PLEASE READ:   President's Acceptance Message
 
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way." (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

Such could define the tail-end of a great term by outgoing President Norman Bituin. History will be kind to Norman. All we have to do is examine once more the reports of BOD Ollie Jumao-as of the Johnny Chiuten-School of Martial Arts (JC-SOMA) and OBBF chairman and founder/BOD Raffy Hidalgo, who covered the slack during the busy years of BOD Danny Lachica, prime mover of the David Wico Chapter. With Norman at the helm, and the combined efforts of our Philippine dynamic trio BODs Raffy, Ollie and Dan Lachica, we now have a total of 45 Brods in Diliman.

We are also blessed with UP Los Baños Brods like Dutch Aragones and other BBB advocates who are conducting a well-financed, highly charged recruitment program for our UPLB campus. Already with 28 residents, they have averted the hemorrhaging membership due to attrition. With BBB, OBBF and JC-SOMA as the major partners of UPBSFI, and with all of us flying in the same direction, we will succeed in our professed vision and mission. The series of Tetada Kalimasada and JC-SOMA programs currently being conducted by Brod Ollie in Los Baños is a very concrete indication of our combined efforts. The exemplary funding  and moral support by the UP NorCal Chapter and GP Bong Beredo, who is going to the Philippines largely on a fraternity mission, cannot be left unnoticed.

Allow me to humbly accept the post of servant for the next 2 years. Everything I said last September 14 still holds, except for the November 17 Pismo Conference because it is too late to make reservations at this time (please see below). We will be holding our 'conferences' on the Internet. Most probably, our next face-to-face meeting will be in early January 2008.

Here is a reminder to all of us. We are here as Board of Directors and members to lead a movement. It is a movement designed to ensure our continuity as a fraternity, to restore, preserve and constantly improve our identity as UP Beta Sigmans in the years to come. The urgency to launch this movement came about when there were serious threats on our survival. The latest developments show that such threats are even more complex than we thought. It is but incidental that there ought to be an organization to orchestrate, synergize and unify the different efforts towards our common end. That organization is the UPBSFI established in 2001 along with our Founding Father Jesus R. Jayme. If we keep our sight on the spirit that inspired the beginnings of UPBSFI -- its goals, objectives, and aspirations. and not set our minds on organization and people (which could dangerously become the goal itself), then we can go full speed ahead.

Here is an ambitious challenge for all of us  - Double our Membership by End Of 2009. Let's just call it DM09 for short. Translated, our UPLB residents shall have grown from 27 to 54; UP Diliman and Padre Faura shall have grown from 41 to 82. Same is true with the other UP campuses - Baguio, Visayas and Mindanao. This will entail a lot of synergistic efforts from all partners in vision and mission. For instance, the JC-SOMA and Tetada Kalimasada series of training programs in Los Baños that include both our Diliman/PFaura and Los Banos residents/alumni is a big boost to our image, while instilling discipline and restraint among our residents in our campuses. We are also starting from a position of strength in point of quality of our resident membership. Perhaps many are not aware that about a third of our residents in Diliman are scholars, and that many of them are graduates of the Philippine Science High School. Behold, the transformation of our resident membership into a real Brotherhood of Scholars!

We will try our best to enact rules without sacrificing creativity and timely execution of projects. Yet omissions will always exist. We have to be patient with our failings unless our core values are violated, and not because we have personal issues. In an office setting, if you don't like somebody, all you have to do is throw the books at him/her and it will look like you are taking the high road. But we are UP Beta Sigmans and the legendary Betan spirit should always prevail, as it did in our most recent experience.

They say that the only thing that does not change is change itself. I disagree with that. God is unchanging. To the Christian reader, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever." (Heb13:8). There are other things that do not change - for instance, the universal principles of human relationship and most of them are found in our Beta Sigma Credo - "... cultivate the seeds of love and uproot the weeds of hatred, avarice and envy (and prejudice)". And for us UP Beta Sigmans, we should take in mind that our "fraternity pin has a history all of its own." Translated, our Pin is our Pin is our Pin. That should not change. The survey of Philippine schools show the top 3 as UP, UP, and UP and we will forever be proud of this.

