The Current State of Affairs of SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation

By  Lambert Sagalla 

Delivered during SMSSAFF Re-union and Business Meeting
August 25-27, 2006
Holy Trinity and St. Benedict's Church Parish Hall
Alhambra, Los Angeles, California.

 Good  morning everybody.  

May I start by thanking all of you for sacrificing your time, money and foregoing other commitments in favor of attending our SMSS alumni and friends reunion and business meeting. Our special thanks goes of course to the West Coast SMSSAFF Chapter under the leadership of manong Max Batong for hosting this affair. Thank you also manong Rufino for continuing to place St. Mary’s School, Sagada and Igorot concerns at the top of your priorities hence, your presence in this gathering.  

My task this morning, as your top errand boy [with the highfaluting title “president”], is to report on the current state of affairs of  St. Mary’s Alumni and Friends Foundation or SMSSAFF in short. 

At the outset, I can readily say that our foundation is quite healthy but still at its infancy  and needs all our tender loving care and support  in order for it to take off.  This state of affairs can be gleaned in, or browsed from our website: www.smssfoundation.com .   

However, for the benefit of those who have no time accessing the website or simply have an aversion to or don’t know using computers, may I submit the following summary of the present state of affairs of our organization. 

 I. 501 (c) (3) Status. For those of you who still do not know, I am happy  to report that our alumni and friends association here in the USA was granted tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code effective May 4, 2004.

Thanks to manong John and manang Jo Alipit for bankrolling the legal fees paid Principle Law Firm and the registration fees paid to the US Treasury  totaling about a thousand US dollars.

Thanks also to the relentless pursuit of a number of SMSS alumni for a formal organization of SMS alumni and friends here in the USA. I particularly remember manang Gloria Bawaan Simon who has been actively campaigning for such a formal organization in IIC-2 in West Virginia, in the East-Coast Grand Kanyaw and through the internet.

We are now officially registered with the IRS as  SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation. Outside official communications we can call it SMSSAFF for convenience. Donations to SMSSAFF from individuals and corporations domiciled in the USA, are tax deductible under section 170 of  the Code. This Foundation is also qualified to receive tax deductible bequest, devises, transfers or gifts under sections 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code. 

Organizations exempt under section 501 (c) (3) of the Code are further classified as either public charities or private foundations. During its advance ruling period from May 4, 2004 to December 31, 2008,  SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation will be treated as a public charity foundation. The difference between a private and public charity foundations is based on an organization's sources of financial support.  Private foundations are generally supported and controlled by a few persons. Public charities generally receive funds from several sources. 

A public charity foundation has significant advantages over a private foundation. It enjoys more liberal reporting requirements and economic benefits vis a vis a private foundation. It is no surprise, therefore, that many private foundations are taking efforts to convert into public charity foundations. We will try as much as possible to maintain our public charity status. 

May I caution, however, that we will only be able to maintain our 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status if we can comply with the provisions of our Articles of Association and By-Laws. The cooperation of the SMSSAFF Board of Trustees and the help of  the  SMSSI administration will be crucial regarding this matter. I have brought along with me an article that identifies the issues that both SMSSAFF Board of Trustees and the SMSSI Administration will have to jointly address as regards a domestic corporation [such as SMSSAFF] with foreign operations.  

You may already have noted that we have Articles of Association and Association By-Laws [instead of Articles of Incorporation and Corporation By-Laws]. We are not yet incorporated. We opted to remain as an association during our formative years to minimize reporting requirements. We intend, however, to be incorporated as soon as the amount of donations through SMSSAFF  reach a substantial amount. One advantage of incorporation is that the private assets of  officers of the organization are protected from lawsuits. We are trying as much as possible to encourage alumni and friends to volunteer as officers of this organization; and we don’t want the disadvantages of remaining an association as a deterrent to volunteering one’s service to SMSSAFF.  

II. Donations Channeled through SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation. Since the birth of SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation on May 4, 2004 through August of 2006, some $80, 270.81 worth of donations has been processed by our able and efficient SMSSAFF treasurer, manang Inez Saley.  This will be reported in greater detail by manang Inez’s during her turn to report.  

To all of you donors – big and small – in behalf of SMSSAFF, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. Your donations, even how small, will help St. Mary’s School of Sagada continue to pursue it mission of dispensing quality education to the children of hinterland communities in  Northern Luzon which has been categorized among the poorest of the poor of Philippine society. 

Lest we be misunderstood, we do not claim that it was because of SMSSAFF that the $80,270.81 was generated. We only state that the amount was serviced by SMSSAFF. Kabunian knows that it was [and remains] mainly through the efforts of the SMSSI President [manong Rufino Bomasang] and the trust and confidence that donors have on  the present SMSSI administration [headed by Dr. Dennis Faustino] which has encouraged donors  to allocate some of their tax-deductible donations  to our beloved alma mater.

It maybe safe to state, however, that without SMSSAFF not that much donations from overseas SMS alumni and friends would have been generated for SMSSI. 

