Colorado State President's Report

It's spring in Colorado and 10 inches of snow fell yesterday in Boulder. The tulips are standing tall, but then the snow is holding them up!

CAFAA members met last week, April 18-20, in Colorado Springs for our spring conference. The Top Gun theme reflected the Air Force Academy presence in the Springs and there was more than one aspiring pilot flying around the conference. About 150 Top Guns attended the 3-day event, which included our own Wilma Kasnic who provided an update on RMASFAA activities and promoted the Fall Conference in Wichita. Colorado is always happy to see Kay Jacks who updated us on SFA initiatives, and the state staff, Sharon Samson and Patty O'Connor educated us on 2001-02 allocations. The "Gong Show" on Thursday night proved that we have a lot of talented Top Guns in Colorado who may have missed their calling. All in all, the conference was informative and fun!

Special thanks to Kelly Hoggatt and Ellie Miller for providing training on Ferpa, Packaging and PPAs. We learned that there is always more to learn about Packaging and Ferpa! We thought we knew it all. Thanks to Lee Ingalls Noble for coordinating this event, which was held in conjunction with the spring conference.

CAFAA committees have been busy. Emphasis this year has been on collaborative committee efforts and in that vain the Service Organization and the Membership committee will be publishing a new brochure for prospective members; Financial Aid Awareness and Diversity Committee have coordinated high school presentations; and the Membership and Technology Committee have been working on web access for the membership application. Coordinating high school night presentations has been particularly beneficial for schools and for presenters since we have eliminated duplicate efforts and coordinating presenters with geographic locations has made travel more efficient. The Professional Development Committee has completed a survey on membership training needs and will be implementing the results this spring.

The CAFAA CRIER Newsletter will be available in web format beginning in late spring 2001. Two-thirds of the membership reported that they would like to receive the newsletter in web format only. Following in RMASFAA's footsteps this will save time, money and provide the Newsletter information in a much more timely manner. We love technology!

Mark Putman and the Technology Committee have done a great job this year. They have improved the CAFAA website by adding a Calendar and providing online conference registration for members and vendors. Additionally, Mark provided a presentation at the conference "Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gigahertz - Your Guide to Technology at the spring conference."

Jim Swanson and Crew are gearing up for the RMASFAA Summer Institute June 1 - 8 at Colorado College. In an ongoing effort to nurture new leadership CAFAA will sponsor a member to attend the Leadership Training at the All that Jazz Summer Institute.

The sun has melted the snow, and guess what? The tulips are still standing tall! I hope you stand as tall this spring as you bring up 2001-02 and welcome those incoming students.

Karon