I look forward to those times when we as UPBSFI shall be able to effectively tackle the task of vigorously pursuing our other vision, "No UP Beta Sigman stands alone." Meantime, we just have to rely on our respective home Chapters, individual "pinagsamahan", and kindred and financially-endowed spirits to help our most needy brothers.

May I enjoin all of us to touch and enjoy the rainbow.

God bless us all, maraming salamat sa inyong lahat at Mabuhay ang UP Beta Sigma Fraternity!

Tatang

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MESSAGE OF SEPT 14, 2007

 

Thank you very much, Brod Gabby, for being a good sport and a statesman. You have always been a good Betan, and you have emerged as a bigger person in the eyes of everybody.

 

I humbly accept the position as your head servant. My most profound gratitude to all of you for having contributed to this growing process. With the successful conclusion of this democratic exercise, we just fast-tracked our fledging UP Beta Sigma International, Inc. (UPBSFI) in its journey towards maturity.

 

There is no need to monitor my commitment to serve at an average of 4 hours a day, 365 days a year. All I need to do is to completely set aside all my paintbrushes, oils, pastels and watercolors and reduce my gardening hours to a minimum. I have a very supportive wife who takes care of all house chores, and all I currently do for at least 4 hours a day is garden, garden, garden and paint, paint, paint. But I will certainly need to buy a goat to take care of the garden weeds.  J

 

For me not to be working BEYOND my commitment (Dan Galoso indicated earlier about my tendency to give more than I commit), I hope that most if not all of us will be part of a "working" and not just a "visiting" Board. We shall have Internet board meetings once a month at agreed dates, where ideas, project concepts and project proposals will be presented for your approval. We already have one project concept that is ready for submission: A golf tournament sponsored by UPBSFI in synch with the UP Centennial Celebration, the purpose of which is to raise funds directed towards our vision of recruitment. Brods Yay Topacio and Roy Antonio are taking care of this.

 

To facilitate our communications, UP NorCal GP and fellow servant Bong Beredo promised to set up a google-group/egroup, initially for the BOD and Working Committees, and later for the general membership.

 

Working so many hours for our beloved fraternity is not new to many other Brods. On this occasion, please allow me to take exception on behalf of those Brods who not only generously spent so many hours of work, but also contributed vast amounts of money during those periods when UPBSFI was undergoing the stage of conceptualization (as early as June 2000); months of brainstorming with regards to crafting the vision, mission and manifesto that was initially presented in Pismo Beach to key Brods belonging to the U.P. Northern California and Southern California Chapters; developing the Constitution; organizing the historic May 2001 conference in San Francisco that led to the founding of UPBSFI, Inc. (initially called UP Beta Sigma USA) with Beta Sigma's ultimate legend - Jesus R. Jayme, fondly known to all of us as Jesse James; and, later initiated in organizing /funding/ conducting activities, programs, and projects directed to our vision and mission. There were other Brods who later also performed key roles towards the institutionalization of UPBSFI that we see today, like the wholehearted support of our current GP in UP Northern California and the others before him.

 

Having said that, and with utmost humility, please allow me to EXPOSE these Early Builders who except for a few have, from the very beginning, worked anonymously in the background. It is with much gladness for us to see that all these Brods are in this Board today. In alpha order, they are Brods Ike Araneta, Norman Bituin, Danny Galoso, Raffy Hidalgo, Ollie Jumao-as, Danny Lachica and Eric Punzalan. I have something to share: Considering my aversion to the posthumous recognition J, my first act as your head servant is to grant LEADERSHIP AWARDS to all those I've mentioned above. As an Ilocano (and therefore a parsimonious person), the awards shall be made in the Philippines where the prices are more reasonable, and to be given during our next annual meeting in PISMO tentatively set on November 17, 2007. (There is no other available date, according to Brod Norman's survey.)

 

May I reiterate my earlier request for Brod Eric to take care of our venue? Those of us from outside of California will probably not be able to attend. But if possible, please pick a proxy who is not a current member of the Board, a golfer preferably. :-)

I can go on and on because the agenda facing us is limitless and overwhelming, so I will stop here for now. MARAMING SALAMAT, MGA KAPATID, CONGRATS ONCE AGAIN  AND LET'S PARTY IN OUR RESPECTIVE HOMES!

 

Mabuhay ang UP Beta Sigma International!!!

 

Lubos na nagmamahal,

 

Tatang