Colleagues,
Your schools received the first membership fee letter last month. We’re already seeing payments arrive and we thank you for helping to keep our vital program going.
As you know, the focus of our activity is driven by our community and we engage in year –round conversations, utilizing a variety of means. For example, our Financial Aid PAG is producing a series of webinars, focused on US regulatory changes and Direct Lending. This is in direct response to changes in our industry and the resulting adjustments we must make in our processes and software utilization.
The Financial Aid webinars are only one example of the many ways we serve our industry. Currently, the Technical Advisory Group is blogging on reference architecture for Master Data Management and ID Management. This blog, which is focused on solutions to tactical problems, is in direct response to a series of questions the TAG has received over the past few years. These are just a few examples of the services the HEUG provides its members.
This summer, the HEUG Board will focus on organizational strategic planning. We are a global organization, with members in 28 countries and we will continue to grow. We serve nearly 20,000 individuals via HEUG on-line and over 3200 people attended this year’s Alliance conference. The danger in this phase of an organization’s growth is that the group starts looking inward and stops thinking about the reason for being. I want to assure you that our board is committed to avoiding that scenario.
Our benchmarking survey was designed to provide data about our operations and how we compare to our peer institutions. If you have not yet completed that survey, please consider filling it out. Our executives have begun discussing how IT investments can support our efficiency initiatives. This survey will help us make data driven decisions.
We need your input on what we need to do to better serve our community. How do you want to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing? Does it make sense to form smaller, regional communities in the context of the larger HEUG? What areas should we focus on? What are the key issues facing your institution that you believe the HEUG can assist with?
We look forward to your feedback and hope that you will engage in this conversation with us.
Thanks,
Kari