Sep 24, 2007

dear upaa-sd members

if you missed this afternoon's meeting, here are some of the headlines that you missed:

* The club members voted unanimously that ALL persons who solicit ads for the UPAA SD directory will earn a 20% COMMISSION on ALL ads that they solicit. Individuals may choose to donate their commission back to the UPAA SD.

* Find out what the "Open Letter to All U.P. Alumni" is all about.

If there are any errors in these notes, please feel free to email me back. Thanks to Jimmie for taking notes during the meeting. Please contact Boodgie Arce, President, or Jimmie Sober, VP, if you need more information.

Respectfully submitted,
Carlos Dequina

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Minutes UPAA-SD Meeting, Sept 22, 2007

Attendees:
Ron Somera, Rey Sacro, Carlos Dequina, Boodgie Arce, Zenaida Oades (new member), Pat Maceda, Betty Bael, Zeny Ply, Jimmie Sober, Aurora Cudal, Winlove Cudal, Precy Garrovillas, Cristina Colmenar, Ador Colmenar, Carole Caparros, Edith Donaldson, visitor Satur Z Respicio, Jr. from UP Alumni Engineers

Meeting commenced at 2:15 pm.

1. Welcome and Introductions

2. Minutes of last meeting (see website upaasd.org)

3. Treasurer's report - to be presented at next meeeting, October 21, 2007

4. President's Report - Boodgie reported on the UPAAA Convention. The San Diego team won an award on opening night for being the most accurate team in representing the evening's theme, "Past, Present and Future." Per Auring Cudal, the San Diego team gained the reputation of being the most organized team: they came in coordinated 1950's style costume, they practiced and they were received well by the audience. No other team even practiced.

5. Old Business

Reports on:

a. Mindanao Book Drive - Project nearly complete with shipment of last box of books this past week.

(i) Total boxes shipped to-date under this project: 5 + 15 + 1 = 21

(ii) Total club funds spent to date under this project: 600 + 875 + 55 = $1,530
(to be confirmed with Treasurer)

(iii) Credit goes to Jimmie Sober and the Lions Club for storing, packaging and shipping the books; Zeny P. for working with National University to collect the used books; Susan Chrismen for the original idea to send books to Mindanao, Juanita Nacu for communicating with UP Mindanao regarding the books.

(iv) Special thanks to Ron Somera for donating $30 from the sale of his books, to help pay for shipping the boxes.

(v) Next step: evaluate success of project based on criteria established in the proposal that accompanied the project, including: whether the books were distributed to the intended beneficiaries, and whether the books were found to be useful by the intended beneficiaries.

(vi) Carlos, Jimmie and Zeny P. will prepare questionnaire for Dr. Gilda Rivero, UP Mindanao, the recipient of the boxes of books, to collect the evaluation data that will determine if the project was a success. Books expected to arrive in their destination in about 6-8 weeks. Distribution and processing of the books expected to be complete in about 12 weeks from now.

b. UP Memoirs - project to raise funds for the UP Carillon sponsored to coincide with the UPAAA Celebration; project in final stages; contact Boodgie Arce or Auring Cudal if interested

c. Website/newsletter - visit the website at www.upaasd.org

Zeny and Carlos are main points of contact, looking for individuals interested in learning or sharing their website and/or creative skills

d. UPAA SD Directory - to be produced by end of year; Boodgie will present financial proposal for the project at the next meeting, October 21.

Per Boodgie, the purpose of the directory is to create a bible that can be used by UPAA SD members every time they need to contact other members, or to find businesses in the area.

The project is intended to raise funds.

Everyone will be invited to place ads in the directory, both alumni and non-alumni.

The club members voted unanimously that ALL persons who solicit ads will earn a 20% COMMISSION on ALL ads that they solicit. Individuals may choose to donate their commission back to the UPAA SD.
Main point of contact for the project is Boodgie. Ron Somera is also on the committee.

