Hey FACT delegates! T-Shirts are in! There are two designs, both of which are a limited print. They will be sold on a first come, first serve basis! One t-shirt for $15 or two for $25!
“It’s been a good six years now since my roommate Chris and I coordinated the Filipino Americans Coming Together (FACT) conference out of our dorm room. The planning of the largest Pilipino-American conference in the Midwest was scheduled between our classes and whenever the cafeteria closed. It was hectic, but with people like the Blue Scholars from Seattle and activists from New Jersey and New York flying in, we knew we had to do it justice. Since that time, much has changed (tons more people, changes in venues), but a lot has stayed the same (host school, free registration). Registration for FACT 2009 just opened up to the public, and to entice people into signing up, I got the inside scoop on what’s going down at this FACT from this year’s coordinators…”
Click here to read more!
Last year, FACT took an in-depth focus on delegates’ self-identities. This year, FACT will hope to reach delegates beyond their self-proclaimed identities and connect with delegates’ passions. By doing so, we hope to bring about a personal revolution within our conference attendees by illustrating that those identities and passions mean nothing if there is not an underlying purpose behind them. More specifically, the first step is to know who you are. (I am ____.) The second is to know what you are passionate about. (I love _____.) The last step is to figure out how to live life with purpose by not wasting that gained self-knowledge (I will _____.)
Our theme, “Our People’s Power”: identity | passion | purpose, hopes to inspire our delegates to do just that. We want to draw inspiration from the People Power Revolution and honor the historical event that lead to Corazon Aquino’s peaceful rise to power. Known as “the revolution that surprised the world,” the nonviolent revolution would not have happened if 2,000,000 Filipino citizens did not decide to protest the government. If it were not for that purpose to fight a corrupt government, nothing would have changed.
FACT will take place over the course of one weekend and aims to engage its delegates during three types of workshops based on identities, passions, and purposes. The conference day will culminate in a variety show where our attendees will have an opportunity to showcase their talents.
Please follow FACT’s progress on both TWITTER (PSAFACT09) and our BLOG www.fact09.org. We also want to make this conference YOURS, so be sure to check out the blog for interactive posts and a forum in the near future.
This is your FACT 2009 head coordinators (Louie Sevandal, Brenan Salgado and Jemma Lopez) inviting you to join us in the conference planning process. With this blog, we hope to engage you – our future delegates – in active discussion to help aid us in planning YOUR conference. We launched this website to be as interactive as possible, allowing delegates to post comments, thoughts, videos, photos and sound clips to help us gauge where YOUR interests are and to make all of you part of the planning. Although FACT will be coordinated by the three of us, we want all of you to know that this year’s conference is, in reality, yours and, we hope, this website/blog will help you realize that.
Last year’s FACT conference themed “I AM: The world around us, the culture among us, the power within you” catered to individuals’ identities. The past coordinators wanted FACT to be as personable as it could be, meeting delegates where they were and helping them realize that whom they are contributes Filipino-American culture is. FACT 2008 brought the conference to the delegates, so-to-speak.
Our goal for FACT 2009 is to create continuity with last year’s conference by emphasizing delegates’ identities, but also engaging their passions and creating a sense of purpose for themselves. This year, we want our delegates to meet us half-way. We would like our delegates to be proud of whom they are, but we would also like them to realize that they are part of a greater world around them; their role in life is not defined by their salary or their social status but rather, is defined by their values and beliefs.
This website is at its early phase – much like the conference planning. The University of Illinois’ Philippine Student Association recently elected us to coordinate this year’s conference. Through this website, we plan on keeping you constantly updated as we make more progress organizing this conference. Our goal is to make this the largest and most worthwhile FACT conference for the delegates and, hopefully, this website/blog will help us involve the delegates in doing so. We plan on posting polls, workshop updates and any breakthroughs/struggles we have along the way. We will ask you to answer polls, post your opinions regarding potential workshops, and join us in the conference planning journey. When you step foot on this campus this fall, we want you to feel as if you were part of this planning process every step of the way.
Please keep your eye out for future updates and we look forward to working with all of you in producing another successful FACT Conference! Thank you!
