(Ito Conti, 2025 UPAA-W President)
The second UPAA-W board meeting was held last March 8, 2025 at the Philippine Center in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Jojo Ramos, Dr. Rowena Punzalan Sto. Tomas, Erick Orille, Cream Pepito, Dr. Fe Visaya, Ike Pahm, Roselle Rogers, Dr. Joey Abad Santos, Dr. Violeta Singson, Rebecca Toledo, Beaver Flores, Gerry Ramos and Dr. Oscar Toledo were present.
Ito received from Fe the 14” oblation statue, which symbolizes the UPAA-W presidency. The said statue will be turned over to the new President next year.
The chairs of the committees gave a status report, and made some changes on the schedules for our upcoming activities, namely:
Picnic – Sunday, July 20, 2025 at noon
Barrio Fiesta – Sunday, June 22, 2025 at noon
Value our Heritage – either on Saturday, October 4, 2024 or Saturday, October 18, 2025
The highlights of the meeting are as follows: (1) received notification from Juliet Nowak of Global Inspirations about their $500 donation to our Feed the Hungry program, (2) added 1 more recipient from the Department of Psychology of UP Diliman for the Asuncion Miteria Austria – UPAAW Professorial Chair for 2025, (3) exceeded already the $50,000 goal for our 50@50 Iskolar ng Bayan Fund, (4) finalized our dance presentation at the PCCCF Fiesta Filipiniana event on June 14, 2025, (5) discussed the key features of our website, and (6) nominated Gerry for the 2025 UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award in the Philippines, and the 2025 UPAAA Outstanding Alumni Award in Houston, Texas.
The next board meeting will be held during the picnic on July 20, 2025.