Justify Your Attendance

NASFAA has created a toolkit of easily customizable letters and worksheets to help your manager understand the return on investment they will see from this professional development opportunity. Now more than ever, the NASFAA National Conference provides you with training resources, political realities, and advocacy pathways for student aid administration.

• Letter to Your Manager - Use this customizable letter template to explain and justify your attendance at a conference to your supervisor.
• Benefits Chart - Use this template to create a custom list of the benefits your attendance will bring you and your institution.
• Post-Conference ROI Template - Take notes on sessions and record key takeaways, action items, and estimated return on investment (ROI). These notes can be referenced when creating your post-conference trip report.

Additional Tips

Use the Conference as a Professional Development Opportunity

When discussing the NASFAA National Conference with your manager, emphasize how the conference tracks align with the NASFAA Financial Aid Administrator Competency Model. This connection makes it easy to demonstrate how attending specific sessions directly supports your career goals and ongoing skill development. Consider pointing to sessions that map to the knowledge areas or task statements you’re actively working to strengthen, or those that support your long-term path within the profession.

If you are an FAAC^®, remind them that you are required to earn 60 Recertification Points (RPs) every three years through training and professional development. Attendance at the National Conference will qualify for 10 RPs as an experience that significantly contributes to your continuing education.

Offer to Train Others in What You Learned

You can pitch your trip to the NASFAA National Conference as a way to bring knowledge and information back to the rest of your organization. You can train your colleagues on best practices, tips, trends, and processes you learned at the conference. 

Create a Trip Report

You can use your trip report to share with others the sessions you attended. Providing a quick two- to three-page summary will trigger colleagues to ask you questions to learn more. You can also offer to meet with your manager when you return for a recap of the NASFAA National Conference.

Meet with NASFAA Colleagues

When you attend the NASFAA National Conference, you have the opportunity to speak with NASFAA staff responsible for serving your school and also with staff who are in charge of developing NASFAA programs and services. By asking questions and providing feedback, you can ensure that your school's voice is heard, and you can also provide answers to your school's program-specific questions.