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Friday, 04 September 2009 20:33
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Time flies fast, indeed. And it seems only yesterday when your incumbent Board of Directors of the Silliman University Alumni Association Metro Manila Chapter, Incorporated (SUAAMMCI) took their oaths of office.
More than 10 months have already passed - it was on 8 October last year when Court of Appeals Justice Ramon M. Bato Jr. inducted the SUAAMMCI Board Officers for 2008-2010 at the Makati Sports Club.
Mindful that these are challenging times, and despite our hectic professional schedules, your officers buckled down to work to affirm our commitment, as embodied in our corporate mission - to foster brotherhood and sisterhood, and camaraderie among Silliman alumni in Metro Manila; sustain the Christian values inculcated and nurtured by our beloved Alma Mater; and dedicate ourselves to be of service to Silliman and our fellow alumni, in our professional and personal capacities.
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RODRIGO T. PEPITO
SUAAMMCI President
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Here are some updates on what we have modestly accomplished thus far:
1. SUAAMMCI Office
The first order of the day was to establish our homebase. Presently, our SUAAMMCI Office is housed at UG-7 Alfaro Place, 146 L.P. Leviste Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City. This is where your officers regularly meet. Our association records are also electronically filed in our desktop computer, and with a printer, we are now able to reproduce some of our official documents.
However, the SUAAMMCI still needs a permanent office for its present and future members. Hopefully, we can support this requirement through fund-raising events, such as the golf tournament with alumni and friends, among others, which we have planned to be held in the coming months.
2. SUAAMMCI Website
To underscore the need to reach out to all our alumni here in Metro Manila, and consistent with our overarching theme, "Reaching out to all Sillimanians in Metro Manila," we partnered with an ICT professional to establish the SUAAMMCI website - our cyber-window to our alumni not only in the National Capital Region but to the whole of the Philippines, and the rest of the world. Without much fanfare, our website (www.manila-sillimanians.org) was officially launched last March 2009.
Updated monthly, our website has a menu of sections that will certainly interest you, our esteemed alumni members - alumni news and announcements, a photo gallery, job postings, videos on alumni happenings and familiar campus sights, as well as links to related websites, among others. We encourage all members, therefore, to update their contact information so that our database of members will remain current.
Through this website, synergies will be fostered and information exchange enhanced. Feedback is important; surely, we want to hear from you. You may send us all your queries, comments and suggestions through the site's interactive feedback section.
As part of our fund-raising schemes, we will shortly venture into e-commerce through our site. For starters, we plan to "sell" Silliman commemorative and souvenir items online, like pins, decals, stickers, T-shirts, caps, sun visors, and the like.
3. SUAAMMCI Assistance to Alumni Hall
Last March, SUAAMMCI turned over a P35T check to the Silliman Alumni Association, Inc. (SAAI). This was to help renovate a room at the Alumni Hall Dormitory in Dumaguete City. On hand to receive the donation were SAAI National President Dorothy Cajayon, Judge Crescencio Tan Jr. (SAAI National Treasurer) and SAAI Directors from Mindanao.
The refurbished SUAAMMCI Room was dedicated in appropriate ceremonies last 27 August 2009.
4. Overseas Job Fair
SUAAMMCI organized a two-day Overseas Job Fair in Dumaguete City, which formed part of the official activities of the 108th SU Founders Day celebration last month. This was conducted in cooperation with the SU Career and Placement Office.
In answer to the call of the time to provide access to land- and sea-based employment to our Silliman graduates, as well as to the Dumaguete community, we felt duty-bound to organize an Overseas Job Fair. We brought to Silliman University four of the country's top performing and POEA-accredited recruitment agencies that have a proven track record of providing decent wages and welfare protection to their recruited workers, in the hope of giving informed overseas employment options to our Silliman graduates and the public at-large.
The Job Fair was held last 21-22 August 2009.
5. The JVC as SUAAMMCI 'Ambassadors'
A special concert of Filipino love songs was staged last 15 August 2009 at the Ayala Ballroom of the Makati Sports Club, which featured The Joyous Voices Chorale (JVC). Perhaps it was our love of music that naturally led to the formation of this choral group, composed mostly of Silliman alumni and some "Silliman friends" from the UCCP-Ellinwood Malate Church, UCCP-Cosmopolitan Church and the Union Church of Manila.
The concert was documented by a professional videographer because we also intend to sell DVDs of this concert at cost, to help augment funds for our operational expenses and other future projects.
Albeit on an unofficial capacity, the JVC has often been tapped by SUAAMMCI when there are requests to render "musical healing and comfort" in memorial services for some departed Sillimanians.
The JVC also provided the anthem and offertory music in last year's Silliman Sunday Service at the Cosmopolitan Church. During the Silliman Sunday Worship Service at the Ellinwood Malate Church last 16 August, the JVC once again provided the musical offerings.
Let me thank all the SUAAMMCI Board Officers for their support and cooperation in making all these humble gains possible.
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Sub-Chapters. Meanwhile, there have been some recommendations from members to form sub-chapters or 'satellite groups,' with the view to make localized activities more manageable and easier to coordinate, with the SUAAMMCI still maintaining the overall supervision of these smaller groups.
Some of the sub-groups that have been suggested are: Manila-Pasay, Quezon City, Makati-Mandaluyong, Pasig-Marikina, CAMANAVA (Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela), Las Piñas-Parañaque, Taguig, and Cavite, among others.
We can start an online discussion via our website soon to surface the various pros and cons on this proposal. In the meantime, we need you to be more actively involved in the affairs and activities of SUAAMMCI, as we acknowledge that many Sillimanians in Metro Manila are still left untapped. There is strength in numbers, and the more members we can add to our roster, the better for us all.
Thank you, and all the best!
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