President's Report
by WASFAA President Doug Severs, Idaho State University

Technology... Isn't it wonderful.
Fellow financial aid administrators who are in the midst of implementation of a new financial aid computer system may think this a crazy statement. But with over 27 years of financial aid experience, I have seen financial aid administration with which Dickens's character, Bob Crachett, would find empathy. This basic financial aid administration was based upon the "Big Book" concept. All student names and social security numbers were printed in up to seven huge books with the student financial aid information added as it was received. Part of the control process was colored pens denoting different aid status and different forms of aid. For example, poor satisfactory academic progress would be noted in red and Vocational Rehabilitation funds in maroon. A big challenge was finding enough pen colors! This process also led to us wandering around the office calling out things like "Who has the R through T book?" The book data was key punched into the computer mainframe... to have the data printed out for us to put back in the big books! Of course, this took about three working days and we would have to tell students who were checking on their aid status to come back when the books were returned. We weren't telling students "the computer is down," we were telling them "the books are down at the computer!" Finally, in around 1985, the university decided to purchase an on line (Wow, we could look things up on a monitor!) financial aid computer system. It was like going from a pull cart to a sports car. Of course, as new system drivers we had many wrecks to get that system running, but this pain was well worth the effort to serve our students. The change may not be as extreme, but this will basically be true for the new technology all of us are implementing.

Since the last WASFAA Newsletter, I had the honor of visiting the Arizona/Nevada combined conference and the California conference. If you have heard rumors (or have seen alleged pictures) from the Arizona/Nevada people that I was dressed in a bear costume, drinking beer and dancing wildly... please ignore them, please. The Arizona/Nevada people do know how to party and I want to thank them for letting me take part in their mock wedding. How many chances does an almost-50- year-old man get to be a ring bearer? CASFAA was also a fun meeting. They were really fortunate to have booked the Capitol Steps comedy group for their meeting. The Capitol Steps provided some of the funniest political humor concerning President Elect Bush and Al Gore. It seemed, however, that all the people at the table where I was sitting would rather have President Bartlett from the West Wing TV program as president than either Bush or Gore. There are two more state meetings that I will be attending. The Oregon meeting is in February and PacFAA is in March.

I have been pondering how I can convince my boss that I should join CASFAA when we are in Idaho. I left for the CASFAA meeting when it was 19 degrees and the snow was not just coming down, but it was blowing sideways. I wondered if I was going to get out of town in this near blizzard situation. Well, the airport quickly got us all loaded and out of Pocatello. Arriving in San Diego was like going to a different world with a warm sun and a bright blue sky. While I was there it was always in the upper 70's or low 80's. Calling home, I did not mention this weather situation... no sense in upsetting my wife by comparing her frigid situation with my experiencing such wonderful December weather.

The next Executive Council meeting is being held in San Jose at the conference site. We are meeting February 12th and 13th at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel. We will be covering general agenda items and considering WASFAA members for our various awards. I hope you took the opportunity to nominate a member.

I look forward to seeing you in San Jose in April.