CHSAF President’s Report
Marissa Camacho
February 13, 2021
All the CHSM alumnae make up the College of the Holy Spirit Alumnae Foundation, Inc. or CHSAF. We are CHSAF!
Many are asking: will CHSAF close when the school closes at the end of academic year 2021-2022? The answer is NO! CHSAF is an independent entity from CHSM and is registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) as a non-stock, non-profit organization.
CHSAF was organized for the purpose of keeping alive the spirit and values of Veritas in Caritate and serving as the center for communication and information among the alumni, among other things. Together with your Board of Trustees and the alumnae, we will keep the CHSM legacy alive. That said, CHSAF will continue its mission of unifying the alumni body by strengthening the bonds of fellowship.
Despite the Covid lockdown that started mid-March 2020, the new board for the year 2020-2021 quickly pivoted to adjust to the limitations brought about by the Covid pandemic. I am happy to report that we were able to implement projects and activities that brought the alumni together. The following were accomplished from March 2020 – December 2020:
- 4 enrichment Webinars: Our Environment, Heritage Preservation, Metabolic Syndrome and All About Christmas
- 2 Spiritual Activities:
- Virtual Requiem Mass
- Virtual Simbang Gabi had 160 to over 200 alumni participating each night. I would like to note that we received a lot of requests to organize the virtual Simbang Gabi again this year.
- 3 Fellowships:
- Tribute for Cora Parco
- Lucky You, a fellowship with classmates and schoolmates enjoying the chance to see and greet each other via Zoom. Everyone enjoyed the program that included a raffle, singing, trivia contest and quirky hat contest.
- Christmas Party with the SSpS nuns in Poinsettia. 140 alumnae attended the virtual Christmas party with 70 SSpS nuns. The program included a song by Jose Mari Chan and greetings from Yorme, the popular Mayor of the City of Manila.
- Continued support to the 9 CHSAF Scholars. CHSAF also supported the fundraising effort of the CHSM Unified Scholarship Committee
- 2 Community Assistance Projects
- Covid-19 Response Project provided personal protective equipment and medical masks for hospital frontline health workers in Covid-19 referral hospitals and a refrigerator to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. This was done in collaboration with various high school batches.
- Taal Project provided assistance to victims of the Taal Volcano eruption. This was made possible by donations of the alumni.
Aside from these activities that are visible to you, the CHSAF Board is building on what past CHSAF boards have started. We continue the efforts to improve our governance, financial, administrative and communications systems.
To strengthen our link with you, the alumni, we have made an effort to communicate with your Batch representatives regularly either through viber groups or through zoom meetings, and provide them with timely information.
The CHSAF board in 2019 had planned on creating a platform that, beyond connecting us, can also be a functional database for all registered alumni; a place to archive relevant CHSAF information, activities, photos, and videos; and a site where additional services can be offered which cannot be provided by other social media platform.
The new Official CHSAF website, www.chsafofficial.org is the realization that dream.
To do all of these, the board and other volunteer committee members work with a secretariat headed by Dolly Gabriel, HS 72. At the moment, we only have Dolly and a part-time accountant (Rhea Gillera), as we hope to hire a replacement for the administrative assistant soon.
Your P500 annual membership dues support the operations of the secretariat and funds some of the program activities I mentioned earlier.
You will note that the income from membership dues is less than the general and administrative expenses. Our dream is for the day to come when our income from membership dues is enough to support the basic general and administrative costs.
Dear alumnae, we want to improve our services to you. We want to reach more of our alumnae. Please help us by participating and engaging in the projects and activities, giving us your suggestions for activities and of course, paying your membership dues. We need your active involvement for OUR FOUNDATION to be vibrant and truly relevant in our lives.
At this point, let me share with you what is in store for 2021 . . . .
