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Office of the Registrar
Important Dates
May 16-21: Exams
May 22: Senior
Grades Due by 9am
May 25:
Commencement
June 3: Summer I
Registration
July 10: Summer II
Registration
SPRING 2013
Going Green: Paperless Initiatives in the Registrar's Office
Melissa Holmes, Assistant Registrar
NEWSLETTER
Contact Us:
Alamance Building
Room 102
Ph: 336.278.6677
registrar@elon.edu
The Registrar’s Office is thinking green this spring
and we’re not just talking about the beautiful landscaping
around campus!
The registrar is responsible for maintaining the integrity of
Elon’s institutional academic records. Developments in technology are
impacting how we can now perform this function. Previous Registrar,
Mark Albertson, began the process by overseeing the scanning and
cataloging of paper transcript records that dated from the Fire of 1923
to 1980. He, along with Nicole Jones, Assistant Registrar, also
(Continued on page 4)
I am pleased to write my first article for the new
Office of the Registrar Newsletter. As I write, it has
been approximately 4 months since I joined this
outstanding community here at Elon University. With
so many changes going on in the office, the team felt
we needed to do something comprehensive to keep
the community abreast of all the changes. Thus, this
bi-annual newsletter will serve as our means to
communicate news and coming changes.
I want to start with the vision of the Registrar’s Office. As you may notice,
several changes are under way to support a paperless environment. These
initiatives include PDF transcripts, online grade changes, student withdrawal
processes, creation of fillable PDF documents, and streamlining policies to
eliminate the need for paper documentation. All of these initiatives are in line
with our peer and aspirational institutions and the growing student demand to
have electronic services available to them 24/7.
Current business practices throughout the office are being documented and
analyzed for efficiency and members of the Registrar’s Office are being
encouraged to cross-train in multiple areas of the office to better serve the
community. As you flip through this newsletter, you will notice articles from
many members of the team providing you updates on what is happening in their
areas. I want to encourage everyone to reach out to us with ideas, questions, or
concerns as we strive to improve our customer service.
Registrar’s Corner: The First of Many
Rodney L. Parks, Ph.D. University Registrar
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Coming Soon! 2
Policy Updates 3
Online Catalog 4
QEP 5
VA Benefits 5
Procedural Research 6
Employee Spotlight 7
New Asst. Registrar 9
New Digs! 10
Graduation Updates 10
Inside this Issue
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Coming Soon to an Inbox Near You!
Karen Pore, Associate Registrar
The Registrar’s office has partnered with Parchment, Inc. to provide new and improved transcript
services to our students and alumni. Beginning in early summer, transcript ordering will be completely
accessible online. Online ordering will allow students and alumni to log in to a secure site, enter all the
required information to request a transcript, pay the transcript fee and track the status of their transcript all
with a few clicks of a button. Streamlining this procedure will give the requestor more information on
where their transcript is in the process and will also make transcript ordering much more convenient than
the current process of mailing a request form and check.
But wait, there’s more!
After online transcript ordering is activated, our technology team will move on to
the next phase of the newly improved transcript service. Work is already
underway to provide students and alumni with instant access to a secure .pdf of
their official transcript. We envision .pdf delivery to be one of our most cutting
edge service upgrades. Students will be able to request a transcript online and
the link to their secure transcript will be sent to the email addresses of their
approved receivers. The document link will be active for that receiver for a limited
time only. The next great part: the tracking service available will allow the transcript requestor to see when
the transcript is both received and when the .pdf is opened. This new speedy information flow will be
much appreciated by job seekers and applicants to graduate schools where deadlines can sneak up on us
all.
But if you call in the next 10 minutes…
Our team is not going to stop at just providing improved ordering and secure 24-hour .pdf delivery. We
plan to think outside the box and allow our students to provide an even more well-rounded view of what an
Elon education is all about. We are working with members of Student Life to provide secure .pdf delivery
of the Elon Experiences transcript in addition to the academic transcript when requested. An Elon
education is all about engaged learning and its experiential hallmarks like internships, research, study
abroad, service and leadership. Many of these experiences happen in the classroom, but Elon students also
take their participation outside of classroom walls and that is why we want to enable them to show these
achievements as well as their academic work to their future employers or graduate schools. We foresee
giving students the ability to send the Elon Experiences transcript along with their official academic
transcript when using our new transcript ordering system.
