Lower JPNHS alumni membership fee mulled

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

THE Jose Panganiban National High School Alumni Association plans to set a P50-annual membership fee in a bid to boost funds to support ongoing and future projects for the community.

The P50 yearly compulsory fee is being discussed by the JPNHS officers for final action.

“We are really in need of more funding so we can work on various projects and activities we want to carry out annually,” says Beth
Albero, association president.

The setting of the membership fee at K50 was proposed by batch 66 member Samuel Tatom, who is also the secretary of the 800-strong Larap PIM Association (LaPIMa).

Tatom said that the amount is “very affordable to everybody”.

He was reacting to an earlier MWBuzz report that some alumni batches are collecting at least a P500-one-time membership fee.

Because of this, another alumnus from Batch 73 has appealed to his batch mates to chip in US$50 (at least P2,100) to sponsor four batch members who are poor at a cost of P500 each.

“This way, there would be more to come to the reunion because our poor batch mates could now attend,” Japan-based Arnel P Hernandez said on his Facebook posting recently.

Albero said that she was surprised to learn from the report that there was a alumni batch charging that match per member.

However, she said that maybe, the P500 membership fee was being collected to raise funds for the batch’s own projects in Mambulao.

Tatom said the P50 fee should be made mandatory since it is affordable and a one-time payment only, adding that it could boost the association’s fundraising drive.

Since the amount is reasonable, alumni members could support many poor batch mates, he said.

“If we have 5,000 members, we could easily raise P250,000 at P50 each ... so we could raise about P100,000 from membership fees alone in three years,” Tatom said.

The association is also thinking of new fundraising initiatives not only during reunion year but year-round doing raffle draws, bingo games and more.

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