Some pages may be printed in color, to be determined based on cost, availability.


e. Membership Committee - headed by VP Jimmie, assisted by Zeny P.

-The reactivated committee will campaign to recruit new members, and retain existing members. Other members (Betty B., Precy G. and Ron S.) shared ideas on how to get more members into the club (these three members are also strongly encouraged to join the membership committee to implement their ideas!)

Ideas include:

- Ad in Filipino newspaper (Ron's suggestin is to place an ad with the headline"Open Letter to All U.P. Alumni," to attract the attention of all potential UPAA SD members)

- Betty's "bring-a-friend-to-a-meeting" campaign

- Precy's "place-an-ad-in-newspapers" idea

First on Membership Committee's list - to prepare the best-available list of members, by using Dina's list and Boodgie's list, and getting the latest phone numbers and email addresses of each member. Boodgie plans to communicate with each member (active and inactive) by email or phone, to invite all members to come back to the club.


f. Seminars: Cancelled a speaking engagement originally planned for October, by a UP alumna who works for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Other seminars will be organized in the near future, please send suggestions for seminar topics that you want to attend, to Auring Cudal or Carlos Dequina.

g. Fundraisers - Boodgie emphasized that fundraising activities must be pursued, to recover the funds used for the Mindanao Book Project.

(i) November 2007 Dance - lively discussion on whether or not to sponsor a dance event, and if so, what purpose the event should have, if any

Initially, the dance was going to be held sometime in November, somewhere in the Hillcrest area of San Diego (Champion's Ballroom), with a 1950s theme, and the goal was to raise around $2000 to recover the expenses from the Mindanao Book Project, by selling tickets to the event.

Viewpoint #1: Let's have a dance, get a DJ, sell tickets. Keep it simple, keep it fun.

Advantages: Easy to organize. Low cost to organize event, low cost to purchase tickets. Fundraising revenue will come from ticket sales.

Viewpoint #2: Let's plan an event that people will remember and one that they will want to attend. It can still be a dance, it can still be held in the Champions ballroom.

However, the event will have a purpose (e.g. to announce and prepare for the UP centennial), and can be advertised as a social event that will have a benefit for society (e.g. to raise funds for a Gawad Kalinga housing unit, or even a community). Get sponsors who will support the event, because they believe in the purpose of the event, or because they support the benefit to society.

Advantages: Increases visibility of UPAA SD in a good way, attracts new members and . Fundraising revenue will come from sponsors, not ticket sales. Ticket sales may pay for food and/or venue expenses, but the fundraising aspect will come from targeted sponsors (e.g. ten sponsors giving $1000 each).

The club members decided to pursue Viewpoint #2. There should be a reason for putting the event together, not just to have a party and have fun - otherwise, it's not worth our volunteers' time - we can always go to other organization's dances to have fun.

Betty Bael graciously volunteered her services, and she and Boodgie will lead the planning for the event. Both Betty and Boodgie will meet again this week, and will communicate with other members of the club over the next few days if they need anything, so that plans will be presented to the club during the next meeting on October 21.

Betty's recommendation: the UPAA SD must have something exciting, a "product" to sell, that will encourage sponsors to support the event (an emotional hook, per Ron);

Boodgie's idea: "sell" the idea of the UP centennial; once-in-a-lifetime event


(ii) October 6 FilAm Fest: spearheaded by UPAA SD member Auring Cudal

Raffle grand prize is a plane ticket to the Philippines
Tickets cost $1
Organizations receive 35% commission for their ticket sales
Get your tickets now, please contact Auring Cudal

6. New business

Ideas for future fundraising events:

- organize an annual "local" homecoming, dance and raffle (a Bay Area annual event, according to guest, Satur Respicio); a chance to meet local alumni and invite new members to join

7. Communications, announcements and invitations

FADI invitation to gala dinner Oct 13, 2007

8. Next Quarterly meeting, October 21

9. Adjourned at 4:15 pm

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thanks,
carlos