2025-2026 President’s Annual Report

The 2025-2026 year has been filled with great accomplishments and challenges that have been met.  While we have positioned ourselves to be in a good place both financially and operationally, there is always room for improvement and planning for the unknown.  

Staggering of Terms

The role of the representatives continues to evolve new ideas and involvement in each respective area.  We continue to strive for staggered terms of representatives and realignments, first implemented by Heidi Green, in order to get to a place where appointments will finish out a term in order to remain staggered.  The staggering of terms helps to maintain consistency and growth within each area.   Since the representatives have a trajectory for staggered terms we have looked to align our co chairs with staggered terms as well.  With each year new appointments are made and some resignations happen.  We want to remain consistent by keeping terms in place and appointing to the end of the term if vacancies arise. Ideally, the co chairs will follow the model of the representatives.  Realignments may need to be made in the next year, however, terms should be set after that.  

Finance

A lot of changes and opportunities have been made on the finance side, thanks to Rob Oliva, VP for Finance.  We opened a money market account in addition to the investment and checking accounts.  The money market can earn interest during the months the association is making income on events and the conference.  That money cannot be tied up in the investment account because the bulk of it will need to be reconciled and paid to the conference host site.  It has earned the association additional thousands of dollars.  

We are trying to expand and centralize sponsorship by having it go through the Vice President for Finance.  This includes sponsorship related to the conference, as well as programs and grants.  This ensures that the association is not tapping into the same sponsors and will assess where other outreach can be done.

The NACAC college fair revenue share has officially ended. This was the first year that the association submitted for the NACAC Gain Grant.  We were awarded the full $8,000.  A reconciliation will need to be submitted to NACAC in December.  This funding has helped pay for expenses related to Legislative Advocacy Day, NYSACAC program grants, and travel expenses for LEAD and the NACAC Conference.  

The College Fair Committee along with Past President Dave Follick, has established a new college fair at Molloy University in conjunction with the HOLLER group.  This new fair comes at an important time as we continue to close financial gaps.  

A VP Finance elect will be elected next year and Rob Oliva will remain as VP for Finance until 2028.

We continue to find creative ways to grow income and fill gaps while passing a balanced budget.  This remains integral in ensuring the fiscal health of the association.  

NACAC Agreement Signed

Our three year agreement with NACAC was up this year.  It was signed and submitted in March.  The agreement will be good for another three years.  Our lawyer made recommendations, however, NACAC did not make the changes because it is a blanket agreement across all affiliates.  They will consider the changes for future agreements.

Continued Review of CRM  

While an Ad Hoc Committee was put in place last year to look into other CRMs the committee recommended keeping our current CRM as some modifications had been made.  We have to balance the cost along with if it operationally supports our work.  We continue to explore other options. 

Ad Hoc for In Person Events

A new Ad Hoc Committee was established in May as a result of attendance numbers at in person events this year in upstate New York.  The committee is composed of representatives from region 3-6 as well as the VP for PD, and co chairs on PD committees.  They will determine time of year, time of day, location, and any other findings over May and June so that this information can be reported on at retreat and this information can be used for next year’s planning.

Master Comms Calendar

Our VP for Communications, Brenna May, created a new master communications calendar that was presented at retreat.  This helps committees see when other communications are going out and they can schedule an ideal time in advance for their committees emails, social media posts, etc.  This has helped unify our communications.

New Summer Institute Location  

 After many years of Summer Institute being hosted at Skidmore College, the program moved to Marist University.  The program was modified to a 4 day schedule to help reduce expenses and lower the registration cost.  Stacy Ledermann and Haniya Mee did a great job keeping the integrity of the program at a new location.

Conference Host Sites

A 2027 conference host site is secured as well as a 2028 conference host site for our 50th conference anniversary.  Other hosts have expressed interest in but nothing has been signed for sites after 2028.  Follow up conversations will need to be had and host site recruitment will need to be done for sites after 2028.

Camp College

We are in our third year of having Camp College at SUNY Geneseo in 2026.  SUNY will be sponsoring a bus again this year.  We have received approximately 147 applicants for the program.  Alternative transportation options are being looked into.  An in person camp is highly dependent upon bus transportation.  

Kathleen- Kathleen was given a cost of living increase of 3% on her salary.  It had been a few years since her promotion.  This amount was not given to her based on performance, just strictly due to rising prices in food, gas, etc.  This is the first time she did not have to ask for an increase in all of her years working with NYSACAC.   If Kathleen were to retire, another person would need to take her place.  My recommendation would be to have multiple people form the board learn all of the different tasks she fulfills and also put together a year to year planning document as presidents rotate through the cycle, typical questions she brings up regarding conference host sites, registration, finances, by laws, etc.  

Challenges:

*In person event attendance.  Attendance at in person events in upstate NY has been low.  An Ad Hoc committee was set up to boost attendance.

*Increased costs and Finance Impacts.  Prices continue to rise and impact our budget and expenses.  The Finance Committee is looking at ways to offset these costs so that we are able to pass a balanced budget.  

Buses remain some of our most expensive costs.  If they are not sponsored we will not be able to offer transportation for events.  Legislative Advocacy and Camp College are two programs that would be impacted if buses are not provided.  The board will need to consider modifying programming if transportation is not available. 

In the last couple of years conference sponsorship has been harder to come by as vendors are not sponsoring as much or exhibiting.  Colleges have also not been able to sponsor as many  conference grants.  Sponsorship will now be centralized through the VP for Finance to make sure we are maximizing our efforts and expanding opportunities.    

*NACAC College Fair Revenue Share Ends.  This was the first year we did not receive the NACAC college fair revenue share of approx 20-30K.  We were awarded the NACAC Gain Grant of $8,000.  This is not guaranteed each year and it needs to be requested and reconciled each year.

Respectfully submitted,

Lauren Sangimino

President, NYSACAC

May 14, 2026