August 28 Meeting

Lara writes: Life sometimes gets in the way, so after a five-month hiatus, we decide to meet again at The Podium. This time, we’re a bigger group. The attendees are myself, Ginge, Raquel, Rina (now Azcuna-Siongco…she got married on June 15!), Alicia Colby-Sy, Ermin Punsalan-Velasco and Rowie Gallos-Marquez.

I’ve taken the liberty of re-posting the minutes. This appeared on our SSCHS ’85 Facebook account on September 2, 2008. Click here to view the minutes.

I. Fund-Raising Activities
Among others, the meeting dwelt on how we are going to do the fund-raising, and the following were forwarded and are to be pursued:

1) participation in bazaars
2) 80s / Oktoberfest party with Ateneo HS 85
3) movie premiere

For 1), Ermin and Rowie will be the ones to start the ball rolling. Ermin has already contacted Gem Hernandez-Abcede and Nora Siggaoat-Pinga since they already have experience in joining these events. In this regard, everyone is being invited to join the meeting on Sep 13, noon (lunch, yum!) at a still-to-be-announced place (Makati). Agenda will be:
a. schedules of bazaars and which ones we will join
b. products to be sold
c. other suggestions for other fund-raising events will also be discussed. Nora has forwarded the suggestion of a badminton tournanament and this will be discussed at the Sep 13 meeting as well.
Have also talked to Meg del Rosario-Isleta and she is amenable to selling her delectable baked goods. Others who have products that can be sold are very much encouraged to attend. Products from the US courtesy of Scholasticans residing over there are certainly most welcome.
Gem needs a headcount of who will be attending so we can determine where we will hold the meeting. Please indicate attendance on my, Ermin's, Gem's, or Nora's walls.


For 2), Rowie will contact Fritz of 4-I through hubby Bernie regarding the OktoberFest/80s party. (Update: It's Anton Bengzon of Ateneo 4B who has made headway in the party preparations. Have contacted him already and the venue will be at Warehouse 135, 135 Yakal St., Makati - near Makati Police Station. It will be on October 24, Friday. Schools involved are Ateneo, SSC, and Assumption (HS 85). Each school will have 300 tickets to sell. A meeting will be held this week to discuss further details.)

For 3), Ginge has taken on the responsibility of staging a movie premiere, but any help will surely be appreciated.

For Scholasticans in the US, it was recommended that Annete Mijares start the activities for those on the West Coast, and Meg Cabrera-Savady for those on the East Coast (Meg has already accepted).

II. Updates
Rina A. Siongco will develop a blog or some such other technology thing that will allow everyone to be updated on developments leading to our 2010 Homecoming. This is expected to be up by Sep 15. It will also include a button that will allow for donations (PayPal).

III. Recipient of Funds
The funds to be raised will go to SSC for their scholarship and other programs and also to a cause or causes which is still up for identification. If you have suggestions, feel free to recommend.

We have roughly a year and four months to raise funds. We hope that everyone will be able to participate in the activities and have a jolly good time in the process.:-)

Will inform you of the upcoming meeting's venue the week before the 13th. See you then!

Thanks again, Rowie, for drawing this up. I’d like to add that during the meeting, I brought up the issue of holding a more-scaled down celebration. I attended three homecomings in the last six years (2002, 2003 and 2008) and noticed that each homecoming, which is traditionally hosted for all jubilarians by the silver jubilarians (in this case, our batch for 2010) was getting more extravagant each year. In a March 2008 meeting with Margot Balderas-Torres of Batch 1983, she told Mitch and I that their batch had to raise P700,000 for the homecoming night (including program and dinner) on top of raising funds for their batch’s beneficiary. Margot also noted that there were only 3 of them in their batch who worked on organizing this before other classmates came on board in the months running up to the homecoming.

Given the high oil prices and overall economic situation, I felt it would be better for the batch not to have a grand homecoming and to direct all efforts to fundraising for our batch’s beneficiary, to be decided on before the end of this year. Lara pointed out that in Batch 1983’s experience, 50 percent of donations came from the batch and 50 percent from sponsorships.

Ginge and the others suggested holding a reunion, but one that would only be for Batch 1985. A simple turnover ceremony of funds raised could be held, along with a mass, and then a dinner/party for the batch. This was agreed on by everyone. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some classmates who may have other opinions regarding this matter.

Alicia brought up the possibility of Gawad Kalinga being one of the beneficiaries; we could get involved in this through an inter-school fundraising for GK, which she says the other schools of batch 85 are involved in. She will bring more info in the next meeting.