Keep an eye on the Registrar’s website and Elon Ontrack to keep up with the progress of this new
service. Coming soon to an inbox near you…
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We have two recently approved policy updates to the process for posting undergraduate transfer
credit on a student’s transcript. These two changes were designed to provide clarity to transcript readers
about the type and level of courses transferred to Elon from other institutions.
When an incoming transfer course matches a current Elon offering, the transcript listing will now
show the Elon course number and the Elon course title. When an incoming transfer course does not match
a current Elon offering but falls within a subject area offered at Elon, the course will be posted to the
student’s academic transcript showing the content area and the academic level of the course. For example,
a 100 level English course is designated as ENG 1XX, a 200 level Business course BUS 2XX, etc.
Previously, these courses would be listed as ELE for 100/200 level courses and ADV for 300/400
level courses under the transcript header CRS NO.
Interdisciplinary courses which fall within one of Elon’s general studies categories will continue to
be posted as electives within the appropriate category (e.g., EXP, SCY, CIV, SCI) at the appropriate level
(i.e., 1XX, 2XX, 3XX, 4XX).
Beginning June 1, the definition of the Incomplete Policy will be modified. The system currently
calculates the earned hours with zero quality points for a grade of incomplete (i.e., it has the same effect on
the student’s GPA as an F). The new proposal will remove the Attempted Hours component giving
students the ability to complete the work without a cumulative GPA impact until the grade is changed to an
appropriate letter grade.
Additionally, a new step to the process will require adjunct faculty to complete an Incomplete
Grade Contract Form prior to entering an “I” grade for a student. The new form would give the
Department Chair the ability to work with a student if the adjunct professor does not assign an appropriate
letter grade before the deadline.
In the past, an adjunct may have moved without leaving a forwarding address, thus creating
difficulties of assigning a final grade. All faculty will be encouraged to use the new form thereby creating
a contract between the student and the faculty member on coursework remaining. The form will be kept in
the student’s permanent academic record.
Transfer Credit
Rodney Parks, Registrar
Incomplete Policy
Rodney Parks, Registrar
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(Going Green: Continued from cover page)
launched the scanning of currently enrolled student files into an electronic format, which will phase out all
paper copies of student academic folders by fall of 2014.
Current Registrar, Dr. Rodney Parks, is advancing the team’s efforts even further. This spring, the
office is reducing the amount of paper used on a daily basis. These efforts include the use of SharePoint
to create online forms, which are currently being tested for full rollout this summer. The grade change
form and the drop/add forms are the first on the list of many changes expected to move to a completely
online format. All forms that were once printed in-office and required students to come to the Registrar’s
office are now available as .pdf fillable forms on our website under “services” and “forms”. We
introduced these earlier this spring as a step toward developing workflows and processes that will
eventually be available for complete online form submission.
Karen Pore, Associate Registrar, is working with her technology team to launch online transcript
ordering and .pdf delivery service which is scheduled to be available online later this
summer.
We are excited about the changes that are both sustainable and more easily
accessible to our campus community and will keep you updated as we continue to
evaluate our office processes and move forward with the development of more user
and Earth friendly paperless processes.
In the spirit of being responsible and sustainable with our natural resources, the
Registrar’s Office is pleased to announce that, beginning Fall 2013, it will publish
the Undergraduate, iMedia, MBA and M.Ed Schedule of Classes only in its online
form, maintaining and increasing advisors’ and students’ ability to find and select
courses while at the same time saving thousands of pieces of paper and thousands of
dollars in printing costs. Over the past few years the demand for a paper schedule
booklet has decreased sharply, with a growing number of advisors and students
opting to use OnTrack for course selection. In addition to the OnTrack information,
we will continue to publish a PDF version of the Schedule of Classes which will
now be updated “real-time” with corrections that occur after the release of the
schedule.
