Greetings CAPFAA members!

The Annual Business Meeting has come and gone, and I am pleased at the outcome of the decision to have CAPFAA maintain its “trade association” status. Many thanks to both the voting and non-voting members of our institutions who discussed the pros and cons of maintaining our status prior to the meeting. Surprisingly, there was little discussion just prior to the vote, which tells me that the membership analyzed this thoroughly and knew, going into the meeting, how they would vote.

I say I am pleased with the outcome since the vending community has provided our association with manpower (working on committees), financial strength, and product knowledge. Many of us have developed strong relationships with many of the vendors over time, and to remove them as associate members would be detrimental to CAPFAA.

Now, it is onward and upward. Although we still may not know what the future holds (ie., more surprises?) CAPFAA will proceed this year with a “business as usual” mentality. By the time you all receive this message, our two-day planning retreat will have taken place, and all committees will have outlined their plans for the year. Already, the Early Awareness/College Goal Sunday and Winter Conference committees have been meeting and planning their events. I am sure the Training committee will again have enough substantive material to produce quality Fall and Spring training sessions.

I look forward to presiding over the Executive Council meetings, and again encourage the membership to become involved through committee work, etc. You can even attend an Executive Council meeting to see what takes place if you’d like. I will send the schedule of 2008-09 Executive Council meetings on the list serve after our planning retreat.

I hope you all enjoy your summer, and I look forward to a good, productive year for CAPFAA.

Sincerely,

Bill Mangini
CAPFAA President