A Shared Vision of A Dynamic PNU-LISAA

Acceptance speech delivered by Consuelo J. Estigoy during the 3rd General Assembly on November 21, 2003 at the PNU Library, Manila

Mrs. Fe Robles our inducting officer, Dr. Linda M. Tayona, Chairman of PNU LIS Department, faculty of the Department, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

I don’t know if I’m happy or sad. All I can feel is the exhilaration of new challenges. Thank you for permitting me to be your president.

I am honored by your faith in me and am especially honored to be following in the footsteps of our wonderful and talented past presidents. They have made the PNU-LISAA what it is today, which continues to grow and provide even greater service to the cause of our fellow alumni.

Actually, my acceptance of the responsibilities as president was made earlier; let me give you a little background on what happened. It was in the early part of July when I came back from the burial of my father, when I received the resignation letter of our president, Mr. Jing Bautista. I informed the group right away and during our regular meeting, I asked the Board if they would accept the resignation of Jing, to which they declined citing the upcoming election and there were only three months left to his term. I then sent my reply to Jing stating that the body didn’t accept his resignation, but then he made no reply and that was it. I was really devastated then because I just lost my father, then here, the president of the Association. But we had to move on. Thanks to my colleagues in the Board, they showed me their support and we continued to work as one.

My term will continue the rigid campaign for membership. Aside from collecting membership fees personally, maybe we can make our membership renewals thru bank transfers for those who cannot attend but are willing to pay their annual fees. As I’ve said earlier we are a non-profit organization so rely mostly on the membership fees we collect.

We will continuously update our directory of alumni and if possible we will provide each one a copy of this directory.

Also we will continue to conduct relevant seminars and for a with very affordable fees and competent speakers. And I’m thinking of a fundraising activity this coming year to sustain the expenses of the Association.

Another important activity will be to sponsor a scholarship grant to a deserving LIS student. And we will try to collaborate with other alumni associations and other library organizations to come up with a joint activity or project. Also, I encourage all members to visit and register in our email group @ PNULISAA@yahoogroups.com because we use this for our regular announcements and updates.

I hope you’ll bear with me in sharing my aspirations and I have a reason to believe that the best is yet to come.

I would like to take this opportunity to urge you to support our fresh and still growing Association. Each of you, in your own particular way have helped to set the stage for our continued success. According to a book I’ve read, to be effective, “A leader must be able to motivate those she leads, have a shared vision, and with the clarity of that vision, the skill to articulate it and perseverance to bring it to fruition while valuing all members of the association.”

In closing, I would like to express my thanks to my wonderful family for the support and understanding, my husband and only daughter who could not be here today but send their love and congratulations. Thank you and hope to see you all in our forthcoming activities.