December 13, 2009 ALP Annual Meeting & X'mas Party Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty  & Jett Aguilar

Last December 13, 2009, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) held their annual meeting as well as Christmas party at the Manila Planetarium at 3:00pm.  Members who attended were ALP President James Kevin Ty & wife Charito Ty, Kendrick Cole (KC) Ty & in law Dolores Caballero ; VP  Dr. Jett Aguilar, Treasurer Henry So, Membership Chair Angie Tan and Frank Carlsen ; Auditor Brian Davis; Secretary Rich Pijuan ; Directors Alfonso Uy, Edwards Eli Tan, Edgar Ang & Jomar Lacson; NAW 2009   Chair Dr Armando Lee & wife  Mia Lee & son Jason Lee ; Vincent Lao, Tommy Tan, Aldrin Palacio, Dennis Buenviaje, Rommel Candaza and brother Arjay Candaza, Lea Visaya, Ma. Belen Pabunan ; Desiree del Rosario, Alberto Lao and friend Kenneth Morales , Andrew Ian Chan, Berenice Viola Chan, Johanna Erika Valdueza and Mark Anthony Rivera, Rosalyn Penol, Mark Anthony Honrade, Roldan de Guia, Ellaine Pena and friend Raymond Gloria, Miguel Cano, Rommel Palacpac and Margie Arboleda , Christopher Lee and Sandra Torita.

The event got delayed because they didn't expect that the road going to the Planetarium was closed as there was a bicycle race ongoing that morning till the late afternoon.  So most of the members who brought cars had no choice but to park at Manila Hotel vicinity in Luneta Park :(  Nevertheless, registration, casting of ballots for new set of directors as well as membership renewals proceeded as scheduled .  Foods and drinks as well as some light beers were available for the members while awaiting for  the other members to arrive.

The registration booth were handled by Membership Chairperson Angie Tan (right) , Desiree del Rosario (middle) and Bel Pabunan (left)	ALPers relaxed while awaiting for the members to arrive.
ALP director Brian Davis pays for his membership renewal as well as Bingo game.	ALPer Christopher Lee casts his ballot to vote for the new set of directors for 2010.
ALP director Alfonso Uy also pay his renewal fee as well as his son's membership dues.	(L-R) ALPers Alfonso Uy , Armando Lee, Charito Ty and Mia Lee.

At around 4:45pm, ALP president James Kevin Ty started the meeting with a short overview of the activities made by the ALP for the year 2009.  This was followed by the explanation of the Bingo rules and guidelines that will be followed by the members.  James also thank the members who attended the party meeting and stated that this was the biggest gathering that the ALP had garnered during an annual meeting since its inception in 2003 and encouraging the members to attend the organization's activities next year and eclipse this year's good member's attendance at the annual meeting.  The main activities for the 2010 are the January 1 New Year Partial Lunar Eclipse as well as the January 15th Partial Solar Eclipse.

ALP President James Kevin Ty welcome the members of the society and thanked them for their support of the organization's activities.

James also discussed the January 1, 2010 Partial Lunar Eclipse that will mark the first major astro events of the year 2010.

A short break for members to have dinner followed after the discussion.  A group picture was taken before the dinner to ensure that all members present will be included in the group pic! :)  While having their dinner, James describe the Bingo rules and guideline to the members.  4 Bingo games were planned for the day which includes 3 warm up games en route to the grand prize game!  The 3 warm up games were played in a way that the members will play for the A, L, P pattern for the warm up games and a blackout game for the main prize. For the A pattern, the prize was a 50mW green laser pointer; L prize was a 8x42 zoom binoculars, P prize was a 10x50 zoom binoculars and last but no the least the blackout prize, a very beautiful Celestron Sky Scout!!!

James explain to the members the rules and guidelines of the Bingo games as well as its prizes.	ALPers had dinner first before the start of the game. Chowtime!
The dinner food were delicious and yummy!	ALPers take their time to dine and chat with fellow ALPers.

