Activism 102

Great news for the graduates of my high school (Manuel A. Roxas High School Quezon City): There’s already a SEC-registered alumni association that is sought to be an automatic one for every pupil graduating from the school.

I learned this right from the officers during yesterday’s meeting (Saturday, 21 Jul) at La Barrio, Panay Ave., Quezon City. (Set up in bamboo motif, the place is made beautiful by pretty waitresses clad in skimpy shorts and green sandos. In fact, during the meeting, my peripheral vision couldn’t escape the lasses that passed by our meeting area.)

Named as Manuel Roxas High School, Quezon City, Alumni Association, Inc. (MRHSQCAA), the association has been established to serve as the mother association of the school’s graduates, in addition to their batch-based affiliations. As such, the association aims to coordinate undertakings that the alumni in their batches may want to put up for the benefit of the alma mater. Moreover, the Chair said that the association may also serve as the organizer for either school-wide or batch-specific alumni events.

Sounds great. I only think that there may be other value-adding services that the organization may provide for the batches. The first two things in my mind are free hosting service for batch-specific web sites as well as maintenance of batch membership databases.

The meeting resolved to pursue the grand alumni homecoming event in December this year in celebration of the school’s 50th year. Also given serious thought was the creation of committees for projects, fund-raising and finance.

In attendance were Danny and Tina of Batch 80; Gerry and Bonette, Batch 81; Joy, Erl, and Uly, Batch 79; Danny, Batch 77; and myself, Batch 84. I was at the meeting in my capacity as coordinator of my batch. The officers present were from the Batches 77 and 79.

Yes, you read it right. Toronto-based Bonette Cruzada-Valdez, maintainer of Milestones (roxashi.tripod.com), was at the meeting. She’ll be here in the Philippines until August before she flies back to Canada. Based on her experience in North America, she advised the officers to put systems into the fund-raising efforts so that the target benefactors/contributors will take them seriously. She also was open to the improvement of the website. I was privileged to say my piece about the matter, explaining that security and collaboration are two important features of the website. I’m not sure whether I was elected into the website committee (my privilege, indeed), but I’m a bit worried that the committee may find my ideas either difficult to flesh out or beyond their province at all.

The officers were jubilant at the fact that the school already has a new principal, Mr. Austria, replacing Mrs. Milan. I guess it’s because they know him more and that he is open to new ideas for the betterment of the school.

So, there. The setting up of the association augurs well for the concrete and lasting changes in the school. The principal and faculty cannot go it alone; they must listen to the people who grew in the school and who now have children who they want to be well educated.

A week before the meeting, fellow batchmates Miki and Albert and I met at the school and noticed a few unpleasant changes in the school, particularly the infrastructures. The small stairways at the halls’ peripheries are now blocked with a steel barrier. The wooden windows at the second floor of the buildings are now “doubly-covered” with steel grids. Those are perilous to the students in emergency situations. I even suspected that these are the school’s measures to keep the unruly students at bay, which make them look like prisoners.

The most ironical of all is that the walls outside the classrooms are adorned with greeny paintings, yet the doors were almost dilapidated. The administration may have glossed over the forest for the trees.

These are some of concerns that the association will hopefully address in the coming years.

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