October 17, 2022 GM Meeting

PRESENT:

Pres. Giselle Concepcion

PAD Gina Geraldez

PAD Daisy Arce

PP Menchu Pascual

PP Nonie Basilio

PP Fely Umandap

PP Corito Llamas

PP Nila Mata

PP Nene Pe Lim

PP Lulu Castaneda

Grace Basilio-Soong

Zenas Lozada

Chit Manabat

Daisy Zoe Serrano

Mina Gabor

Nida Lopez

Girlie Pe

Carol Sanchez

Marlu Emmanuel

ABSENT:

Baby de Jesus

Letty Calma

Sol Dizon

Teody Buenaflor

Tricia Briones

PDG Baby Perez-Sison

PP Anatess Oracion

Pauline Guanzon

VP Ruby Amog 

Cristina Guanzon

Minerva Tanseco

Cynthia Cruz

Bee Angeles

Tess Herbosa

OTHERS:

Mila Imson (Secretarial Staff)

1. Call to Order:  Pres. Giselle Concepcion (Giselle) called the meeting to order.  It was decided that the existence of a  quorum will be determined in the course of the meeting. 

2. Zonta Prayer and Zonta Hymn:  The members prayed together the Zonta Prayer and thereafter sang the Zonta Hymn and the National Anthem.

3.  Approval of the Agenda: Giselle said that she provided the Agenda in advance to all the members.  Upon motion made and duly seconded, the Agenda was approved.

4. Greetings of October Birthday Celebrants:  Giselle greeted the October celebrants as follows: 

Daisy Zoe Serrano - Oct. 13 Teody Buenaflor - Oct. 23

Carol Sanchez - Oct. 16       Tess Herbosa - Oct. 28

5. Approval of the Minutes: PAD Gina Geraldez  (Gina)  said that she sent the minutes of the GMM held on September 19, 2022 three days after the last meeting via email and viber and sent it again via email and viber recently. Upon motion made  and duly seconded, the minutes of the meeting was approved.

6. Matters Arising from the Minutes:

      Par. 6. Giselle requested Malou, the club’s secretarial staff to check her notes on whether a resolution was approved to hold the GMM face to face. Malou said that based on her records of the  September 19 meeting, 14 out of 27 or majority of the members voted yes for face to face meetings.  But Giselle said that there are exceptions, for example for those who are abroad or who have health issues.   In reply to Gina's query, Giselle said that for those who cannot attend face to face meetings, she has provided a facility for hybrid meetings via zoom. In any event, Giselle will see if face to face meetings for all general membership meetings can be implemented.  1

Par 8.  Giselle said that Malou who was requested to look into the matter reported that the   BIR zonal value of the Tondo property as of 2019 is P30,000/square meter. 

Par. 10 - Website. Giselle said that Zonta International (ZI) and District 17 have new tag lines and thrusts which would be good to incorporate in the website. VP Ruby (Ruby) said she will focus first on completing the bio notes.  When 80% of the bio notes have been submitted, she and Grace will work on providing easy access to the website.  2. No report from Ruby because she sent her regrets for today’s meeting.

Par. 10 - Tondo Kiddie Class, Status of contract with teacher Luz. The group in charge is in the process of obtaining the names of the students and is working on a business plan to pursue the project. (To be discussed later as part of the President’s Report)

Par. 10 – Rajah Soliman and Rescheduling of visit to DHVSU which was postponed. (To be discussed later as part of the  President’s Report)

Par. 10 – Food and Future for Young Mothers. Status of identification by ACED of qualified young mothers. (To be discussed later as part of the President’s Report)

Par. 10 – Platinum Anniversary Fund-raising –Giselle asked for volunteers for the different committees.(To be discussed later as part of the President’s Report).

