Oct 2006 Letter from the President
Shareen Thewke
By Shareen Thewke on October 31, 2006
When friends ask why I like working in financial aid, I give the usual responses of helping students and contributing to the good of society. The other answer is I love the constant change of our day to day rules and regulations. Now after this last year, I wish for a little less change and a little more stability. The implementation of the HERA Act has put our offices into constant change, anxiety and stress. Are we reading these regulations correctly? Do you know how to read a high school transcript? What is “Academic Year”?
While the grant is designed to provide additional dollars for needy students, it was not on my list of things to do this summer and fall!!!!! It defiantly provided the constantly changing atmosphere I tell my friends I love.
Thankfully, we have a wonderful support system in place to help us work through all of the issues. Everyone from the Department of Education, NASFAA, RMASFAA and of course NeASFAA helped offices get in contact with training opportunities. That is the beauty of our organization. Just look at Spring conference in Columbus and look ahead to the Fall Institute in Kearney. NeASFAA wants to help our members through the constantly changing world of federal financial aid.
We have a few changes in the NeASFAA Board. Laurie Greve resigned her position as two year sector rep, Dean Obenauer took a position with an associate member so he was not able to continue as Secretary, Jack Burdick our Finance Chair took a job outside of Nebraska and last but certainly not least, Shirley Huttenmaier took a job outside of financial aid so she could not continue as Past President. Thankfully our membership stepped up and helped fill the open positions on the board. Lisa Gdowski is our new Secretary. Steve Millnitz agreed to be the 2 year public sector representative. Dean Obenauer agreed to be the Finance Chair and Past, Past President Deana Unger agreed to step back on the board to fill the Past President position. We now have a full board again!!!
Currently the board is looking at the results of the survey distributed this May. We had some wonderful comments and hope to focus NeASFAA for the future. Our next meeting will be the start of putting ideas into motion. Keep watching the NeASFAA website for more updates.
Shareen Thewke
President