heard that WASFAA was going to be held in Green Bay, I hoped there was one activity that we’d have, so of course, we were able to tour Lambeau field!  Financial aid folks at a football stadium is one heck of a party.  WASFAA had a number of new attendees and the future of their association looks bright.  If you were curious, there was a lot of cheese to be found at the conference.   

Iowa (April 2019): IASFAA was worth a second trip to discuss the finer points of financial aid.  I learned a great deal about Bacon, the maple kind, or as most people call it Bacon.

It was a great pleasure to serve MASFAA and meet so many great people throughout the MASFAA region.  I would encourage everyone to take the opportunity and become active in our association and you too may have a once in a lifetime experience.

Patty and Sue Go to Washington

Each February, WAFSAA sends the President-elect and Treasurer-elect to NASFAA’s Leadership & Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. While NASFAA has held this event for a number of years, there are now three different tracks:  New & Aspiring Aid Directors, Association Management, and Enrollment Management.  To help prepare for the role that we are about to take on, Patty Taylor and I attended the Association Management track. 

Before our trip, we participated in a couple of webinars to simply prepare for our Hill visits.  These were held the last morning of the conference.  During those webinars, we realized we needed to schedule our visits!  Since we have the same congressman, we decided to try to visit the same legislators. We quickly secured a meeting with Congressman Glenn Grothman.  The meeting with Senator Tammy Baldwin was a bit trickier—but her office really worked hard on fitting us into her busy schedule with our limited availability.  Most attendees met with at least one legislative aid, so we felt pretty fortunate to meet with two of our elected representatives.  Michelle Curtis from UW-Madison (and WASFAA’s new Federal Issues chair) was able to join us in our meeting with Senator Baldwin. 

As we had heard from NASFAA leaders, both Baldwin and Grothman confirmed that Reauthorization was most likely not going to get done this year.  However, they both felt there might be agreement on a few simplification items.  These could include the application process (though not necessarily the two question post card) and the programs (one grant, one loan, one work).  We did share how important the campus based programs were.  We discussed administrative burden—and how it affects the amount of time available for counseling, etc.  And of course PPY and the need to have formulas earlier in the new cycle.  Both were pretty receptive to our suggestions.  Senator Baldwin is a big supporter of Higher Education and recently introduced the “In the Red Act,” to address college affordability and debt-free college.  Congressman Grothman is very worried about the nation’s debt, but does believe student loan borrowers should be able to refinance their debt. He is also a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

So, my ‘blog’ is getting a bit long—and I haven’t even shared what we did on the first two days!  Justin Dreger provided a federal update as well as sessions on Work-Life Balance and The Art of Explanation.  If you haven’t had a chance to hear Justin speak, he is pretty amazing.  And he’s on the agenda to attend our Fall 2016 Conference in Milwaukee!  We attended sessions on Board Governance, Running a Meeting, Fiscal Fitness, and Improving the Odds of Volunteerism.  There was so much information shared with us! 

And of course, we always try to find room for fun and networking.  One evening we joined our MASFAA colleagues for dinner after a reception was held for all three tracks at the hotel.  And, having only been to D.C. once before, I took the three hour tour the evening before the conference started.  We were also able to visit with Kevin McShane and Katie Grieger, both from Herzing, who were there attending the Enrollment Management track.

So, while our four days in D.C. may not have been exciting enough to make a movie, Patty and I do sincerely appreciate WASFAA’s support in allowing us to attend what I feel was one of the best conferences I have ever attended.

Hope to see most of you next month at the Kalahari for WASFAA’s 50^th Anniversary celebration!

Sue Minzlaff - WASFAA, President-elect

Patty Taylor - WASFAA, Treasurer-elect