Some more imaginings for BSU

(After attending the DTI-sponsored forum on industry roadmaps and AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) gameplan, I began to imagine more things for BSU. Blogs are blogs--avenue to spill thoughts and dreams candidly. Please edit na lang kasi tinatamad ako mag-ayos ng thoughts kaya chop suey lang hehe)

1. BSU may be better off having an IGP on coffee, or a seed production IGP for that matter. BSU supplies coffee cherries to Rocky Mountain Coffee, anyway, which the company raises in nurseries and sells to its contract growers. BSU also sells to individual farmers and LGUs or private companies anyway. Benguet has the advantage of having the best Arabica species I heard. So that RMCC I heard is moving "heaven and hell" to be able to renew their MOA with BSU because they probably cannot find a better and sure source of Arabica coffee planting materials. BSU gets incidental income from the arrangement. Maybe if this business of providing planting materials becomes an IGP and there is a project manager in-charge solely for marketing coffee or coffee cherries, or coffee seedlings, BSU may earn more while at the same time it can sell to as far as Mindanao as is happening now anyway but with a broker.

More comprehensively, BSU produces many seeds/planting materials but they usually just get incidental income from the endeavor. Maybe if there is really a certified seed/planting material production team or centralized department under the UBA who will proactively plan and promote and market technologies--potato, strawberry, snap beans, etc. (aside from work done with LGUs), then maybe BSU can earn more while reaching more clients not just in the CAR but in other provinces in Mindanao.

2. BSU-CEAT just got themselves expensive toys for free -- conventional and CNC machines. The aerospace industry as I heard has no way to go but up according to the speaker local aerospace major player John Lee. If CEAT plays the game well, and the President will be serious in his vision by hiring a part-time mechanical engineer and CNC machine custodian ASAP, then maybe, just maybe BSU can indeed help the local metal industry while at the same time earning itself enough to bear the cost of maintenance and utilities and a little extra. After all, 16 million-worth machine is no joke. And if BSU is not careful, these machines may still be inside the box until their warranty expire.

3. A Harvard graduate Cielito Habito says, it is time Filipino educational system train graduates not to find a job to earn salary, but to be entrepreneurs and create wealth. I wonder who has a curriculum that prepares children young as they are to have this perspective. Like the expensive "kumon" system that sort of trains a child in a certain way, it may be good to have a special school or curriculum where students are trained to think like entrepreneurs from the very start. I remember the BSU Secondary Education Training Department formerly Agri-science High now Science High. As early as high school, we had to learn agricultural science courses. Philippine Science High School I think also prepares the HS students for science, technology and mathematics courses. Maybe it is high time, a curriculum is developed in the Elementary Department where they are trained, young as they are, to invest in stocks, manage forex, do business or maybe at least learn the basics of entrepreneurship. Doctors' children usually become doctors or nurses; Government workers' children usually end up working in the government; Businessmen breed businessmen; Politicians, politicians. The only way we can raise more entrepreneurs is to expose children to the field early on, and who knows maybe even if Filipinos are not wired to be businessmen (the way Chinese are born to be as they say), some may be raised to get interested in the craft. BSU Elem Dept. and SETD may want to innovate so that its General Curriculum or Vo-Ag Curriculum may be expanded.

4. A speaker talked about the potential of the processed vegetable industry. He mentioned about Thailand now being the lead among the ASEAN. He talked about CAR having the potential since raw materials are just around. Thais dry just about anything and export them. (Like tourism where they package a small waterfall and earn millions of dollars from tourists wowing the place, they do creative things to their fruits and vegetables and fishes and export them and the whole world buys them.). Let us hope BAPTC will progress and the dream frozen mixed vegetable of Sec. Alcala will be marketed in time. But maybe BSU can start growing in its processing center before the creative ones start robbing them of the opportunity (as what happened to coffee). The BSU ube is now well known, but many loyal customers think the packaging can be improved. (aside: I heard the DevCom Dept creatively made a study about the packaging and labeling of BSU products and even did a consumer survey, but when they recommended their outputs to the FPC, these were rejected. Hmm.) Anyway, go go go food processing center -- parboiled and frozen, dried... what not... as the speaker said, processed vegetables have potential for export.

5. The NEDA-CAR director also talked about the key potential industries in the CAR and a top industry for CAR is ecotourism. I'm thinking about the strawberry fields of BSU. It was there where I spent many Saturdays and early mornings when I was in High School (some 25 to 30 years ago)-- growing strawberries, selling strawberries to tourists way before the pick and buy scheme became popular. Now the area is being squeezed by forms of industrialization. I would like to imagine it being preserved much like Burnham park-- fenced with nice looking fence, and developed to be as it is open strawberry fields with maybe some optimal number of greenhouses so that the production is all year round. Add to it a strawberry R&D center of excellence with a genomic center and one gets the whole picture. Anyway, I hope we can successfully craft the proposal for a wastewater treatment facility. It maybe the only chance for future acceptable irrigation water for the area.

(So hayan, kahit medyo masakit sa ulo ang makinig sa napakaraming speakers na isinaksak sa iisang araw ay natuwa na rin naman ako. Iyun lang magaling lang naman ako mag-imagine haha.)

Performance report

Our boss tasked us to prepare his performance report from the start he assumed his position until this time. 

Universities and other government agencies are being evaluated based on their achievement in what are called major final outputs (MFOs). Perhaps, administrators are additionally evaluated on their contribution and initiatives to facilitate the achievement of or even surpass target MFOs. One major final output of BSU, for example, is higher education. Performance indicators for this MFO are: number of graduates, quality of graduates in terms of performance in licensure examinations, and timeliness. For research as MFO, an ultimate indicator is the number of publications in ISO journals. 

While helping draft the report, I began to realize what it would be like in death when people finally face their Maker. I understand from biblical preachings that while salvation is not based on our past performance in this world (only by grace so that no one will boast), and that we must perform as Christians out of gratitude, for our enjoyment of our position, and for the glory of the One who chose and had been gracious to us, there are rewards and crowns in heaven that will be based on performance. I tried to think of the MFOs  required of us believers, and the corresponding performance indicators.

I am not a theologian but I can think of two MFOs with eternal value as  Christians: disciples and fruits of the spirit. We are told that a final charge given to the disciples by Jesus Christ is "to make disciples of all nations...". We are also told to live by the Spirit, the fruits of which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control...

If these are the MFOs of a Christian, and the indicators are number and quality of disciples made, % of times displayed love, % of times displayed patience and so on..., I am a non-performer!!! Failure!!! But oh well, wait, even in the university, there is a major final output called "support to operations"! Whew, maybe I have been tasked in this area; perhaps I may be performing a little in this area, but really, not as much as I should. But I am still not relieved of having to perform in the area of making disciples and having to live the fruits of the Spirit.

So I guess, in all things indeed, one learns a life lesson. Even while writing a performance report of the university or administrator, I was reminded of the essential outputs required of me in this world. It is terrifying enough to be evaluated in this fallen world. It is more terrifying though to think about the more essential performance indicators. My only comfort is His promise that all authority in heaven and in earth was given to Christ, and His Kingdom will go on and expand even if I become a "non-performing asset". He is after all, sovereign. The catch is that I lose the privilege, joy and rewards of performing well and achieving the required MFOs for a graced sinner.