We were all saddened by the announcement that the CHS Mendiola campus will be closed at the end of academic year 2021-2022. There was a clamor for memorabilia to remember our school . . . please watch out for the memorabilia items that will be available very soon. Many alumnae also wanted to come back to the campus before it closes. Our Campus Tour Committee is just finalizing the details and getting the necessary permits. We will announce the schedule and arrangements when all the details have been settled.
Some have asked if the 2022 homecoming will be the last. The answer is NO. A mandated activity in CHSAF’s by-laws is the HOMECOMING. As such, CHSAF will continue to organize the annual homecoming with jubilarian classes. What may or may not change in the future would be the venue, depending on the future owner of the CHSM premises. Notwithstanding, CHSAF will assist the jubilarians in looking for an appropriate venue after 2022.
The 2021 Homecoming that was supposed to take place last February 7 was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I am happy to inform everyone that the 2021 jubilarians have met and agreed on the following:
- When: Sunday October 24, 2021
- It will be a virtual event
- Theme: Reminiscing
- 2021 Jubilarians:
– HS 1941 GRAPHENE – HS 1946 KRYPTONITE
– HS 1951 TITANIUM – HS 1956 PLATINUM
– HS 1961 DIAMOND – HS 1966 EMERALD
– HS 1971 GOLD – College 1971 GOLD
– HS 1976 SAPPHIRE – HS 1981 RUBY
The jubilarians promise a memorable & meaningful celebration. Please mark your calendars.
This 2021, we will continue the regular programs of CHSAF. We have, so far, lined up the following:
- Enrichment Activities/Webinars
- Yaman ng Ating Dagat – March 2021
- Covid Vaccine – April 2021
- Alternative Healing & Healing Mass – May 2021
- Spiritual Activities
- Recollection (in collaboration with CHSNAF) – February 2021
- Recollection – March 2021
- Visita Iglesia – April 2021
- Requiem Mass
- Pentecost Mass
- Fellowships
- Christmas Party with the SSpS Nuns
- Scholarship Program
- HS – 1 scholar
- College – 8 scholars
- Community Assistance Program
- Taal Project
Please continue to participate and send us your ideas and suggestions for topics and activities.
Let the Spirit live on in each of us!
Thank you!
Treasurer’s Report
Dada Cua
February 13, 2020
CHSAF’s fiscal year is March 1 to end of February. This report is for the period March 1 to December 31, 2020. CHSAF income and expenses are classified into Restricted and Unrestricted funds. Restricted funds are those that are given for specific purposes. Unrestricted funds are those that the CHSAF Board can allocate for General and Administrative Expenses as well as Programs and projects.
As of December 31, 2020, Restricted Income was P977,110. Of this, P779,310 were donations for the grant-in-aid/scholarship that were remitted to the Unified Scholarship Fund managed by the CHSM Unified Scholarship Committee. The others were donations for the Covid-19 Response Project, Simbang Gabi and for the former Executive Director and Administrative Assistant.
Unrestricted Income was P1,177,222. Of this, P916,500 was from the proceeds of the Lucky You raffle. The rest are from Membership Dues (P198,100), sale of the Amorsolo plates and Centennial Book (P56,500) and miscellaneous sources.
You will note that the expenditure – P2,265,939 – for Programs and Projects charged to Restricted funds is more than the Restricted Income – P977,110. This is due to the decision to use the CHSAF Scholarship fund which were raised in previous years to finance the current CHSAF scholars.
You might also wonder why there are General and Administrative Expenses of P132,000 charged to the Restricted Funds. This came in the form of an “Appreciation Gift” to the former Executive Director of CHSAF, Ms. Cora Parco, who retired from her position. The funds were graciously provided by the members of the Board, individual alumni and some batches who wanted to acknowledge the service and dedication of Mr. Parco. A similar contribution took place when the previous Administrative Assistant found the need to step down due to the adverse effect of the pandemic on her health.
We are hoping that the alumni will remit their annual membership dues before the end of February 2021 so that we do not have to touch the beginning balance for Unrestricted Funds.
Thank you!