2020 Annual Conference FAQs

Conference Logo

 

In the absence of the Annual Conference (see FAQ’s below) and General Business Meeting, WACAC is happy to declare May – “I Am WACAC” month. The Conference Committee will celebrate our members throughout the month of May in our bi-weekly e-blasts, email messages and social media. The festivities will conclude with our first ever WACAC Virtual Meeting.

REGISTER now for the event to be held on “I Am WACAC” Day – Thursday, May 28, 2020 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Join President Lauren Cook, Keynote Speaker and newly named NACAC CEO Angel Perez and more – to recap the year, celebrate our members and hear the results of this year’s election.

Learn more about our featured speakers below and stay tuned to your inbox and social media to stay connected to your fellow WACAC colleagues!

Angel Perez

Keynote Speaker, Angel Perez, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success at Trinity College and beginning July 15th NACAC’s newly named CEO

With more than two decades of experience in secondary and higher education leadership positions, Pérez has been recognized as a national thought leader on issues of educational equity and access in American education.

A recognized innovator in admission practices, Pérez transformed Trinity’s enrollment and campus culture by adopting values-based, student-centered strategies, including a test-optional policy and the use of character in the holistic evaluation of applicants. To reduce the financial and administrative burden on the lowest income students, he eliminated the application fee for first-generation students and created a four-year financial aid award system. Pérez also created the Center for Student Success and Career Development, whose mission is to ensure that every student receives the support and guidance necessary to make their journey a success.

Pérez is the author of many articles in mainstream and academic publications, including NACAC’s textbooks and The Journal of College Admission (JCA). In 2009, he was honored with the association’s John B. Muir Award for his JCA article, Struggling Between Two Worlds: How College Affects Identity Construction. Pérez is a frequent speaker at major education conferences in the US and abroad and is interviewed regularly by members of the print and electronic news media.

Pérez holds a B.S. from Skidmore College (NY), an M.A. from Columbia University (NY), a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University (CA), and a Teaching Certification in Higher Education Pedagogy from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University (MA).

Ffiona Rees

NACAC Board of Director, Ffiona Rees, Senior Associate Director, Evaluation and International Admission at UCLA

Ffiona Rees has served in the college admission profession for over 20 years. Her responsibilities include managing the undergraduate international admission and transfer evaluation process.  Prior to moving to California and UCLA in 2012, she worked at The George Washington University in Washington, DC for fifteen years. 

Ffiona is a Board Director for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an organization of nearly 15,000 members dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. She is also the former President of the International Association for College Admission Counseling, the largest global Association focused on facilitating the interaction among counselors, students and higher education institutions. 

Ffiona has two degrees from The George Washington University: a BA in Geography, and an MBA. She lived in Oxford, England for seven years; so you’ll notice she pronounces some words differently. She’s been lucky enough to travel throughout the United States and the world to recruit students. Highlights include riding elephants in Thailand and India, visiting the Great Wall and the Taj Mahal, and having lots of frequent flier miles!

Lastly, no, that’s not a typo – she does in fact spell her name with two F’s.

 

2020 WACAC Annual Conference

In light of the ongoing pandemic, we are sad to announce that the 2020 WACAC Annual Conference that was to be held at the Long Beach Convention Center, May 27 – 29th, has been cancelled. No doubt you have questions and therefore, we have prepared this FAQ in order to answer many of them.

Has the conference been cancelled? Will it be rescheduled?
The 2020 WACAC Conference has been cancelled. The delay in announcing was in part due to the Conference Committee trying to minimize the financial loss by applying monies already paid to Long Beach to a later conference date. Therefore, we look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis for the 2020 NACAC National Conference, in Sacramento in 2021 and Long Beach in 2022 for future WACAC Conferences.
Will my registration fees be refunded?
YES, all fees for the Annual Conference (including Pre-Conference Workshops, IDEA, the Counselors’ College Fair, Exhibitors and Sponsorships) will be fully refunded. In addition, the Long Beach Student College Fair will also be refunded with the other Spring 2020 fairs that have already been cancelled.
How will I receive my refund?
We will refund full registration fees to the original form of payment. Please be patient as we process registration fees, as well as refunds for the spring regional college fairs. All registration fee refunds will be processed before the end of WACAC’s fiscal year, ending June 30, 2020. Any check payments received but not yet cashed will be returned to you.
How can I help WACAC? Can I donate my registration fees?

Due to the volume of registrants, we must refund all fees. However, in light of members asking to help, we have created a link for members to donate their registration fee or any amount to support our mission. As a registered 501(c3), all donations are tax deductible. We sincerely appreciate your interest in supporting WACAC, and our mission to support and advance the work of counseling and enrollment professionals from California and Nevada as they help students realize their full potential.

Do I need to cancel my hotel reservation? Will I receive a refund?

For those participants who booked via the hotel links sent in the registration confirmation and on the WACAC Conference page, you will not need to cancel your reservations. Both the Hyatt Regency Long Beach and Renaissance Long Beach will cancel all booked rooms without charge. Due to limited staff, both properties have requested that you do not contact the hotel directly at this time. You will receive an automatic cancellation email to the address you provided at the time of booking, sometime by mid-April.

If you booked outside of the WACAC hotel links, you will need to cancel on your own.

What about other lodging or travel arrangements?
Please refer to the policies regarding the cancellation associated with other reservations, including airline, hotel, car rental or other companies. WACAC is not responsible nor can we assist with the cancellation of reservations made to attend the conference.
I received a scholarship to attend the WACAC Conference. Is it valid for next year?
Scholarships for the 2020 WACAC Conference will not transfer to a future event. We appreciate that you applied for and were successful in receiving a conference scholarship. We encourage you to do so again next year. In future WACAC scholarship applications, you may be asked if you previously received a WACAC scholarship. You may indicate ‘no’ in this scenario.
I submitted a session proposal and was confirmed or placed on the waitlist. Can I present it next year?
We thank you for submitting a session proposal and your willingness to contribute to the conference and the profession. We encourage you to submit a session proposal for our 2021 Conference in Sacramento when the “Call for Proposals” goes live in the fall.
How will WACAC conduct our annual elections and business meetings?
NACAC met with leadership and reviewed our bylaws in consultation with an attorney, and confirmed that WACAC has quite a bit of leeway and flexibility in how to conduct our Annual Elections and Business Meeting. They noted that our current election and bylaws voting procedures meet legal guidelines and encouraged us to proceed as normal. As for the business meeting, the WACAC Executive Committee will create a plan in the coming weeks and President Lauren Cook will be in touch as soon as decisions have been made.
Will you still award the annual WACAC recognition awards?

At this time, no decision has been made and while there have been some submissions, we always encourage nominations. They can be submitted here.

I have a question that was not answered here.

While we have thought of the many questions you may have, in light of these circumstances, we may have missed something. Therefore, we encourage you to contact the Conference Committee at wacacconference@wacac.org and appreciate your patience as we process refunds over the coming weeks

Phil Moreno, President-Elect
Keith Sanpei, Conference Committee Chairperson