November to Remember

[Admin]

To all members of BUHS Class 1978:

Jam with your classmates and friends this coming November 3, Friday at 6:00 p.m. at Kicks Restobar, Parkwoods, Washington Drive, Legazpi City. Experience the fun of watching our very own batchmates perform on stage.

See you there!


Text message sent by Catz Apin, 8:59 p.m., 24 Nov. 2006

[Malen]

Ay sayang! Dae ako pwede mag-oli ta alanganin an petsa.

[Admin]

-----Original Message-----
From: macario apin [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:08 AM
To: Magelende C. Llona
Subject: BUHS BATCH 78 JAMMIN' NITE

Dear Batchmates,

Greetings!

As part of the grand celebration of Batch 78 on its 30th alumni Homecoming in the year 2008, meaning its more than a year from now. We will be conducting monthly activities to drumbeat and snowball that grand celebration. To kick off. . . For this month we will have our activity dubbed as "BUHS BATCH 78 JAMMIN NITE" , November 3, 2006 at KICKS RESTOBAR @ Parkwoods, Washington Drive, Legazpi City, This will feature our talented Batchmates to entertain us, back to back with Acoustic Band from Manila, over an " EAT ALL YOU CAN" dinner for a cost of 250.00 only. Great deal!!!

For our batchmates from abroad and for those who cant make it on November 3, don't worry. We designed a teleconference on that day.We will project on a wide screen so you can send your greetings, hi and hellos and hopefully recognize your former classmates. Please log on to our yahoo groups. or email at [e-mail], so you can join the fun and the meeting which will be conducted on the same occasion, hope well able to manage our time. We will ask our moderator to help us out on these, by reaching out our batchmates specially those from abroad.

REMEMBER !!! NOVEMBER 3, 2006, 6 PM KICKS RESTOBAR @ Parkwoods, Washington Drive, Legazpi City.

Share the Fun, Lets Jam!!!!!


CATOY APIN

[Malen]

Kudos to Catoy and company! Mga mahiguson daw na nag-house to house sa mga ka-batch ta sa BUHS Class 1978. Ngunyan na aldaw naka-schedule sinda mag-office-hopping. Target nindang dumanon Ngunyan su mga government offices diyan sa Legazpi kun saen yaraon su mga kaklase ta.

[Rosaldo "Ross" Iglesia]

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BUHS BATCH 1978 ASSOCIATION OFFICERS

I would like to firstly congratulate all the officers and members of the BUHS Batch 1978 for their enthusiasm and commitment in planning this early so that the objectives of the Grand Reunion in 2008 can be achieved. It is to be recognised that, in so brief a time since its inception, the current officers and (past officers too) have showcased that everything looks possible as long as there is continued unity and teamwork among the participants.

Guided by our end goal of making the 2008 Grand Reunion better than the last, if not the best, I am formally requesting that the Reunion Officers table the following points in this email, at its next meeting:

1. Consolidation Meeting

I humbly ask that the Officers consider the proposal to include, as a strategy in all its activities, a consolidation meeting. The consolidation meeting does not require constitutional reference because it is a procedural tactic that is applied for activities, such as:
1.1 choice of the type of fund raising activities we hold
1.2 members or groups who will perform specific functions, eg. Manila, Bicol or overseas-based groups
1.2 invitations, souvenir programs, etc.

For example, we do not need to refer to the BUHS constitution if we decide to publish a souvenir program of if we have to have a meeting to discuss the progress of our planning activities.

In fact, a consolidation meeting is one of those meetings we hold to plan, to implement and wrap up an activity. A consolidation meeting is designed to wrap-up, to assess an activity and may have the following characteristics:

Attendees: Officers and/or members who have been involved in past activity which is under review. They can also include children, relatives, friends, who have participated on different levels. Reunion Officers need to only facilitate or assign someone to facilitate the meeting as decided. In relation to this, can I suggest to please include or involve as many minds as possible. For example, why not get Tess E's planning expertise input (ADB experience), Lindy and Francis' organisational skills, Francia's business acumen, Marielle's or Ross F.'s logistics supervisory exp..Victor D, Maloy G., Marlen J., Marx's leadership experience and skills ,etc. etc. (dakulon pa sinda).

