Weekly Update: January 19, 2005

Administrator's Notes:
By Chona Villafuerte-Go NHS Batch 1986
Website Administrator

It's hard for me to believe that a lot has happened since we have officially unveiled our site just the beginning of New Year 2005. It has been an exciting time for me personally, and all NHS Alumni On-line Community members can take significant pride in the progress we have been able to make together towards strengthening our On-line Community. I hope you will indulge me if I use this column to review some of these accomplishments and to highlight some of the future challenges. Hopefully by reading this you will be able to gain an idea of the immediate objectives of our NHS Alumni On-line Community.

Continuing with the topic of progress, the successful launch and continuing growth of Novaliches High School Alumni On-line Community on the World Wide Web also ranks high on my list of recent NHS community accomplishments. A lot of valuable information about different alumni batch sponsored yahoo groups, recent awards and accomplishments contributed by our fellow members who are currently NHS students graduating very soon, and other activities are now also available to NHS On-line Community members right off the Web, but I am convinced we are only scratching the surface of what this new web resource will eventually become.

Given these successes, what can we collectively do for an encore? Truth be told, there are still plenty of challenges awaiting our attention as an On-line community. Lest any of us become too self-satisfied, we need only to look at one of the most important barometers of NHS Alumni On-line community - "our membership numbers". It is sobering to note that membership totals have been relatively flat for the past weeks following an impressive growth during the early recruitment and invitation last December of 2004. While these membership registration numbers mirror the same trends within our NHS Message Board Posts as a whole, they are a clear reminder to all of us that for us to be a thriving community, we really need each other’s active participation. Membership drives can encourage new enrollments, but the long-term success of our On-line Community ultimately depends on how well the NHS Community meets its members' needs and expectations. Recent membership numbers tell us that we can't afford to be complacent in our continuing efforts to strengthen our NHS Alumni On-line Community features and services.

This quest for increased member loyalty challenges us to find better ways to meet member needs all around the globe. I believe that alumni and student branches can provide the critical vehicles for achieving these critical objectives if we can be more creative and aggressive in finding ways to support our NHS Alumni On-line Community. Current programs such as Lost Friends Forum provide important avenues for providing assistance to our fellow members who were trying to reconnect with fellow NHS friends, but there are many other possibilities and features yet untapped which really needed to be explored. Given the importance of students as the future lifeblood of our On-line Community, we are hoping that services such as our newest column “On Spotlight” where we showcase our successful members on their field or profession or members who have contributed a great feat on their community, enriches the experiences of current students to further encourage them in becoming NHS Alumni themselves. ... I understand of course, that not all of these initiatives will succeed, but we have to keep trying until we find the ones that work.

While recognizing these continuing challenges, we should however be justly proud of all we have accomplished together during our On-line Community’s first month. It has been a real honor for me to have the opportunity to cheer things along in my role as Website Administrator of NHS Alumni On-line Community. It has been particularly stimulating for me to work with member volunteers during this time to take advantage of their collective wisdom and enthusiasm for launching new On-line Community Website features. I only hope that you will all enjoy the experience as much as I have. Thanks to everyone for your support during the past weeks.

REMINDERS EVERYONE!

WEEKLY UPDATE
You will now be able to stay on top of new additions and changes to our On-line Community thru our "Weekly Update" . This feature allows you to monitor any of our Message Board current posts, not just the changes on our On-line Community web site. We have also provided an Archives Section for our previous week's update, in case some of you might wish to read them again.

ON SPOTLIGHT FEATURE
If you know of a fellow alumni who have excelled OR is distinguished on his field or profession OR maybe a fellow alumni who have overcome certain adversities in life, PLEASE pass this information to us immediately at nhsqcalumni@verizon.net

Make your extraordinary alumni or NHS student known! Let's celebrate and inspire each other's uniqueness. As one community, we are a part of each other's successes for sharing parts of our lives with each other.

CALENDAR
We have already posted January Birthday Celebrants on our Message Board, please take a moment and greet our fellow members on their special day. Thank YOU!

FOR NEW MEMBERS
On-line Registered Members (with e-mails only) should have received a Welcome Letter few days after registering on line, with detailed information about member benefits: assigned username/password for our Password-protected Individual Class Year Directory and a default username/password for our Message Board,  plus all the other information that serves as your key to all of the wonderful services our On-line Community has to offer. Please keep that letter for your future reference and use it often.

NHS Message Board
We really hope that you will visit the board, read the entries and become an active participant! This is just a start of many new features we hope to add on our On-line Community.

