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President's Report The Executive Council held its summer meeting in Reno for two reasons. One is that we attended the Summer Institute graduation banquet and the other was to choose a hotel for the 2006 annual conference. The Executive Council had the good fortune to celebrate, encourage and congratulate the class of 2002! Another group of enthusiastic and interesting financial aid administrators spent a week at the University of Nevada-Reno learning CORE material from an infamous group of faculty. WASFAA wishes you all the best and look forward to seeing you at future WASFAA events. We had the opportunity to keep costs down by staying in and touring the two hotels that WASFAA was considering for a future conference. The Executive Council voted to hold the 2006 annual conference at the Nugget in Sparks. One of our primary functions at our June meeting was strategic planning. It enabled us to review our activities and determine what is essential for our members, what is truly necessary to run the organization and what activities are not essential each year that may be placed in a holding pattern due to lack of resources and/or interest by the membership. Anyone who has been/is involved in strategic planning is aware of the tough decisions that are the result of taking a hard look at one's organization. This process was no different for the Executive Council. While there are many activities and opportunities we'd like to support and provide, we are very conscious of our fiscal limitations and that we are not in a position to do everything that we would like and be able to keep costs to members affordable. One of the outcomes of this activity is that we continue to provide training as a primary focus and opportunity for members and it consistently receives high marks. Time is being spent on fiscal issues. The Fiscal Planning committee has the task of looking for ways to maintain services to members and run the association and provide recommendations to the Executive Council. This is rather challenging - similar to what we are all doing at our institutions - during this time of budget constraints and investment ups and downs (mostly downs). We are reviewing our policy on the level of asset reserves necessary to function as an organization and provide base services to members. We are also looking at our budget process and the relation with expenses and will bring forth any proposals for change to the Executive Council. Here is the current status: We anticipate an increase over last year for this fall's training fee so that about 65% of the cost will be billed to members with the remaining 35% still subsidized by WASFAA. The Executive Council has decided not to hold the Management & Leadership Institute this year. The current plan is to have an institute every other year and take place during the fall. The conference fee has been set at $255 (+$40 for membership fee). The committees are busy with their various tasks and you have or will be hearing about their activities over the course of the year. Training is set to begin in October and the membership drive is well underway. Nominations for awards and officers are open and the conference committee has their plates filled preparing for a paradise of a meeting! One of our busiest committees is Federal Relations. I encourage all of you to continue submitting your comments to our co-chairs - Genevieve Watson, Laurie Franklin and Jannine Oyama - as well as to NASFAA and let your voice be heard. Take time and do something for yourself right now! You deserve it.
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