The search for Alumni begins...

The reunion plans are now changing.... Heard it's still raining in the Phils in October, so maybe November? We will entertain suggestions from everyone, except February is out, for sure. We will have to discuss that more in our next meeting in the Bay area in October.

In the meantime, we need to start working on our respective duties:

I. Locating other alumni: So far , this is the biggest hurdle for us. Our goal is to find as many members as possible and get a firm commitment from them that they're attending this event. Needless to say, we need a head count so that we can have an idea of how much we need financially to cover the 3 days reunion in a yet to be determined venue. It'll be discussed in another section below.

a. Philippines team: Epoy Nierva and Mon Alegre has agreed to search our classmates in the Phils. My personal feeling is that since more members are there, they need to recruit more members so that they can spread the workload and won't be overwhelmed. So Epoy is going to call some of our tsikahan members whom he thinks can help. If you ever get the call, please consider helping them, because as you know, teamwork makes a lot of difference. After all, finding them is just the first step. We have to convince them to commit to joining us next year in the reunion. Maxi, our fearless leader, have some great reunion ideas that we would discuss further below..

Epoy has talked to Yvonne Valdez, the past president and current adviser of the FEU Medical Technology Alumni Society @ FEUNRFM. (She was also one of the RPH staff when we were interns there, remember her?) Anyway, she promised Epoy that she will mention our plans at their next alumni meeting. She will even meet Epoy next week, so that the two of them can search in the FEU Alumni office for the names of the reunion members in FEU alumni's current member roster.

As our webmaster, Epoy also has added a link in our tsikahan group of the FEU-NRMF Medical Technology Alumni Society (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsikahan_FEU-NRMF_SMT_76_and_Friends/links) for the roster of graduates that we can use as reference for our search.

b. U.S team: We are composed of Maxi DelaCruz-Edora, Irma Aguja-Dela Cruz, Malou Manlutac-Manalo, Jojo Torres, Kim Matibag, Romy Francisco (Class '77), and Cyd Sartoris. We have made a flyer advertising our plans in the next Northern California PAMET newsletter, and the souvenir program of the 2010 reunion of FEU Med Tech Alumni Association of North America to be held in Vancouver, BC on July 31-August 1, 2010. All members of the tsikahan group also received a copy of the flyer, which they can post in the hospitals or clinics where they work, both here and in the Phils. If you need another copy of the flyer, I can post it in our tsikahan group, so you can download it from there, too. Please feel free to add your name to the contact list in the flyer.

Romy Francisco, drawing from his FEU MT Class of1977 reunion planning experience, has graciously offered his assistance in helping us find our reunion members. He also suggested using the cyberspace, www.zabasearch.com, to find them. He said that for women, we can type in their maiden names, and it will still produce their whereabouts, if they're in the database. From his experience, finding one or two persons often led to more people in the long run.

So, now that we have a tool, are we up for the challenge? Ok, let's see, if we all download the roster from the files section of our FEU tsikahan group, and divide the list amongst us, we will (I hope!), find one or two persons. So here's my suggestion:

How about we split the letters of the alphabet so that each one of us will work on finding them by their last names, regardless of the graduating year? There's currently 9 people in the team (both here and in the US), so that's 2.9 letters per person. However, if more people would offer to do this, the task won't be as overwhelming, and maybe each one of us will just have to work on one letter of the alphabet. Given our current numbers, I volunteer to look for those whose last names start from A-C. Would someone take on the next 3 letters, etc. etc..

II. Finance:

Maxi's idea is for the US group to shoulder the major expenses for the 2011 reunion in the Phils. so that we can entice more of our friends to join us. Hence, the monthly contribution from the 12 core group members. However, unless we have a head count of the attendees, we won't know how much money we would need. Also, we might run into a real problem of not having enough funds for this endeavor.

So we need to think of ways to raise more funds, or increase the number of our core group members. How about if we invite our Philippine friends to join the core group? It's going to be a voluntary contribution on their part. As we agreed in our initial meeting, we will take whatever anyone would like to contribute, kahit in kind. For instance, kung merong resort ang one of our members, and would like offer its use that as a venue instead of contributing to the general fund, we would gladly consider that idea. Any suggestions on how we can raise more funds?

Speaking of venues, we need to get bids from those places we've identified before (Caliraya, Tagaytay, Batangas, Subic, Taytay) asap so we would know how we can proceed. (Calling Mon and Hec! ) Please include 3 nights accommodations, food, activities (dinner/dance, etc). For games and prizes, maybe people can donate some door prizes, so we can save the funds on major expenses?

Mon has mentioned a medical mission to dovetail with our reunion. Since we have a lot of classmates who are now physicians, that will be a great thing to do. Maybe they (Kim, Rey Santos, Rey T, Ason, Julie or Joji), can coordinate this one? Maybe United Lab or Lycos would like to donate some medicines, too? Another thought would be to donate something to the FEUNRMF School of Med Tech or the Alumni Society!
How's that for starters?

the blessings continue...

I can't believe it-got the friend confirmation I was waiting for from Paps Mosende and more! Class '77 has accepted me in their circle of friends and there's going to be a mini reunion here in San Diego in August. Paps Mosende gave me another contact person to send an email to..At least the wheels are moving, and not stuck to one place, which was what I was afraid of... The good thing about this is that before the reunion starts next year, I have a feeling that I'll be able to meet quite a few FEU former grads...

