More Workshops Prepared for the Convention

As the days come closer to the actual 2nd National Convention of IPCAP, it may be good to announce here that other than the six workshops mentioned in the program, The IPCAP Board has approved four more workshops which have been prepared and sent to the PRC CPE Council for approval. This is to ensure that the workshops we have are not those organized the night before the event. I remember very well one of the few times I attended a National Convention in an organization when the Vice-President then asked me, there and then if I could deliver a workshop for the following day. I may have had one that time, however, and not because of selfishness or other negative intention, but I found that practice rather onerous. In another organization, the workshop facilitator spent the whole period SINGING her way out, making the President of the organization feel so jittery that the said workshop facilitator was told to wrap her talk within one hour after the first break (morning snacks) because the President herself will be the one to give the workshop.

It is now the time for professional work, and Conventions have to be well prepared. It is thus good that we have Conventions for CPE credits in order for the participants to end up feeling really enriched rather than cheated. I remember a year after I was asked to give the workshop the night before, I received email and even text comments saying that their workshop facilitator apologized at the beginning with these words: "First of all, let me say my apologies: if ever you realize that I am not well prepared, it is because I was told to run this workshop ONLY LAST NIGHT." (I could have been the one had I not been cautious a year before that.) Galit na galit yung participants kasi ang mahal mahal naman kasi ng participation fees tapos ganon ang makukuha nila? Well, it's high time I suppose that this manner is erased from our midst because it can be quite demeaning to the participants who eck out their living in honest means only to be "thrown away."

For the sake of understanding, workshops are never meant to be money-making gimmicks by the workshop facilitator. Truly, part of our participation fees are meant to pay the workshop facilitators.

For me, I take it like homilies I deliver as a priest: I never go when I'm not prepared. And, part of the preparation is the envisioning of the listeners in order to fit the language to their level. It is always good to situate the workshop or seminar within the context of the participants. A night before delivery is not sufficient to meet those preliminary targets.

I am not anymore going to put here the titles of the new workshops we will run and which we have sent to PRC CPE Council for accreditation because there is a perception that our workshops are being copied by other orgs (yabang ba?). It's high time this matter is addressed because we cannot allow plagiarism or any form of duplicating to take place in our midst. Sure there are many others who can deliver the same workshop just as there are other schools that offer the same course contents and just label them differently. However, it is important that those who give workshops do not just SING their way out, or TALK themselves off to the participants because either they do not know their topics or they have been told to do so only a night or two before. With the CPE Council helping determine whether a workshop is worth a credit unit or not, such types of "midnight workshops" (sounds like "midnight appointments" lately hugging the newspaper headlines?) will be hopefully eradicated.

Hence, we at IPCAP have ensured that the workshops our participants will be able to attend will be those that have been approved. First, the workshop presentors have their credentials that warrant technical competence on their topics. Second, they have workshop descriptions that can guide the participants in ascertaining their expectations of the workshops. Without this component, it will be very difficult to determine the scope and content of the workshops. Remember, we only have eight hours for the workshop. Some even compress it to four hours, which will in the end become a lecture or seminar. Thirdly, we ensure that our workshops afford participants the chance to really practice impromptu, there and then, what they have learned. Learning thus becomes hands on, hopefully to make the learning last longer than simply a seminar can make. Welcome everyone!

God bless