Agenda:
1. General report, a summary of the events leading to the main event(to be given by the past president, if possible).
2. Feedback from the general membership
2a. Successes. Spell out the successful outcomes of past activities. Decisions and actions that worked.
2b. Challenges. Spell out actions/decisions and outcomes that did not work well and why.
2c. Suggestions: Ways to improve and/or avoid those pitfalls in 2008.
3. Future projects/activities of the Association.

The BUHS 1978 Association then would be able to identify future actions, such as for example: follow up of future membership that we should have achieved as a result of the activities, press releases (radio or TV announcements), identify potential members to further activities, and so on and so forth.

In the last Reunion of 2003, there were so many successful outcomes I heard (although I wasn't there personally) that we need to recognise and harness as well as issues that need to be clarified and brought to conclusion. One example: proper accounting of funds collected, proper recording of previous minutes of meetings, etc.

We need to ask were the events successful? How were they successful? Why were they successful? What are the elements that made the events successful? Can we replicate the success in 2008? What are the things that we need to retain and what are the things that we should discard or change?

And of course, we are not perfect. If we were, we do not need to hold activities to validate our existence or do any planning meetings anymore.

We need to identify decisions and actions that were not very successful in the past. It is only in consciously identifying them that we can avoid them or improve them. And because these were organisational activities, we do not have to be personal about it. When we criticize, we criticise the organisation decisions and actions NOT the person. When someone says for example, "Ross as secretary did not record the minutes of the meeting in Makati last week". It is a criticism not directed to me as a person, but the planning weakness or oversight that need to be corrected. My name was only mentioned because I was supposed as a secretary, to have done it. I will then explain why and it is not to justify the oversight but to explain how it happened and so you would know the unfolding of events and where the problem occurred in these events.

If we do not make consolidation meetings as a necessary strategy of the Association, there will be no clear pattern that we could look back and whether we are proceeding to higher levels of organising. It will be difficult to move forward as we do not know if we are moving at all. There are great mistakes being repeated because they have not been made visible as mistakes and so there is no way of avoiding them.

Lastly, the Association is still very young. We need to step back and consolidate so that the next set of officers in 2008 would be more well equipped to plan our 40th or 50th year anniversary reunions!.

I believe that unity, camaraderie and community spirit are paramount in the coming 2008 Grand Reunion. The Batch 1978 set of officers and participants will be seen and treated with respect and professionalism, if we are seen as an organisation whose task is to unify rather than divide. Its batch members would be treated with respect, fondness and greater closeness, if we totally support this, actively participate, in our own right, as individual members of different sections of batch 1978. Come 2008, we hope to celebrate, socialise, share the blessings and glory of living with other Batch 1978 members.

I can say that although I am thousands of kilometres away I am also very much interested as other foreign-based batch members are to join in and offer suggestions and ideas in a constructive and positive way towards the realisation of our aims and objectives. In fact, the ball has started rolling for Section-CO to also plan ourselves and think of what small but meaningful contribution we can offer come 2008. They would be embarrassed to see their names here but we have formed a "Core Group" composed of Kiks & Evelyn Almayda, Myrna Navarro-Guerrero, Nida Mendoza-Lorino, Vir Manjares. We would like to reach out to as many members of Section-C out there so please help us disseminate this information too. We do not intend to be a separate group but we intend to do our brainstorming first among ourselves, collate all the suggestions, and reach decision by consensus. This means that we have decided not to "elect officers" from among ourselves but rather have equal voice as Core Group members. By the way, our temporary marketing acronym is E1CC! (which stands for Everyone Counts in Section C!). Watch out everyone, Section-C is coming your way...soon!

Mabalos tabi,

Ross Iglesia