The Rocky Mountain Exchange


	CONTENTS

		Greetings from the RMASFAA President IN THE SPOTLIGHT Meet the... NeASFAA President Summer Institute Committee Vice Chair Electronic Initiatives Committee Chair Vice President Things That Make Me Happy RMASFAA Seeks Nominations STATE REPORTS Kansas Montana North Dakota Nebraska News About Your Colleagues KASFAA College Goal Sunday Update A New Frontier Education Pays: New Evidence Reaffirms Importance of Attending College It Was a Dark and Stormy Night . . . Avoid Errors in Default Rate Appeals Understanding Credit History and Reports

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Greetings from the RMASFAA President
By Peg Mason

SPRING, one of my favorite times of year! I love how the earth starts to come alive with new foliage of all shapes, colors and sizes. I guess you could compare that to our business—all shapes, colors and sizes!

The spring brings many State conferences. Sally Schuman, your president-elect, and I, will be visiting most of the states in our region (CAFAA, I plan to visit you in the fall). I hope you will be able to take the opportunity and attend your state conference and possibly take a moment to introduce yourself. We would love to meet you!

In February, I represented RMASFAA at the SASFAA annual conference. What a great opportunity to experience true southern hospitality. They were delighted to have a record attendance of 1,003! President Janet Sain, Past-President Ron Day, Neal Kiker (my chauffeur ;-), and others made my visit extra special!

As planning would have it, I went from the SASFAA conference to the NASFAA Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP) meeting in Washington, D.C. NASFAA is charged with creating a new SLRP every five years. Approximately two dozen of your colleagues from all over the country came together to draft a proposed SLRP. The draft will be submitted to NASFAA’s Association Governance Committee (AG). AG will review the draft SLRP, do some wordsmithing, and submit the final product for approval to the NASFAA Board of Directors. The SLRP helps keeps NASFAA and NASFAA committees on task with goals for the future.

RMASFAA Committees are very, very busy. If you are part of one of these committees, please accept the heartfelt thanks of the 2005 Board of Directors. You are truly the worker bees of this Association!

The 2005 RMASFAA Summer Institute will be here before you know it! Please take a minute to check out the Summer Institute information via the link on the RMASFAA web site! Whether a newbie or a seasoned professional, this is one training you don’t want to miss!