Sifting through the donation reports of manang Inez through the years, I am glad to report that the  prime movers of the formation of this organization continue to demonstrate their commitments to St. Mary’s School with their generous donations. They have walked and continue to walk their talks. May they continue to inspire and challenge other SMS Alumni and Friends to likewise come out to actively support efforts towards affording quality education to our less fortunate brethren in the Cordilleras. Those whom we left behind in our hinterland place of origin continue to be handicapped by a subsistence economy and the best hope for them of catching up with their lowland countrymen and the rest of the world is through quality education. 

What is challenging also to note in the financial report of manang Inez is that the $80,270.81 was generated from alumni and friends constituting only a very small percentage of  the estimated total SMSS alumni still living and gainfully employed [which I roughly estimate at less than 5 percent]. This shows that we can do much better if only we can somehow convince the vast majority of SMSS alumni and friends that what we seek to achieve is not only the financial viability of a School [St. Mary's School of Sagada] but the socio-economic viability of  our people – the Igorots and related indigenous people who continue to lag behind in all socio-economic indicators in the Philippines.  

III. Committee Formations.  In consonance with our Articles of Association and By-Laws and in the pursuit of an effective approach towards our fund raising efforts, the formation of committees were initiated during our organizational meeting on March 5, 2005 at All Saints and St. Luke Episcopal Church Hall, Union, New Jersey;  in the 1^st attempt at a Nationwide SMSS Alumni and Friends reunion in Sierra Mia, West Virginia on June 18, 2005; and through the internet. 

There were not that many who wanted to join, particularly heading, these committees. Nagrigat nga talaga. Narigrigat mo es men-alem.  Mo ka-ked-ya-ked-yat ka es ba-babas-sang, dakapay iyagasa-as en “lay-lay-dek” sik-a, et adu da nan ma-awis. Nan pay men recruit es committee members et ay apo talaga – ayeh pay di ikantako ay ka-ked-ya-ked-yat; dapay iyaga-sa-as ay men paka-asi, ngem bas-sit pay-la-eng na ma-awis.

We, of course, understand the reluctance of people from involving themselves in our committee works as these are purely on a volunteer basis without any compensation.  That is why we appreciate very much those who eventually came out to join these committees particularly  as committee chairs or co-chairs. We should give them a big big applause. 

The following are the Committees that have evolved from our efforts at Committee Formations.  

III. A.  Standing Committees:

1. Sponsor-a-Student Funding Assistance Committee (SASFAC)
2. Faculty Development Funding Assistance Committee (FDFAC)
3. Endowment Funding Assistance Committee (EFAC)
4. Grants and Aids Committee (GAC)
5. Website Committee (WC)
6. Finance and Budget Committee
7. By-Laws Committee
8. Nominating Committee

III. B. Ad Hoc Committees:

1. Computers and Related Equipment Funding Assistance Committee (CAREFAC)
2. Library Facilities Funding Assistance Committee (LFFAC)
3. Book Solicitation Assistance Committee
4. Sports Facilities Funding Assistance Committee (SFFAC)
5. Dormitory Funding Assistance Committee (DFAC)

We are only in our second year of operations so getting all of these committees operational has not yet been accomplished. It maybe worthwhile, however, to report that the accomplishments of the Computer and Related Equipment Funding Assistance Committee (CAREFAC) chaired by Raymond Alipit and the Sponsor-a-Student Funding Assistance Committee (SASFAC) chaired by Lita Killip prove that committees can be effective tools in our fund-raising efforts for SMSSI. We will further discuss the merits or demerits of pursuing committees as a means towards realizing our objectives during the “Committee Formation” period of this meeting.  

The functions and members of these committees are found in our website at: http://www.smssfoundation.com/committe_list.htm . We will again discuss these in greater detail during the Committee formation period. 

IV. Board of Trustees and Officers. Convincing people to volunteer as members of the Board of Trustees was as difficult as the task of recruiting committee members. Naligat talaga. Wasdin mangwani en ma-id time da. Sitodi nan itapi yo, ulay ma-id nan ipogaw ay na-ay isdin miting. Isunga panga-asi yo ay adi mangtek ay membro kayo gayam es nan Board of Trustees ta pakawanen yo sak-en. Ta i-yeh-igolot tako ay men-kali tapno adi ma-awatan nan IRS. At any rate after a lot of cajoling, convincing even arm twisting we were able to come out with the required members to compose the board of Trustees. 

The present composition of the Board of Trustees are: 

One-Year Term	1. Aguilar, Corazon  2. Batong, Maximo  3. Hing, Cristina Batore   4. Killip, Erwin 5. Simon, Gloria Bawa-an
Two-Year Term	6. Alipit, John 7. Aquino, Hilda Longid 8. Marchadesh, Annabelle Tamking 9. Montero, Eydie Neil 10. Palasi, Dario 11. Pit-og, Nellie Abeya
Three-Year Term	12. Abeya, Edwin 13. Carlin, Catherine Longid 14. Gomowad, Tony  15. Sagalla, Lambert 16. Saley, Inez Killip 17. Yodong, Nestor
Edwin Abeya was unanimously elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees.