Our annual conference was held February 3rd - 5th at Salishan Lodge on the Oregon coast. Our conference committee, lead by Sue Gano of Oregon Health Sciences University, did a wonderful job. We had a very good turnout - even with many schools suffering from budget woes. Some of our members attended the annual conference with the help of association scholarships. This was a great way for the association to "give back" to its membership. Our association's budget picture for next year is not so rosy. Costs for our events continue to rise. Food costs have risen tremendously in the past few years. The 2002-03 executive board will have to hold the fiscal reigns tight.

At our conference, the association membership honored two people who helped to shape financial aid as it is today. Both Keith McCreight and Diane Tsukamaki received Distinguished Service Awards for their many years of dedicated service to students and our profession.

Jackie Gresham, Director of Financial Aid at George Fox College, left our association for the greener pastures of Colorado. Jackie last served the association as treasurer. While we all wish her well in Colorado, we will miss her very much.

Our association election ballots have been mailed and the votes are being tallied now. Tracy held a fiscal planning meeting on March 12th at the University of Portland. With Tracy's leadership, we will go into our March 28th transition meeting with a sharp focus on goals and issues for 2002-03.

Finally, when I became association president, Don Black passed me "the box." Actually, it's a hand-made oak box called "The Sage Box." The box contains a copy of Robert's Rules of Order and several pieces of memorabilia passed on by each president. The tradition holds that each president puts something meaningful into the box. I passed the box on to Tracy at our fiscal planning meeting. I'm not going to tell Tracy or anyone else what I put into the box - although I'll never forget what it was.