Cool Tool:

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Cool Tool

• Brenda Grady, USA Funds
• Jacki Fairbairn, GLHEGC

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Agenda

• Introductions
• Common Manual Facts
• e-Collection Overview
• ICM
• Tips and Tricks
• Going Paperless
• Exercising Our New Skills

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The Common Manual

• Collaborative effort of every FFELP guarantor
• Policies come from federal rules or may be
  designed to protect the federal fiscal interest
• Policies developed with community participation

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Stats

• Since 1996
• Nearly 800 policy issues presented to the
  community for comment
• More than 260 policy issues considered and not
  developed

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Common ManualVersions

• Paper
• Electronic Common Manual (ECM)
• CD ROM
• Integrated Common Manual (ICM)
• Download Monthly

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04 Paper Version

• 652 Pages, including Summary of Changes
• New Content in Appendix F
• Reminder Appendix H Comprehensive History with
  Topical Index

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e-Collection in Brief

• Produced/Distributed by FFELP Guarantors
• CD Format
• Read-only
• Searchable

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e-CollectionSystem Requirements

• Can be installed or used right from CD
• Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 or XP
• Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader (version 4.0 or
  higher)
• 32 megabytes RAM
• 172 MB of available hard-disk space
• CD-ROM drive

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e-Collection - Contents

• The Electronic Common Manual (ECM)
• Higher Education Act
• Regulations
• Dear Colleague Letters

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ECM

• Housed Distributed on CM e-Collection
• Static
• Intrinsic Magic
• Hyperlinks
• Search capability

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Quick ECM Access

• Click on to expand menu items
• Click on - to compress menu items

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e-Collection Magic

• Brings you to related text instantly
• Find
• Chapter titles (A)
• Index (B)
• Any green text (C)
• Blue text will take you to glossary definitions
  (D)

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A
C
B
D
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e-Collection Icons(Adobe 4.0 5.0)

• Goes to the next or previous page
• Adjusts your view of the current page

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e-Collection Icons(Adobe 4.0 5.0)

• Use to find a specific term
• Click on icon
• Type word
• Click search
• Search will begin on page you are viewing in
  document

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e-Collection Icons(Adobe 6.0)

• Goes to the next or previous page
• Adjusts your view of the current page

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e-Collection Icons(Adobe 6.0)

• Use to find a specific term
• Click on icon
• Type word
• Click search
• Search will begin on page you are viewing in
  document

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Reference Links

• CM References Linked to Source Documents on the
  Web
• NOT linked within the CD to documents on CD

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Reference Links
Cursor over citation indicates hyperlink. Click
to activate
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Integrated Resources

• Integrated Regulations
• Integrated HEA
• Shows amendments to text in underline/strike-out
  format

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ICM

• Housed on Guarantor websites
• Also on NCHELP website in their e-Library
• Updated monthly with policy change and text
  enhancements
• Same Intrinsic Magic as the ECM
• Hyperlinks within text and to source documents
• Search capability

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ICM Download

• Access/Use Directly from Web
• Large file
• Searches are very slow
• More Efficient to Download Monthly
• Speeds access
• Move old file to recycle bin

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ICM Download-PC Users

• Right click on the "Integrated Common Manual" or
  PDF.
• Choose "Save Target As.
• Choose Desktop and click on "Save.
• Complete when the message "Download Complete
  appears.

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ICM Download-Mac Users

• Simultaneously hold the Control key and click on
  the "Integrated Common
• Manual" PDF
• Click on Download to Disk
• Save the document to your desktop

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Click to link to revised text.
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Changes indicated by underline and strikeout.
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Tips and Tricks

• CM organized in Life of the Loan chronology

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Tips and Tricks

• Highlighted terms link to Glossary definitions

To get this!
Click
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Tips and Tricks

• Contents of Appendix H
• Documents the history of FFELP in date order
• Details substantive changes in policy
• Notes publication of statutes, regulations and
  letters

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Tips and TricksUsing the History

• Topical Index Leads to General Topics
• Program Changes Sorted 1st by Year
• Topics in Each Year Sorted Alphabetically

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Tips and TricksHistory Example

• Question When were the delayed delivery
  rules first implemented?
• First, what topic?

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Tips and TricksHistory Example

• Search either e-version for delivering loan
  funds (start at the beginning of appendix H!)
• First hit for delayed delivery---12-19-89
  delaying delivery of SLS loans
• Second---1-1-91 delaying delivery of Stafford
  loan funds
• NEXT---10-1-98, exemptions for low-default
  schools

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Exercising our New Skills
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Disbursement Rules How to define days???

• Recent QUESTION from a Listserve
• We do EFT disbursements at my school and we know
  that monies cant be disbursed more than 10 days
  before the beginning of the semester. But is that
  10 working days business days or calendar days?

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Disbursement Rules How to define days???

• Where do we start to find the answer?
• Look to Common Manual first? Why???
• Written in simple English
• Organized in order of the loan process
• Has regulatory/statutory/other cool cites
  references

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Disbursement Rules How to define days???

• Lets try it . . . !
• Open the Common Manual (ECM or ICM)
• Where to start?
• Q. What are we doing?
• A. Delivering loan funds

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How to define days???

• Q. Where does delivering loan funds fall in
  the life-of-loan time line?
• A. Looking at the table of contents, the answer
  is most likely in Chapter 8-Loan Delivery.

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How to define days???
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How to Count Days???

• Thus, the scheduling for disbursements is based
  on just days or CALENDAR days.

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How to Count Days???

• But, subsection 8.7.A clarifies that once an EFT
  is received, the Initial, Conditional, and Return
  Periods are all based on BUSINESS days.

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Your Policy Questions!

• Lets find the answer...

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Thank you for joining us!Please be sure to
complete your conference evaluation form!

• Brenda Grady, USA Funds
• Jacki Fairbairn, GLHEGC