7. President’s Report: 

1. Updates  on Service Projects:

1.  Tondo Kiddie Class – 

Giselle reported that classes are ongoing, regular exchange of information with teacher Luz; photo documentation;  funds in the hands of PP Nene (Nene) ; agreement with Teacher Luz already drafted; Received comments from the labor lawyer of ACCRA that PP and membership committee chair Anatess (Anatess)  made possible and this would be the basis for a draft document on Development and Sustainability Plan as requested by Ruby who would like to donate to this project. 3. 

2. Rajah Soliman and DHVSU:

Giselle said that for the benefit of the new member Marlu, this project targets secondary and tertiary levels of education.

• Held meeting with RS STEM supervisor Vivian Intatano.

• Delivered set of 10 children’s book featuring 10 Filipino women scientists as requested by teacher Vivian

• Arranging Talks/chats of women scientists with Rajah students to commence before year end, with Giselle as the first speaker.

• train/teach the STEM teachers: VISSER 

Instrumentation/experimental training being arranged with UPD National Institute of Physics and NISMED.

• Awaiting list of RS students to include in 4-month STEM training in preparation for the 2023 National STEMBee Competition.

• Re: DHVSU - communicated with VP for Students Affairs Dr. Dolly Quiambao and through PP Corito (Corito) agreed to visit in person sometime in October, and Giselle is inviting members to  join them on the meeting with VP Dolly and  Zonta scholars.  4.

3. ZCMFI-ACED Food and Future for Young Mothers.

Five (5) candidates teenage  mothers from Payatas, Quezon City that  have been identified but Dr. Mel Oracion is still reviewing their  credentials.  5.

4. ZCMFI-ASHI NANAY Farmers’ use of Biofertilizer:

Training visit of UPLB BIOTECH scientist Nelly Aggangan to ASHI Nanay Farmers in Laguna may be late in October or November.  6.

2. Updates on Internal Operations:

• Draft agreement with part-time secretary Malou Juntilla, who works with the President, Secretaries and the Treasurer was also shown to ACCRA labor lawyer c/o Anatess.

• Asst. Treasurer Carol Sanchez (Carol) and board member Girlie Pe (Girlie) are bank account withdrawal  co-signatories while Giselle and  PDG Baby P. Sison (Baby)  are out of the country.

• Aim to produce a Development, Sustainability and Financial Plan for each project.

Additional updates on Tondo Kiddie Class:

This is an ongoing project Giselle thanked Nene for the report and photos sent to her by teacher. There are 2 sections and the names of students are listed.  They have a variety of activities there, and they are supposed to follow the club’s guidelines which includes lessons in nutrition and health. In the photos (Giselle showed slides)  the mothers are helping cleaning up after each class session and there are always nanay volunteers to help teacher Luz.  Giselle said that the simple act of thoughtfulness and kindness of Nene are very much appreciated by the children.

8.  Other Matters:

1. Induction of New Members

Giselle said that Marlu can not join in person but she will be in zoom.  The plan is to hold this at the next GMM meeting which is tentatively set on November 21, face to face and via zoom; decision on venue will follow. 7. The program will be discussed with Anatess.  Giselle is planning to hold the induction of new members in her residence on November 21; this will be a joint celebration of November birthday celebrants, to start early and to end at 3:00 pm, the alternative is Albas’s in Capitol Commons but some of members may consider twice going to a public place. Menchu suggested Chef Jessie in Rockwell which place is very convenient for members who live in Makati, Alabang. 

b. Platinum Anniversary

During the last BOD meeting the Core Organizing Committee recommended that Baby be the Honorary chair and Baby has agreed. Giselle is urgently asking for volunteers for these  committees:

