President's Report
by WASFAA President Addalou Davis, McGeorge School of Law

The WASFAA president must be the luckiest person in the world! During the Fall conference season part of the job is visiting the each of the state association conferences.

On October 9, I flew to Spokane for the WFAA conference. Spokane is a beautiful small city, the WFAA members went out of their way to make the WASFAA president feel welcome. Wendy Olson, the WFAA president hosted a reception in her suite to kick off the conference and the next day started with the Executive Council meeting followed by interesting and informative sessions culminating in a Town Hall Meeting. Because the Washington and Nevada conferences overlapped, I was the first presenter with issues at the Town Hall Meeting, then off to the airport (Thanks, NELA, for the lift!).

I arrived home and got up at o'dark thirty to drive to Harvey's in South Lake Tahoe for the Nevada conference. The NFAA members were having their business meeting when I arrived and again, members went out of their way to make sure the WASFAA president felt welcome and included. Since it was the final day of their conference, I actually got home in time to get a full night's sleep so I could go to work on Friday.

Sunday I left for IASFAA's conference at the Grand Targhee Summer & Ski Resort. No one said anything about snow!! Flying into Jackson Hole, Wyoming and renting a car I was warned by the car rental attendant to drive slowly. Now keep in mind, Sacramento is the flatland, a city, and definitely no snow. When I came to the grade and drove ever so slowly through the snow, I congratulated myself on successfully driving in snow. Unfortunately, I overshot the turnoff by about 8 or 10 miles and the lady in the gas station warned me to be careful. At this point it was only raining so I couldn't figure out why she was admonishing caution. Well, I quickly found out. In reality, it was snowing so hard the headlights became parking lights so I could see the road.

When I arrived at the resort, the restaurant wasn't open so I had gummy bears for dinner. Next morning, the IASFAA members started arriving and I begged to be taken to town for FOOD!!!! Well, Doug Severs and James Martin had to hold me up because I was wearing cute little gold slippers that were filled with snow and had slippery bottoms. James insisted that he would feed me only after taking me to the shoe store to buy some sensible non-skid shoes (Thank you James!). The Grand Targhee has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The mountains, the trees, and the lodge: just incredible and breathtaking.

After leaving the winter wonderland, I arrived home at about 1:00 a.m. only to get up and go again at 4:00 a.m. in order to fly to Arizona for the AASFAA conference. They had a retro theme and I meant to bring my Janis Joplin outfit but forgot. I went to town to get a tie-died T-shirt and ran into most of the members at the same store doing the same thing. What a wild group! After a hard day's work, the Arizona people really know how to party. It was SO MUCH FUN! If you have never been to Sedona put it on your itinerary. The red-rock mountains, the cute little shops, the many resorts, Sedona is a MUST on my retirement travel list.

After all this, I actually, had two days in the office (well, at my institution because I hosted a WASFAA fiscal planning meeting on Monday), then it was off to Anchorage for the ALASFAA conference. Want an exciting business meeting? WOW! Alaska members have very exciting meetings. They may be small, but they are mighty. Two days of meetings mapping a Banner conversion and off to Salishan for the WASFAA Executive Council meeting and Management and Leadership Institute.

One of WASFAA's policy and procedure goals requires a balanced budget. Fiscal Planning committee discovered that we had budgeted more expenses than income, so the Executive Council meeting mostly focused on getting our budget back in compliance with our stated goals. One of the tough decisions was that we would no longer offer "free" training to our members. We will need to charge just enough to cover the expenses of the materials and the expenses of the trainers. After other adjustments to income and expense assumptions, you will be pleased to know that WASFAA has a balanced budget again.

Everywhere I went, I told the conferees that "this is the most beautiful place I have ever been." I meant it. We are so lucky to live in the West where the variety of our mountains, forests and deserts make living and working in our environments a major factor of our enjoyment of our jobs.

Thank you WFAA, NFAA, IASFAA, and AASFAA for your hospitality and the excellent conferences. I am so proud to be a part of all of these "FAAs" and WASFAA can be proud of the professionals that the West has to offer the financial aid profession.