No registration is required to view and read the board entries. However, if you wish to actively participate which we are hoping YOU would, to reply or post a new topic you must be registered to login. And we have good news for YOU, as a registered member of our On-line Community you are automatically registered on our Message Board as well. We have provided you with a default username/password for login thru the welcome letter that you should have received after we process your on-line registration (Please refer to your welcome member letter, for details).

Currently there are fifteen categories. These categories are Forum Announcements, General, News, Events, I'm Looking For, NHS Memories, Teachers and School Administration, In Memoriam, Entertainment World, Around The House, Computer Lab, The Writer's Forum, Talk Show, Greetings and Photo Gallery. We are not limited to these categories, we can add as many as we wish. If you have any ideas please post them in the General category or contact us.

We hope you will enjoy our Message Board and PLEASE to make this a thriving community we really need your active participation.

INVOLVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES:
We encourage all members to be involved in one or more of our Volunteer Team(s). Please look over our list and join those that interest you.

1) Forum Moderators
2) Lost Forum Committee Member
3) Tell A Friend Committee Member
4) Newsletter Committee Member
5) Message Board Contributor
6) Special Event Coordinator

 Our “VT” (Volunteer Team) is currently organizing a campaign drive for all our registered members to determine their interest in volunteering. If you are interested and wanted to get involve, please contact us at nhsqcalumni@verizon.net Or simply sign up for our Volunteer Team by sending us email to nhsqcalumni@verizon.net

Please note that we don't manage our volunteers; we just don't have the resources for that. We want self-starters and self-managers only.

 

ON SPOTLIGHT:
"Gerry Bayona Batch 1975"


 
The Bayona Family:
From the back L-R:  
Gerry, Megan, Jerome, Louise and Faith
In front L-R:
Deborah & Michaela

So, what do we know about our First Moderator -
Mr. Gerry Bayona Batch 1975?...You're right, nothin' much really, but that's about to change RIGHT NOW!!

Gerry Bayona was among the top honor students who graduated from Novaliches High School in 1975. Following his graduation, he attended Mapua Institute of Technology for 2 years majoring in Civil Engineering. When he turned 19, his church (The  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) called on him to serve a 2-year mission in the “Davao Philippines Mission” serving all over Mindanao.  

He migrated to Hawaii to attend Brigham Young University in 1981, with only $50 in his pocket, a half suitcase of clothes and only the clothes on his back...What truly inspired him to succeed through this lonely journey in the foreign land was of course his parents love and a wonderful fate where he met his would-be bride, Faith Lourdes Beloy who was then a freshman also at BYU. On his sophomore year they got married and in 1985, he successfully graduated with Bachelors of Science degrees in Business Administration and Computer Information Systems. With two young kids in tow and following Faith's graduation in 1986, Gerry and Faith moved to Long Beach California to pursue their careers. Gerry and Faith together with their five children - Louise 21, Deborah 19, Jerome 17, Megan 14 and Michaela 10, now reside in Bellflower California where Gerry also just recently completed his MBA Technology Management program from University of  Phoenix.  

Gerry is a well-traveled executive who traveled to France, Germany, Japan, and United Kingdom as he managed the installation of network infrastructure for Fox and AIG and who has worked with both domestic and international telecommunications companies.  Prior to Fox,  Gerry also developed software for four years for Ticor Title Insurance Corporation.  He began his career as a Methods and Procedures Analyst for Ticor Title Insurance Corporation where he traveled throughout the US assessing efficiency of processes, procedures, and methodologies for the company. 

Currently Gerry serves as a Principal Technology Planner for Yahoo!, Inc. search engine division.  He also served as Vice President of Systems Operations at ePolicy Insurance Services, Inc., an e-commerce b2b and b2c company catering to insurance consumers and insurance underwriters and brokers.  He joined ePolicy from EncrypTix, Inc., a startup company producing high-security value-bearing e-document technology solutions. 

Gerry’s words of wisdom??? The glory of God is intelligence. He believes that “the pursuit of
intelligence in all aspects (academically, phylosophically, and spiritually) should be a continuous process and that we must live our lives based on the wisdom we have acquired from our learning.” 

From all of us members of
Novaliches High School Alumni On-line Community,
We say "Mabuhay Gerry!
We are all very proud of YOU!!"

(On Spotlight Feature By Chona Villafuerte-Go) 

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We would like to thank the following
Message Board Contributors for this week:
Jaime Balanay
Cindy Bautista
Mercedita Bontoc
Benjie Canonoy
Alexander Domingo
Arlene Hipolito
Jaime Macaraeg
Joey Ordonez
Joseph Paras

YOU TRULY KEEP OUR MESSAGE BOARD ALIVE
WITH YOUR POSTS!

More power to ALL of YOU!