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TG Updates

Shoptalk Online 511, July 7, 2009

TG Updates

TG's workshops for NASFAA conference to focus on financial literacy and student retention

Providing an education that equips students with tools to thrive during and after college is important to financial aid professionals. Enhancing that learning experience has become crucial as job markets change and world economies shift. TG is working to provide students and schools with support in key areas, including financial literacy and student retention.

TG's workshops for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) Conference 2009 throw a spotlight on some of these efforts. Be sure to attend TG's workshops during the NASFAA conference to learn about them. You'll leave with information that can bolster your financial literacy program or student retention efforts.

Here's an overview of each workshop.

Building a Successful Financial Literacy Program (Monday, July 13, 10:45 a.m.-Noon): Participants will learn strategies for designing effective campus financial literacy initiatives, including setting goals, implementing each stage of a program, and measuring a program's success. Attendees will also hear about TG's financial literacy tools and services, such as the Positive+Balance Community^SM.
Engaging Faculty and Staff for Student Success (Tuesday, July 14; 10:45 a.m.- Noon): Attendees will discover some of the underlying issues influencing student success and failure. They'll also study a model for student retention and persistence and hear what campuses across the country are doing to keep students on the path to graduation.

More information
To learn more about the conference, and to view a preliminary agenda, visit NASFAA Annual Conference 2009. To learn more about TG's training offered through the TG Speakers Bureau, review the online training catalog at www.tgslc.org/speakers/basics.cfm.

Join TG in Chicago for its second financial literacy symposium of 2009

These days, college graduates face particular obstacles as they transition from student to full-time employee. Many are burdened by student debt; others struggle to find a job in a changing labor market.

A number of colleges provide services to help students shift from campus to career, including financial literacy programs that teach students valuable personal finance skills. This summer, TG has organized two symposiums for schools that focus on developing effective financial literacy initiatives for the college campus.

Successful Houston symposium
The first 2009 Financial Literacy Symposium took place in Houston on Monday, June 29. Guest speakers Kristy Vienne, director of Sam Houston State University's Student Money Management Center, and Mark Mielke, financial aid advisor at Texas A&M University, shared their experience in providing financial literacy education programs. Afterwards, participants divided into smaller groups where they asked questions and shared ideas on how to develop financial literacy initiatives to help students.

Upcoming Chicago symposium
School representatives who missed the Houston event can register to attend the second TG 2009 Financial Literacy Symposium to be held in Chicago on Tuesday, July 21. Guest speakers will include Bryant Anderson, director of student financial services at Illinois College of Optometry, and Janelle Wade, assistant director of student financial assistance at Loyola University Chicago.

According to TG's financial literacy segment manager Margie Harvey, the symposiums provide a unique opportunity for financial aid professionals in today's student loan climate. "In addition to learning about their colleagues' financial literacy initiatives, attendees can share ideas on how to teach students about personal finances," she said.

Register online
For more information about TG's 2009 Financial Literacy Symposiums, or to register to attend the Chicago event, visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/training/literacy.

For questions
To learn more, contact Margie Harvey at (800) 252-9743, or send an e-mail message to margery.harvey@tgslc.org.

Last paper report on lender disbursements to mail this month

TG is adding more convenience to its disbursement reporting process, converting its paper-based system to a Web-based tool. The last paper Unreported Disbursement Report will be distributed the second week of July. Lenders will no longer receive the Unreported Disbursement Report from TG by mail.

Lenders can now access disbursement reports through TG's new Lender Disbursement Reporting (LDR) tool, available online.

To access to the new LDR
To begin using the new LDR, do one of the following:

Log in to TG's AdvanTG Web™ as a super-user and follow these steps:
1. Select "Institution Administration."
2. Select your institution ID.
3. Select "AdvanTG Web User ID Request form."
4. Select "Create or Modify User ID."
5. Under Access Level Request, select "Lender Disbursement Reporting Tool" and click Submit.
Contact your TG lender consultant at (800) 252-9743.

To learn more
If you have questions about the new LDR tool, please contact TG's product support group at (800) 332-1455, or send an e-mail message to product.support@tgslc.org.

TG bulletin: Get the latest TG news — subscribe to TG Message Central^SM

If you're looking for a simple, online way to stay current with TG news, including processing schedule changes, conferences, workshops, and information about product enhancements, you'll find a great resource in TG Message Central^SM. TG Message Central delivers bulletins on the latest developments at TG right to your online e-mail inbox. Even better, TG Message Central offers you a convenient process for controlling what kind of information you receive from TG.

Great customer benefits
TG works hard to enhance all aspects of the customer experience, including customer communications. TG Message Central provides subscribers with timely information about system changes, among other things; but it also allows customers to manage their user experience. The service provides:

Secure login to protect subscriber data and profile preferences;
Offers an inbox (My Messages) for viewing messages;
Supplies a way to choose message types;
Includes a membership listing that enables networking with subscribers; and
Provides an easy process to unsubscribe.

To subscribe
If you would like to evaluate TG Message Central, follow these steps:

Visit TG Message Central online and complete the information requested.
Review and select the Message Choice types.
Select Submit.
Log in.

To help you in your evaluation of TG Message Central, review the online informational video. You can also learn more about TG Message Central through this online presentation.

For questions
To learn more about TG Message Central, please contact TG's product support team at (800) 332-1455, or send an e-mail message to product.support@tgslc.org. You may also contact your TG account executive at (800) 252-9743.

Save the date for TG's upcoming industry webinars

If you haven't registered for TG's industry training webinar scheduled for July 16, there's still time. The webinar, scheduled from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., Central Time, will feature information on the latest legislative and regulatory changes.

This Federal Update session will provide information on recent activities that may affect the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and other federal student aid programs. Updates will be provided on various issues including federal common forms, Dear Colleague/Partner letters issued by the Department of Education, proposed and final federal regulations, and pending legislation.

Upcoming webinars
Please plan to join TG for the following training events:

IBR Basics — August 20, 2009; 2 p.m.-3 p.m., Central Time
By now, many within the financial aid community have heard of Income-Based Repayment (IBR), the new student loan repayment plan that became available to FFELP and Direct Loan borrowers beginning July 1, 2009. IBR will benefit certain borrowers by minimizing monthly payments and by providing loan forgiveness in some cases. Educating borrowers about this repayment plan and its benefits, through the loan counseling process and other information dissemination efforts, will prove to be the key to realizing IBR's full potential. This session provides a high-level introduction to the IBR plan, including how borrowers qualify for IBR, the forgiveness component of IBR, the benefits IBR provides to the borrower and the school, and ideas for educating borrowers about IBR.
Cash Management — September 17, 2009; 2 p.m.-3 p.m., Central Time
Cash management is one of the more highly regulated areas of federal student aid administration. This session outlines the cash management rules, including the timeframes for the disbursement and delivery of funds; the handling of credit balances; and the notices a school must send to, as well as the authorizations a school must obtain from, its students and borrowers.

To register
Registration for the July 16 Federal Update webinar is currently available at www.tgslc.org/training/webinars/industry.cfm. Schedules for additional webinars will be published quarterly. Watch Shoptalk Online for notification of registration availability for future webinars.