1. Theme, Tag lines, Posters, Publicity;

2. Ticket Printing, Distribution, Control Sales;

3. Program, Hosting, Special Numbers, Raffle, Event Management;

4. Venue, Food, Drink, Music;

5. Finance Management, Donations, Sponsorship, Solicitation;

6. Décor Table and Stage Arrangement, Seating plan, Ingres, Egres Registration;

7. Book, Video, Website for Projects Donation Launch;

8. Guests, VIPs, Invitation

Gina asked the members to be part or be involved in at least one committee because the club’s 70th anniversary celebration is a very important event for the club Malou was tasked to elicit from each member the committee and ask them on what. committee they would like to join. Gina said that she would like to join the Ticket Printing, Distribution, Control Sales committee because monitoring distribution and sale and accounting for proceeds is very important. Giselle requested members to be part of the committees - the 3 new members, Mia, Pauline and Christina to help in developing tag lines; Menchu and Nonie to be part of the Program, Hosting, Special Numbers, Raffle, Event Management committee; Nonie for the music; Girlie  and Nene for Venue, Food, Drink, Music. She said  she will also be involved in this committee because she participated in the  preliminary arrangements; Baby and Carol as Treasurer and Asst. Treasurer, for Finance Management, Donations, Sponsorship, Solicitation; Ruby, Grace and Marlu, for the Book, Video, Website for Projects Donation Launch; all past presidents, For Guests, VIPs, Invitations committee. There is no final date yet and this will be discussed in the next meeting. Gina suggested PP Nila (Nila) and PP Lulu (Lulu) to help with the Book and Carol for editing. Dr. Mina Gabor (Mina) said that she will take care of the give aways for the guests and members.

Zonta Area 1 activities:

2. Zonta’s 16 Day of Activism

The date for Zonta Club of Manila 1 is November 29, Tuesday. The activity could be the webinar or any other activity. But if it is a webinar, Giselle would like to ask Ruby, the chair of the Advocacy committee, under which we have the webinar group headed by Mina Gabor to decide on the webinar activity.  This was shared only with her during the last Area 1 president’s meeting and was the presidents were urged to act fast.  During last friday's BOD meeting, the Board recommended Webinar on Woman and Child Abuse Protection by Dr. Bernadette Madrid of the Child Protection Unit, UP-PGH.  Giselle asked Mina to discuss this with Ruby. She said to convey this immediately to the  proposed speaker, Dr. Bernadette Madrid, and to make sure she will accept the invitation. Dr. Madrid is a 2022 Magsaysay Awardee. 8.

3. UN Day on October 20.

The Zonta District Tag Line is Build a Better World for Women and Girls. Area 1 - Team in  action. The club needs attendees on UN Day on October 20, Thursday. Malou to ask members  to attend the  UN Day.

d. Area Activity: Mangrove Seedling.  

This is an area wide project related to climate change, “Save Mother Earth”, to be hosted by  Greater Rizal 2 and will involve planting mangrove seedlings in Noveleta Cavite on October 28.   Pres. Rose Lim is requesting Giselle to participate, and for the Club to donate a minimum of 200 seedlings which will cost P2,000. There are already 6 clubs who will be participating and Giselle will also join this event. Menchu, Gina, Grace and Mina said that they will join. Giselle said that she knows an expert on mangrove trees and beach forest trees that are called coastal greenbelts which protect our coast line from storm surges. She has worked closely with Scientist Jurgenne Primavera, a world expert, who has pointed out that there are many places in the Philippines where what is being planted is not the right kind of trees. Giselle said that Jurgenne may be willing to give a talk in our club as long as it can be scheduled  properly. Mina said that she knows that there is a project for the planting of mangroves in the Cavite area  which is being coordinated by DENR. She said she will call up the Regional Director of DENR in Cavite to find out what they are doing. Giselle said that Rose is also giving her information on what is being  planted in these mangroves. 

Menchu said that she will invite Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga (GK) to join the group because he is doing projects in Batangas. Gina told Menchu to ask Tony Meloto why GK abandoned the 2 GK projects of the Club in Mandaluyong after the Club raised substantial funds from members and friends to build houses under the GK program. Menchu explained that Couples for Christ split into two and Tony Meloto is now focused on housing for the senior citizens.  