While we recognize that some users may miss the comfort of using a paper schedule, course
information frequently changed between the printing deadline and the arrival of the printed booklet. The
paper copy was incorrect even before it was received. The OnTrack schedule listing under Search for
Sections has always provided real-time schedule information. We now going to add regular updates to the
PDF of the schedule booklet to keep it as current as possible.
Your continued support of the efforts of the Registrar’s Team to advance services for the ever-changing
needs of our dynamic Elon community is much appreciated. We look forward to hearing your
observations about the new process.
Fall Schedule
Rodney Parks, Registrar
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Deciphering the ins and outs of VA Educational Benefits can be quite an undertaking. The complexity
of the requirements and applications can make a student using VA benefits feel overwhelmed. This is
where my role as School Certifying Official (SCO) comes in handy and hopefully streamlines the process
of initiating these benefits.
There are several different types of educational benefit programs that are offered through the VA.
They are:
Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33)
Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 30) (Active Duty and Selected Reserve)
Reserve GI Bill (Chapter 1606)
REAP (Chapter 1607)
Dependent Education Assistance (DEA) (Chapter 35)
The first step a Veteran should take is to determine what benefit program they qualify for and which
one best meets their needs. The GI Bill Website has a wealth of tools that will help in making these
Veteran Educational Benefits
Nicole Jones, Assistant Registrar
The Office of the Registrar is pleased to support a number of ongoing research and writing for
publication initiatives. Current research to support this initiative is being conducted by Student Workers
under the guidance of Dr. Parks and includes:
Brett Evans (Senior, Religion): Motivations and Enculturation of Older Students Returning to a
Traditional University: A qualitative study investigating the meaning of the experiences of seven
students participating in a 62-and-over reduced tuition program at a large, traditional Southeastern
university.
Brett Evans: Vegetarian and Vegan Friendly Campus? Issues in attracting and supporting plant-based
students in universities, a qualitative study aimed at recruitment and retention.
Ashley Edwards (Junior, Psychology): Transgenderism and the College Experience: Transitioning
challenges during higher education, a phenomenological case study approach to examine the unique
experiences of two transgender students who began their transition during their college years at a
large, Southeastern university.
Leah Hayes (Junior, Psychology): The Displaced Student: Reverse transfer students and enrollment
management of women experiencing a traumatic event on-campus, phenomenology research
aimed at higher educational professionals in students support services.
Chelsea Helms (Senior, Finance): Chelsea just completed a SACRAO Newsletter article titled:
The Role of the Registrar: A Student’s Perspective (www.sacrao.org)
Stafford McIntyre: (Junior, Computer Science) Stafford is currently working on an interactive map for
our website that will allow students to see the walking distance between campus buildings.
Registrar’s Commitment to the QEP & Academic Challenge
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After 32 years in the Registrar’s Office, I discovered that gaining a new Registrar
meant researching and evaluating all of our office/business processes to see what
other institutions were practicing and considering whether we could make our
office better. Shortly after his arrival this January, Dr. Parks encouraged me to
research other schools across the nation for information on diploma ordering and
transcript policies to see how we compare to our peers and aspirational institutions.
This was a new and exciting venture for me. After looking at 25 universities and
colleges, I found that transcript policies vary from state to state and school to
school, and they all process transcripts in a variety of ways. The processing time
with the larger universities varied along with the mailing process itself. Some universities still process
transcripts in person while also responding to mail-in requests, email, fax and online requests. Others are
completely online. The fees associated with the transcripts vary from $2 to $15 plus additional costs if
transcripts are to be sent overnight or by Fed Ex. The additional mailing costs also varied from institution
to institution.
The research on printing diplomas was a different story. I researched peer and aspirant universities via
email or phone and found that several institutions used the same company while some chose “in-house”
printing. Several of the larger universities have used the same company for at least 30 years. One of the
universities I contacted uses their own print shop for producing their diplomas and is very pleased with that
process. They also employ their own graphics designer in the print shop. I also found variance in the types
of covers other schools use. Some of the schools do not use hard covers, except with their Doctorate
Degrees. Two of the schools interviewed only use plastic sleeves for the protection of the diplomas while
others used hard covers with all diplomas.