The first warm up games started with everyone concentrating on the cards as as not to miss marking a certain number :) LOL  The first game was long as more than 50  bingo balls are called already.  Then suddenly the number G59 was called by James and imagine 5 ALPers got the bingo combination!  Luckily, the ensure a tie breaker for such scenario, James had earlier announce how a tie breaker can be made as there will only be one winner in each game. The rules indicated that in a tie breaker match, the winning candidates will draw a bingo ball and the one with the highest number will be declared the winner.  The lucky 5 ALPers were Berenice Viola Chan, Armando Lee, Sandra Torita, Johanna Erika Valdueza and Frank Carlsen.  After each of them draws a ball, Frank Carlsen got the highest number and was declared the winner of the 50mW green laser pointer!

The second warm up game immediately followed to play for the L pattern and this time around, the pattern was easily made by the winning bingo card of ALPer Elaine Pena and she won the Bushnell 8x42 zoom binoculars!!!

Frank Carlsen got the 50mW green laser pointer for winning the first Bingo warm up game!

ALPer Rosalyn Penol received the Bushnell 8x42 zoom binoculars on behalf of ALPer Elaine Pena for winning the 2nd Bingo warm up game !

The third warm up games also followed afterwards to play for the P pattern and this time around, another long and tense waiting game followed with a lot of members shooting and screaming as their bingo cards almost made the P pattern with 1-2 numbers left to win.  Noticeable nervous and tense was ALPer Rich Pijuan who is praying very hard that she will win the 10x50 zoom binoculars and when the winning ball was called by James, Rich shouted Bingo and was jumping with joy but her excitement came to a pause when another ALPer Charito Ty also got the Bingo as well!  So the tie breaker rule applied and Charito was the luck one to win the 10x50 zoom binoculars :)

Another short break followed before the start of the main and most awaited game for the chance to win a Celestron Sky Scout!  Some went tt he rest room to wash their hands or take a pee to remove all bad luck so that they can win the main prize while others opted to just had a great time to have another round of delicious dinner and drinks! :) LOL

ALPer Charito Ty received her Bushnell10x50zoom binoculars for winning the 3rd Bingo warm up game !	Sandra Torita jumped for joy after the getting the Bingo Blackout game!!!
ALP Treasurer Henry So hold Sandra's winning Bingo card to declare her the winner !	Sandra Torita received from ALP President James Kevin Ty  the Celestron SKy Scout for winning the Bingo Blackout Game !!!  Congratulations !!!

The main game started with everyone oh so quiet and James had to remind them that this is just a game and need to relax to have fun :) LOL  With a blackout pattern for the main and final game, the bingo balls had to be almost drawn till there were less than 5 balls before a lone winner was declared and the lucky one was ALPer Christopher Lee's fiancee Sandra Torita and she was jumping with joy as well as raising her arms high in the air.  And after final card checking by Treasurer Henry So and James, she was declared the winner of the brand new Celestron Sky Scout!!!  Congratulations to all winners of the day and hoping next year we will have even better prizes for our members as James expect there will be even more members to join :)

Afterwards, the election tally was made by ALP membership chair Angie Tan and treasurer Henry So and the following vote results were tallied and finalized.  33 members casts their votes with 1 ballot declared  void because he or she selected more than 4 maximum so the final number of valid ballots are 32.  The final tally of the election were as follows:

Jett Aguilar - 30 votes *

Armando Lee - 27 votes *

Alfonso Uy - 17 votes *

Edward Eli Tan - 15 votes *

Jomar Lacson - 12 votes

Andrew Ian Chan - 7 votes

Congratulations to the 4 new and re-elected directors Jett Aguilar, Armando Lee, Alfonso Uy and Edward Eli Tan and they will serve for 3 years. They will join James Kevin Ty, Henry So, Rich Pijuan, Angie Tan, Edgar Ang, Brian Davis, Peter Benedict Tubalinal, Alice Villa-Real and Melisa Bata as ALP Board of Directors of the year 2010.

Merry Christmas and a happy ALP Year to all !!!

ALPers posed for posterity during the ALP Annual Meeting and Xmas Party.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY ALP YEAR !!!

For more activity images, click here.