Minutes of the CPUHS1972 business meeting held on July 2, 2008 at Butchart Garden, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Members present are: Tim Gabio, Irma May Fernandez-De Leon, Roci Luz Gaton, Elmo Familiaran, Charito Carnaje-Santos, Eva Lynn Abraham-Abadesco and Miriam Javier-de la Fuente

First item taken up was to have the minutes of the last meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 29, 2006 approved. Elmo moved to have the minutes of the meeting approved and Eva Lyn seconded.

Irma May, the outgoing president, made a statement of appreciation to those classmates who attended the meeting, she called the faithful few. After which a host appreciation was shared by each classmate, to Charito and her husband, Martin…..recognition of their valuable contribution to the reunion.

The next item was the Flood assistance to classmates affected by the flood in Iloilo caused by typhoon Frank. Since Joshua has started the campaign for financial assistance to our affected classmates in Iloilo, Tim shared the favorable feedback from classmates with their financial donations. It was then discussed as to how and what kind of assistance will be sent. Tim shared his thoughts on the plan on how to send aid. He had initial discussion with Joshua who had discussions with Jeremy as to the logistics of how aid will be sent. Jeremy’s idea and proposal to help in kind was taken up. He was able to get an idea from how his brother Jerry is handling the aid assistance in Iloilo. Jeremy will receive the money and aid for the classmates will be in kind, the most essential things they will need. Miriam suggested that a group or committee comprised of class 72 members will help in the mobilization of the implementation of the flood assistance drive in Iloilo. Tim said, he will further talk to Joshua and Jeremy. Tim moved that we will send the money to Jeremy and create a task force. Charito seconded.

Elmo presented an idea called Balikbayan Box Project which is a collection of used clothing to be collected here in the US and sent to Iloilo. The financial aid is the short term or immediate plan and the Balikbayan Box Project is for the longer term since it will take some time to collect some clothes and the box takes 1 month and a half to reach Iloilo. The logistics as to the distributions of the donations in kind was further discussed. For expediency, Miriam suggested that we make our collections regionally so we can send the boxes faster. Tim and Val will check Balikbayan Box rates in CA and their respective areas. Miriam has found a Balikbayan Box courier at a very reasonable rate. Elmo and Miriam will coordinate the collection of clothes for the box in the NY/NJ area and Miriam will facilitate the sending of the box. Suggestion of the US group for the Iloilo group classmates to help in the distribution is Tess Octavio and Jojo Belosillo if they are available and willing to be part of the task force team.

The next item taken up was the announcement of the new officers who were elected by the majority of the members of the CPUHS1972 Global Alumni Organization. An amendment of the term of the officers to 3 years was mentioned but it will be checked
with the by-laws at a later date. The acceptance of the newly elected officers was moved by Elmo and seconded by Val. The role of the Board of directors was discussed and was explained that the board will act only as an advisory position and will not have a vote.

The next item discussed was the yearly membership dues. Miriam shared some classmates have faithfully paid their yearly membership dues of $ 50.00 with others paying the next year in advance too. It was discussed on how can we encourage payment and improve collection of membership dues. It was suggested that we will send frequent reminders to collect the dues, as often as monthly.

The next item discussed is the Benevolence Fund. We will continue to promote and solicit contributions. This is voluntary contributions.

Miriam made her financial report and stated that she will email the financial reports to all members and turnover the fund to the new treasurer.

Followed was discussion of new projects. We will continue to discuss the Scholarship Project and define further the purpose, beneficiary criteria and mechanics. Tim suggested as another possible project is the contribution of educational equipment and programs to CPU.

Lastly, the item discussed was about the next Global Reunion. Since this Global reunion did not have a big turn out, it has been suggested that we hold it every 3 years or 4 years or maybe every 5 years and continue the mini reunions in between. Elmo mentioned that since we are already in our golden years, every 5 years may be too long to have people willing to attend due to “senior years” challenges. It was again noted that in 4 years we will have our 40th year after graduation and a very significant milestone. So it was suggested that if we hold the Global reunion in 4 years and coincides with 40th year, we can hold it in Iloilo, a big reunion both attended by the Global members and Philippines members. We will again vote on this suggestion through online voting and discussions.

With nothing more to be discussed further, Charito move to adjourn the meeting and Elmo seconded.

Submitted by: Miriam Javier-delaFuente
                     Outgoing Secretary