The research shows there is a wide variation among higher education institutions concerning the
policies and vendors used in transcript and diploma processing by registrar offices. We will continue to
investigate the way we process our own transcripts and diploma orders and hope to have exciting news in
the near future regarding both.
Procedural Research
Cheryl Loy, Registration/Graduation Assistant
decisions. Once this determination is made, the next step is to apply. After this application is submitted,
either online or a hardcopy by mail, the veteran or veteran dependent should contact the SCO at the
academic institution. From this point the SCO will review the student’s account, prepare and submit an
enrollment certification to the VA.
For students using the Post 9/11 GI Bill, the 2013-14 academic school year tuition and fee cap is
$19,198.31. This is a figure that will help students plan financially for the upcoming academic year.
Every VA account is going to be different. Some are going to be for the veteran and others are going
to be instances where the veteran is transferring their entitlement to their dependents. In either case, the
SCO at the academic institution will be there to help with this process. Please contact Elon’s SCO, Nicole
Jones, at 336-278-6676 or njones@elon.edu for help on starting Veteran Educational Benefits or if you
have questions regarding your existing benefits.
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If it weren’t for our new Registrar, Dr. Parks, I wouldn’t be here today – here at Elon,
at least. About a month ago, I started working in the Registrar’s Office as the
Program Assistant. Had you asked me three months ago if I had any plans on
working at Elon, my initial response might have been, “Where?”
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, my scope was usually restricted to state
borders, especially in setting employment goals. However, while studying
Physics at the University of Georgia, I was befriended by a certain Associate
Registrar – Rodney Parks. My brother, Zach, also happened to work for
Rodney as his Program Assistant at the time (notice a pattern).
After UGA, I had been working tech support for law firms for a few years and
decided I was ready for something different. Zach alerted me to a new vacancy
in Dr. Parks’ office at Elon University. It didn’t take much research for me to realize what a great
opportunity this was. A few interviews and road trips later and I feel like I’m walking in my brother’s
footsteps.
With the help of some friends, my dog and I got packed up and quickly moved into Mebane. After
work, you might see me and my Husky/Lab exploring campus; feel free to stop and say hello! We both like
meeting new people.
Once I’ve learned how things work in this office, Dr. Parks has asked that I help bring more technology
into our procedures and processes. Before you know it, you’ll be able to make appointments with us online
or meet with the Registrar in a virtual meeting!
Allow Myself to Introduce… Myself.
Casey Hayes, Program Assistant
This semester’s Employee Spotlight features Casey Hayes, the new Program
Assistant for the Office of the Registrar. Casey came to us at the beginning of April
from Stone Mountain, Georgia. Casey attended the University of Georgia as an
undergraduate majoring in Physics. I sat down with Casey to ask a few questions and
to try to shed some light on our new mystery man.
AE: Welcome to Elon, Casey! Are you enjoying your time here so far?
CH: Yes, I really am enjoying my time here! Everyone has been extremely inviting and welcoming,
particularly in helping me get settled in.
AE: It was not too long ago that you were a student at the University of Georgia. What is it like to be
a staff member instead of a student on a college campus?
CH: It’s interesting to see how things work from this prospective, especially with the Registrar’s Office.
As a student, I had no idea what the Registrar’s Office did (even though my brother worked at UGA’s at
Employee Spotlight: Casey Hayes
Ashley Edwards, Student Assistant
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the time). I miss the level of responsibility I had at the time. It was much more carefree as a student. Being
an adult and having to pay bills and deal with health insurance definitely makes me miss the more carefree
days.
AE: I hear that you brought a furry friend with you. Would you like to tell us a little bit about her?
CH: Isis a three year old Husky and Chocolate Labrador mix. I’ve had her for one and a half years after I
rescued her from the pound in Georgia. I learned quite quickly that she has more energy than I know what
to do with. I also found that she does not like being left alone, but she’s gotten much better. I’ve always
loved dogs. I used to raise guide dogs with a program called the Guide Dog Foundation, which allowed me
to have a puppy while in college. I was able to take the puppy everywhere with me – even to class – and
the foundation covered most of the expenses. I adopted Isis because I got tired of having to send the pups
away after a year of training and I decided I wanted to get a dog that I could actually keep.
