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TG Updates
TG to host webinar on developing financial literacy initiatives
TG is hosting a free webinar for schools seeking financial literacy information and resources. The webinar, titled "Building a Successful Financial Literacy Program," will be presented on Thursday, December 11, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CST. Participants will learn tips and strategies for developing and implementing campus financial literacy initiatives. They'll also have the opportunity to hear about TG's financial literacy tools and solutions.
More than ever, students need strong financial literacy skills to succeed during and after college. Average student loan debt has doubled over the past decade, and the majority of students now graduate with thousands of dollars of additional debt from credit cards.
Unfortunately, many students aren't learning important money management skills before they arrive on campus. As a result, colleges and universities have started providing financial literacy programs to meet the needs of those students.
Webinar speakers
Representatives from two higher-learning institutions will be on hand to share their experience and expertise in leading campus financial literacy initiatives. Speakers include:
- Jimmie Wilder, associate director of financial aid, San Francisco State University
- Diana Chow, supervisor of university loans and collections, fiscal services, San Francisco State University
- William Spiers, director of financial aid, Tallahassee Community College
To register
To participate in the webinar, register through TG Online at www.tgslc.org/training/webinars/webinars0812.
Questions?
For questions regarding the upcoming webinar, contact Margie Harvey, TG's financial literacy program manager, at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4859, or send an message to margery.harvey@tgslc.org.
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Lender solutions: TG's List AssistSM adds efficiency to RFI process for lenders
A recommended or suggested lender list can be a valuable resource to students making one of the most important choices in financing a higher education — choosing a lender. To create a list, schools and lenders generally share information through surveys, or Requests for Information (RFI). In late October, TG made available a new electronic tool for simplifying that process and for making communicating and managing surveys easier for both schools and lenders — List AssistSM.
Offered at no cost to schools and lenders, List Assist helps schools gather and compare data in a completely paperless way. For lenders, it offers a convenient system for responding to surveys and downloading responses for reuse in other RFIs. Survey responses can be viewed up to 60 days after the end of the survey period.
Registered lender users will find List Assist especially useful as a tool for tracking and managing survey requests from multiple schools. List Assist offers a consolidated overview of pending surveys for these users. However, users not registered with TG can respond to all surveys, though they view and complete surveys one at a time.
Lenders can easily divide up the task of completing a List Assist survey. They simply forward the survey to various staff members, including those who specialize in loan offerings and lender programs, such as default management strategies.
Relevance and timeliness
TG designed List Assist to help save time for schools and lenders. For example, List Assist offers a library of over 100 assessment questions vetted by industry professionals, which schools can use to quickly create survey content. Questions are beneficial to lenders as well since content focuses on subjects relevant and timely for both lenders and schools, such as customer service.
To produce the library, TG presented a list of lender survey questions to industry colleagues, including lender focus groups gathering and incorporating feedback. At the same time, various TG teams worked to make questions easy to interpret and to ensure the measurability of results.
The List Assist library offers a "living list" of questions. TG can review the library and make changes to content in "real time," rather than waiting for the next product release. Lenders will appreciate this feature since List Assist surveys come with a feedback link for providing suggestions for new or revised content.
Using List Assist
TG encourages interested lenders to review the list of questions in advance of receiving and processing a survey sent through List Assist. If you'd like to review the list of questions, contact TG's lender relationships team at lenderrequests@tgslc.org.
More about List Assist
To learn more about List Assist, view an online demo of the product. Visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/products/index.cfm and click "TG List Assist Demo" in the right column.
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Mark your calendar for the 2009 TG Annual Training Conference
TG has scheduled the 2009 TG Annual Training Conference, its three-day workshop on regulatory developments and industry issues, for April 22-24 at the Renaissance Hotel in northwest Austin.
TG works to provide a well-rounded menu of training options for the conference. Effective regulatory training is a particular focus of the event. Watch for details about the TG Annual Training Conference in upcoming issues of Shoptalk Online.
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Training watch: TG to offer lender workshops on TG products and services
TG will present two day-long Lender Workshops designed to give lenders a close-up view of TG's products and services, including assorted financial literacy tools and default management strategies. These workshops serve as a forum for discussing TG's many services, which lenders can use to enhance their own offerings to schools. They also offer opportunities for answering questions and conducting a dialogue on product issues important to lenders.
Workshop dates and places
- December 11, 2008: Chicago, Illinois, Hampton Inn O'Hare
- January 29, 2009: Austin, Texas, TG Campus
Workshop content
Agendas for the Lender Workshops cover a variety of issues including:
- TG update: Learn the latest news about TG product developments, and find out more about TG's Illinois market growth in FY 2008 (for Chicago workshop).
- TG product offerings: This session introduces TG's new online lender survey tool, List Assist, and provides an overview of TG's other lender-facing products and services.
- Financial literacy/default management strategies: Find out more about TG's varied set of financial literacy tools, including interactive and multimedia Web pages, for educating students about credit, debt management, monthly budgeting, and much more.
To register
To attend TG's upcoming Lender Workshops, register through TG Online at www.tgslc.org/training/lender/register.cfm.
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Notice of scheduled power outage: TG applications and facility will be off-line this Sunday
TG customers should be aware that TG will experience a total building power shutdown this Sunday, November 23, 2008, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
TG's facility and all TG applications, including AdvanTG Web™, TG Online, and Adventures In Education, will be unavailable during this period. Also, telephone service and access to the voice mail of team members will be down.
More information
For questions about the scheduled outage, contact TG customer assistance at (800) 845-6267, or send an message to cust.assist@tgslc.org.
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TG's hours for Thanksgiving holiday
TG offices will be closing at noon on Wednesday, November 26, and will remain closed for the remainder of the week. The TG team will be back to serve you on Monday, December 1. In observance of the holiday, Shoptalk Online will take a short hiatus also. The next edition of Shoptalk Online will be available December 2.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at TG!
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