Wow, that's a far cry from when I was a student.. We all went thru it=we had to pass those practical and theoretical exams that our noses were buried to the grind all the time... There's not even enough time in the day(or night!) to study, much less to socialize.. In retrospect, I'm glad that I was part of the newsletter, The Medical Researcher, when it was revived the 1st time..Working with Epoy Nierva and Rey Melchor Santos, I learned how to work a mimeo machine and print/make mock ups and lay outs on those newsletters..We did everything to get that newsletter published! I don't know why I did it @ the time-there's not even time to study for Micro and Para and Path! And yet we used to make those things after classes, that we sometimes stay in FEU till wee hours in the morning! If anything, it taught us discipline and not to back down from some teachers when we publish something they don't like! After all, it was during the height of martial law!
Isn't that how they made our test questions, at the time-mimeo copies? I know I'm really dating myself here, but it's one of the obsolete things we had back then!

Anyway, I digress.. back to searching for members in this reunion.. Hope that things will all fall into place..We have a lot of time, but it's always good to have a head start, especially on something of this magnitude.. Wonder how others got started? Wonder if there are sites somewhere that'll give me pointers on how to do this? Sort of like a diy (do it yourself) instructions, like @ Home Depot?

Baby Steps to Find Members and Core Group Update

The core group number was increased from 10 to 12, thanks to Jackie and Dreena..It's wonderful to get affirmation from other classmates re: reunion in 2011!

Personally, trying to find MT grads from Class '75, '76 and '77 seem like a monumental task... So scary is the grads' list that I was beginning to be discouraged, even before we got started. Then, I found this website, FEU Med Tech Alumni Association of North America..Hallelujah, my prayers were answered! Hold on, can't get my hopes up too much! But know what? Their members not only answered my email, they even invited me to join them in their meeting in Vancouver on the last weekend of July.. Too bad, we're having a CAP inspection until Sept, or I'd have gone.. After all, it's just 2 hours drive from my brother's house in Seattle, and they have the biggest Chinatown in North America,where you can buy Atis and lanzones! Anyway, I decided I'll run an ad in their souvenir program to try to find members..I still have to design an eye catching ad, though!

Last night, I went on Facebook and saw that Rey Salta, (our former Parasitology lab instructor @ FEU, who's now based in SD), became a friend of FEU MT Class '77 and Circle of Friends! Wow, my guardian angel must be watching over me! To make the story short, I'm now waiting to be friends with someone from Class '77 who Rey said has a long contact list of people from Class '76 and '77 ..

Tonight, I finally got in touch with Lennie Florentin-Natividad, a college friend and at present, the Director of the School of Med Tech @ FEU NRMF. Found her in FB thru Rey (again!). She was Board topnotcher of Class '75, so I invited her to our reunion, too. She already said Yes! Maybe she would know how to contact more people? Isn't it amazing how the series of events seem to fall into place sometimes?


The most important factor in this search for members is that I was blessed with the best mates in the world, my tsikahan friends both here and in the Phils.. I know that we all have one thing in common=to work as a team so that we can make this reunion a success..Thanks, Friends!

1st Meeting @ Malou Manalo's Residence in SD,CA

May 9, 2010, Sunday (Mother's Day):
The meeting was called to order @ 1:30 pm and presided by Maxi Dela Cruz-Edora. In attendance were the following: Malou Manlutac-Manalo, Darwyn Cabebe-Ramirez, Beth Alejandro, Irma Aguja-DelaCruz, Vilma Badiola, Bess and Sonnie Janairo, Jojo Torres, Leo and Benilda Non, and Cyd Grepo-Sartoris. Not present were Fely Legaspi-Navarro and Carmen Barrientos.


DATE OF REUNION: Oct 21-23, 2011.
VENUE: To be determined (Choices: Caliraya in Batangas, Subic, Batangas, Tagaytay, and Taytay, Rizal).
ATTENDEES: FEUNRFM MT Grads from 1975, 1976, 1977.
PROGRAM of ACTIVITIES: To be determined..
OPTIONAL SIDE TRIPS/ACTIVITIES AFTER THE REUNION: To be discussed
and determined later..


Mon Alegre, Efren Nierva, and Hector Rivera from the Phils will get bids from the above possible venues to include lodging for 3 nights/days, food, activities and amenities available for the attendees.

It was decided that a core group of 10 people will start to contribute at least $20/mo from June, 2010 - June 2011 to cover the expenses that would be incurred for the 3 days lodging, food and activities for the reunion. Maxi and Darwyn, (our treasurer), will open a bank account where we can all send our contributions. Furthermore, Darwyn will send everyone the necessary information to facilitate the transmittal of these funds to our designated account. Everyone who is willing, (in our reunion/tsikahan group), is invited and welcome to contribute to this account, as well.

Committees formed for the reunion:
1. Reaching out /finding Members:
= Each core member will start calling one or two other tsikahan members,(or people they've heard who belong to our group), to find out their commitment to attend the reunion in 2011.
= They will communicate the names of people and their answers to Cyd, who in turn will keep a tally of how many people are coming to the reunion. This will be cross referenced against the graduates' list in our tsikahan group.
= Cyd will give all members a report @ the next meeting in October in SF.

2. Fundraising: Leo Non was designated to chair this committee. He will choose his members who will work with him on issues connected with how to best disburse the funds in our account.

3. Travel Committee: Beth Alejandro was designated as this committee's chairperson. She will choose the members of her team and will work on travel-related issues, i.e, group rates, tours, side trips, etc.

4. Tax Deduction?: Maxi will find out if this reunion can be dovetailed with a PAMET conference/meeting so that it can be a tax deductible expense.

Next Meeting: Oct., 2010 in San Francisco, CA

Meeting Adjourned: 3:30 pm..