AE: When you’re not here at work, what are we most likely to find you doing?
CH: I’ve been joining my new community at the apartment complex where I live. There are a lot of great
people there who have been very welcoming and I have been enjoying hanging out with them. I go to the
dog park with Isis a lot too. There are many people my age in the complex, so it has been easy to get
involved. I look forward to being able to do some hiking and backpacking soon. Isis even has her own
backpack, it’s great.
AE: If you received $5,000 to go on a vacation of your choice, where would you go?
CH: I would go to the Maldives. It serves as my happy place – the place I allow my mind to
whenever I get too stressed. I have a beach there that I have picked out where I wouldn’t mind
staying. It’s a simple beach with the clearest blue water where Isis and I can run around and
enjoy life.
AE: What is your favorite childhood memory?
CH: Just in general, I would have to say the memory of coming home from church every
Sunday to play Legend of Zelda on the NES. I still have the originals in the gold cartridge and
everything.
AE: What’s something about you most people don’t know?
CH: When I was a kid, I was absolutely petrified of ET. I can handle him now, but he still musters that
same carnal fear from my childhood. Also, the fact that I am actually 26 and a staff member and not a
student worker surprises people every time.
AE: What are you looking forward to achieving in the next year?
CH: I look forward to buying my first house. I might be able to do that by next year if all goes well.
AE: Is there an interesting fact about you that you would like to tell the community?
CH: I love karaoke. I like entertaining people in general, but I absolutely love making a fool of myself with
a microphone. Feel free to challenge me to a song!
As you can see, we have added quite a character to our office!
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Greetings from Elon’s newest Assistant Registrar!
Office changes much? Wow, not only did we gain a new
Registrar in January, but earlier that same week, we also “lost” two
very valued colleagues from our office. To say that things have
changed a “bit” around here would definitely be an understatement.
The January departure of Suzanne Sioussat, our beautiful
southern-bell-of-a records-coordinator, who provided all transcripts
and verifications for our students and alumni, coupled with the
initiation of .pdf and online transcript capabilities on the horizon, prompted Dr. Parks to seize the
opportunity to restructure his newly acquired team. Soon after evaluating our current office structure, his
visualization was to replace Suzanne’s newly vacant position with an Assistant Registrar/Technology to
help implement and support the application of all the new technologies that are soon to be emerging out of
the Registrar’s Office. After eleven years as the Program Assistant in the office, I was the first one
jumping up and down in front of his door… and desk… and car in the parking lot in the morning…and
popping out from behind oak trees…sounding like a 6 year old in a PE kickball line-up saying, “PICK
ME!!! PICK ME!!!! OOOH! OOH! HEYYYY ROD! PICCCCK MEEEEEEE!!!” And here I am!
Ok…so that was a fairly entertaining exaggeration as to how it all really happened, but I’m
hoping it did make a good hook for my article at least.
Spending so many years at Elon, I knew I wanted to stay here, but I also have the personality type that
thrives under challenge and best with new endeavors. I had become extremely comfortable after eleven
years in the same position, but I also didn’t want to venture outside the walls of Elon. I have deep rooted
ties here; I graduated from Elon in 1995, my dad had worked here most of my life which put me on
campus often as a youngster for football games and cultural events and I have a daughter hoping to attend
Elon in her mom’s footsteps in a few years. The new opening in the office, due to Suzanne’s departure to
Chicago with her fiancé, provided me the opportunity to combine both, staying in Elon’s Registrar’s
Office and a motivating new position!
I love the encounters, relationships and opportunities that this new position has already been providing.
In just a few short months, I have been working closely with other departments across campus on exciting
new things, some of which you will be seeing soon! Thanks to collaboration with Nicole Jones and JP
Lavoie, faculty members and Chairs should be on the lookout for instructions regarding online grade
change forms being piloted in the next several weeks. We are also in the final testing stages before rolling-
out drop and add forms online.