Giselle said that Tony Meloto and GK are also the partners of Fr. Nebres' ACED feeding program in hundreds of schools all over the country. The Club members have donated to this project. The new project of ACED is focused on providing food and  future for young teenage mothers in Payatas, Q.C.  Tony Meloto should be informed that the Club has donated to the school feeding program of Fr. Ben's ACED and GK. 9.

Re Nene’s Comments on the Tondo Kiddie class:  

Nene said that for this year's traditional Christmas cheers for the students of the Tondo Kiddie Classshe she is preparing 50 or 60 baskets to be given to  the students, teacher,  caretaker, and to the barangay people who have been helping the school. She has started paying Luz her starting salary of P10,000 but the caretaker’s allowance, electricity and Maynilad are all  charged to Zonta’s account.

She said that after the renovation of the building, she asked  her engineer to fix the faucet leaks and fumigate and clean the premises, including the playground. All these were accomplished before the opening of classes. Nene said  she and Giselle donated cleaning materials. The mothers provided for the uniform of their children and many are helping as volunteer mothers. Many photos have been taken of the refurbushed building.

Giselle said that Nene and her group have committed to support this project and she hopes that they will sustain this for a long time. The group will meet and discuss other matters like estimate of monthly expenses and unusual expenses on a yearly basis in their next  meeting soon. She will show the photos of kiddie class to the members. Giselle also said she will visit kiddie class in November and plan the Christmas cheers in December and the giving away of Nene’s  baskets. 10.

9. Final Matter – 

Giselle asked the members if they would consider holding the General Membership Meeting every other month instead of every month. Mina said that it is a good  idea to hold the GMM  every other month especially in the light of the preparations for the 70th Platinum anniversary which will require additional meetings of committees. Giselle said that this would give the members the opportunity to produce  significant updates and results not only for the Platinum Anniversary but also for the 4 major projects.  Menchu suggested that members should meet this November and December in order to get to know the new members and also to prepare for the Christmas party. She proposed to start the every other month GMM meeting in 2023. Giselle said that members will still meet in November and December, and in between,  committee meetings can be face-to-face. For the minutes, Gina asked Giselle to get a formal approval of the  holding of the GMM once every two months. Giselle asked members if they have any objections for this new proposal to start in January, 2023.

Chit commented that if the By-Laws provide for monthly meetings then that has to be observed; otherwise, it can be voted upon.   Giselle said she thought it best to feel the sentiment of the members on the frequency of the meeting and then afterwards, propose it to the Board for approval. Chit said that if the BOD approves then the membership will just follow, but she does not object to first knowing the sentiments of the  the general membership. Gina told Chit that precisely, among the amendments to the By-laws that is currently being considered is the frequency of members meetings and whether the BOD will be given the power to decide that matter. Every biennium the BOD may arrive at a different decision.  Chit asked what is the present provision in the By-laws and Gina said she will  check  on that. 11. Chit said she has no objections but just want to observe certain protocols. Giselle thanked Chit and said that she is trying to get an indication from the members and this is something that can be considered and will be take up to the Board for decision.  She said there is  no decision  on this matter at the general membership meeting  but there is an indication that the members would not object to a new schedule for general membership meetings.

Giselle reminded everyone that the next GMM is on the third Monday or Tuesday of November, face- to -face and via zoom where the new members will be inducted. One option is to hold it in Rockwell Makati. She said that there is also plan to hold a Christmas party face- to- face in December. Menchu said she just called Chef Jessie and was told that  there is a rental fee for the venue for special occasions of  P25,000.00 which includes the food. To upgrade the food would range from  P1,500 to P2,000 pr person. Menchu asked Giselle to reserve early. Giselle said she will discuss it first with the BOD. 

10.     Adjournment:

There being no other matters to discuss, upon motion duly made and seconded, the   

 meeting was adjourned.

                  GINA GERALDEZ

  Recording Secretary

  With the assisatance of:

  Malou Juntilla

Secretarial Staff