Results of June 28th Meeting

Last meeting resulted in more of your classmates pledging to the proposed scholarship project. Pledge forms were distributed during the meeting, filled out and submitted.

In addition, attendees unanimously agreed in principle to the mandatory annual membership fee of Php100 for classmates residing locally and $50 for those living/working abroad. Eva F will draft the Board Resolution to make it official, unless any of you has any objection.

During the meeting, Eva briefly summarized the result of the general Alumni meeting held last June 21st @ SDA. Out of the 20 ticket booklets we as a batch were assigned to, 8 of your classmates bought one booklet costing Php200 each. These are tickets being sold to help generate funds for next year’s town fiesta.

In all, it was a very productive and fun meeting with most attendees seemingly comfortable with themselves as they openly share their thoughts and ideas; something I've always encourage everyone to do.

Present in the meeting were the following peeps: Noel N, Boy B, Ariel D, Bert R, Alex R, Emy G, Vic C, Al T, Wena C, and Eva F. Pics will follow!

Next meeting is tentatively scheduled on July 19th @ Eva’s place.

Rizal & Fort Santiago

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
(June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896)

June 28th Lunch Meeting

Please plan to attend our next meeting on June 28th, 2009(12noon) at Wena's place.

Lunch will be provided courtesy of our gracious host Wena. If you wish and you can, please do bring your favorite drinks/dessert/dish for more food and fun at maraming kwentuhan.

Topic to be discussed is the voluntary/mandatory membership fee option.

Voluntary Pledge forms for the proposed scholarship project will also be available for distribution for those who do not have computer/printing access.

Of course, this meeting is also meant to celebrate the June birthdays.

Happy Birthday June babies!

Refillable Voluntary Pledge Form

It came to my attention that some of you are having trouble printing and then submitting the completed voluntary pledge form for the night high school scholarship project proposal.

To make it easier, I re-designed the form allowing you to fill in the information directly using your computer, thus eliminating the need to print and/or scan it prior to submission.

Here are the simple steps you should follow to submit your voluntary pledge form via email:

1) Save the re-designed PDF file (emailed to you) onto your local hard drive.

2) Open the saved PDF file using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader** and start typing in the information needed in the space provided.

**Note: You need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill out the form. Please click here to download the latest free version.

3) Save the completed form.

4) Email the completed form to ediboyd@yahoo.com OR egfajardo61@yahoo.com

Once again, thanks to all who have already submitted their forms. For those who have not made their pledges yet, please consider doing so.

The more pledges we receive the closer we get for this proposed project to come into fruition.

Pledge Status as of June 15th, 2009

As of today, 37.1% of the target amount of at least Php350,000 has been reached.

Many thanks to those of you who have already made their voluntary pledge donation to the proposed scholarship project.

If you haven’t yet submitted your pledge donation form, please do so as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Up & UP

I seldom go to a movie theater nowadays only on rare instances like when unica hija wanted to see the movie “UP”.

I thought the original “Toy Story”, my personal favorite, is the funniest I’ve seen. But this one is hilarious, with mixed emotions, sadness at times.

Imagine tying thousands of balloons to a house and set on a journey to the wilds only to find out he’s not alone on this lifelong dream.

See the movie and I tell you, this one is for the ages. Dug the Dog is better than Woody, Buzz, Nemo, Shrek, or Flick...hehehe

While we’re at the subject of “UP”, thought I’d share you some pics I took while wandering around University of the Philippines campus during my last trip home. A friend of mine told me it’s a great place to explore and enjoy the surroundings while toying with my lens...and rightly so!

Walking around campus reminds me of my college days...at UE, not UP! :-)

I had lunch at one of their popular student diner, sitting side by side with some PYT and aspiring lawyers. Heck! I even bought a T-shirt and matching hat so as for me to really feel being one of them fighting maroons.


For a moment I felt incredibly elite and genius! ;-)

If only I could go back in time and become a rebellious, liberal, rally-go-lucky student of this university. Hmmm....I think I can be a good lawyer. After all, courtroom drama, litigation and all that lawyerly-stuff always fascinates me.

Doink-doink!

Did you hear that unmistakable gavel sound between “Law & Order” scenes on TV?

In my next life I wouldn’t mind being a lawyer to anyone. But the idea of having to need one for myself is not something I would hope to experience.

Although I find most women lawyers appealing and intellectually-challenging...wink wink..., to me they always spell trouble if I have to spend time with one...

...in court!


Anyhoo, enjoy “Up” the movie...and “UP” the school campus.

Membership, Fee, & Resolution

One possible source of fund for our association is the annual fee paid by members.

At one time I proposed a mandatory annual membership fee of Php100 for all residing locally and at least $50 for members working/living abroad. I have not heard much opposition or approval of it.

Because of the reactions to the proposal or the lack thereof, making the annual membership fee voluntary is the only other option we have.

However, may I remind all that monies supposedly to be collected from this annual membership fee will be used exclusively to fund meeting necessities, special events for our group, possibly contributions to deceased or sick members or relatives, operating expenses related to administrative maintenance of our association’s good standing with the registering board, and any other expenses we agreed upon.

In cases where we need money to fund special community projects such as the proposed scholarship project, or donations to charities, or contribution to special events such as the annual alumni homecoming, town fiestas, etc., an appeal for voluntary donations will be made separately.

Our plan is NOT to mix all of our monies into one basket. We will have separate accounting for all types of monies collected. We want to make this as clear as possible because we all know when it comes to money it can get tricky.

Currently, we do not have a mandated resolution addressing this membership fee issue. May I suggest that in our next meeting, this issue be part of the agenda to be discussed and bring to a final resolution? One way or the other, making it MANDATORY or VOLUNTARY, we have to decide and operate with clarity.

Thankfully, there are some members now who are making efforts to contribute monthly or whenever there is an opportunity, even without resolution about it. It helps sustain our financial needs to operate as an organization with a purpose.

Let’s put this membership fee into motion. If majority don’t want it mandatory, let’s make it voluntary, if that’s what it will take to have it resolved.

Another suggestion made by one member is that the Php50 monthly contributions some of you are currently making now become the voluntary pledge for the proposed scholarship project. Now, that’s not a bad idea! If majority agrees, let’s put that into another final resolution and start filling out Voluntary Contribution Pledge form and submit as soon as possible.

These are suggested topics we can all discuss in our next meeting and have a final resolution.

Agree or Disagree? Please let your voice be heard.

“BDO” Account (Fund Status as of May 31, 2009)

The new bank account under our official SEC-registered name has been established. The “old” PNB account under Claire R & Eva F’s name is now officially closed and remaining balance has been transferred to the new BDO account.

Details of the new account are as follow:

Account Name: “St. Dominic Academy Batch ‘78 Alumni Association, Inc.”
Peso Checking Account Number: 152-8012-794
Bank Name & Address: Banco de Oro
SM City Bicutan Branch Banking
Dona Soledad Ave corner West Service Road
Bicutan, Paranaque City 1700

Account Signatories: Eva G. Fajardo and/or Edgardo David (with online access)

Also, contrary to what we initially thought of Php15,000, the required minimum initial deposit to open the new account is Php25,000.

Since we do not have enough funds to meet the minimum initial deposit requirement, I made an advance deposit of my pledge payment for the proposed scholarship project to help initiate opening of the new account. Hopefully, the time will come that my advance pledge payment will be apply to what it is intended for...send 2 kids to night high school...with all your help.

For more details of our account, please see “Batch ’78 Fund Update as of May 31, 2009” emailed to all.