I have also been involved in the .pdf transcript process from the vendor presentation phase all the way
through to the near-launch with our Associate Registrar, Karen Pore and Elon’s Application Technologies
department. The Registrar’s technology team has also launched and maintains our interoffice SharePoint
for document sharing, collaborative writing, office management processes, research projects and our very
own “Regipedia” for cross training. I was also encouraged and able to attend the Ellucian Live conference
WHOLE LOT OF SHAKIN’ GOING ON...
Melissa Holmes, Assistant Registrar
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After many years of the same office design, furniture, and décor, the Registrar’s
Office is scheduled to be completely remodeled this summer. The new office will
have a more customer friendly environment, a more professional look, have
improved accessibility and will use space much more efficiently. New technologies,
such as online registration and the upcoming .pdf transcripts, have enabled the
removal of the large counter in Alamance 104 allowing that space to be used more
efficiently in the new, more inviting, student service area.
The movers are scheduled to arrive June 3rd and will relocate us to our
temporary home on the first floor of the Kenan Honors Pavilion in the Academic
Village. We will continue to be available all Summer at the same phone and
email addresses. Stop by and visit us during this time if you have any business
needs, and please direct any students that may need us to our temporary location in
the Academic Village. Tentatively, we are slated to move back into Alamance on or
around July 11th.
After we get settled, we will send an announcement for our “Grand Reopening”. We are all
looking forward to the new things that are going to be available to our students, faculty and
staff.
New Digs!
Nicole Jones, Assistant Registrar
Updates for Graduation and the Academic Catalog
Susan Patton, Senior Associate Registrar
As of today’s date (5/15/2013) there are 1182 undergraduates on the graduation list. For this
office to be successful in clearing students for graduation, we must wait for the final grades
which are due for seniors on Wednesday, May 22, at 9:00. Last minute notes of substitution,
completion of foreign language placement, completion of the experiential learning
requirement and completion of the comprehensive evaluation letters must also be received and
processed before students may be cleared to graduate. By late Wednesday night, this office will have the
in Philadelphia this spring with Karen Pore. I was able to acquire information and ideas to bring back to the
team to use both in SharePoint and Colleague.
I can honestly say I now have the best of both worlds; the luxury of remaining with coworkers I have
been blessed to be surrounded by for eleven years and a challenging career advancement working with
people across campus that makes me enthused about coming to work each day.
Of course, my departure as Program Assistant left the opening for the newest-kid-on-the-registrar’s-
block…Mr. Casey Hayes, who you can read all about in this newsletter, and by the way, if you are looking
for him around campus, the picture on his “introduction” is a little misleading.
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Thanks for checking out our first biannual newsletter! Keep an eye out for the next issue that will include
The future launch of Schedule 25 — how it will improve room scheduling,
Direction of ad hoc reporting in our office,
Update on Registrar’s initiatives to leverage technology to improve customer service for our students,
And an in-depth employee exposé!
In the Next Issue
official graduation list ready and waiting. The faculty will meet one last time for the 2012-13 AY on
Saturday morning, May 25, in Alumni Gym, to affirm that these students have successfully met all
quantitative and qualitative requirements in order to receive their degrees.
The 2013-14 academic catalog has gone out for third round edits. Once the edits are returned to this
office, the copy will go to publications for formatting and reproofing. It will then be printed and
distributed.
Rodney Parks and I attended the 2013 American Association of Collegiate Registrars
and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) conference in San Francisco on May 13th – 17th.
Our team is currently researching products for better ways of compiling the academic
catalog, more user friendly classroom scheduling, and products which will help us serve
our community more efficiently. Being able to talk to others in the profession, networking
with these professionals, asking questions and listening to the steps they took in
implementing new services was invaluable. The sessions we attended presented many
ideas to bring back to the office to discuss during the summer retreat. Be on the lookout for some of the
services to be part of our office in the near future.
While AACRAO was great, the ride home was not. If you want a survivalist’s guide for what to do
when you fly into Chicago and can’t get to North Carolina for three days due to storms and floods and
about 1,000 people plus being in the same boat, contact Rod. He’s an expert in any type of situation
involving air travel.