CODE History

Post-Marcos era

ADMU was trying to create a path relevant to the struggle against oppression. “The campus was trying to define the [(right) kind of] formation for students.” Ateneo wanted to ground the heightened social awareness of the 70’s in the newly freed society. 

Basic Orientation Seminar Kit: Modules for seminar programs, values within Ignatian Spirituality

LTP

• 2-year program for “competent” Freshmen students that had a program focused on skills, values, and spirituality

• Handled by one of OSA’s Project Officers

• Graduates were “farmed” (sent) out to become Sanggu Officers, COA Officers, Organization Officers, or Student Trainers (PEERS)

  • Project Officer pinpoints 20-30 graduates to become PEERS who then sustain LTP

“Did not believe in LTP”

OSA established systems and procedures under Mr. Leland dela Cruz

OSA was very reactive - Organizations approached OSA, and OSA prepared seminars/modules

1. ADSA: how can OSA manage organizations if OSA doesn’t know the organization’s conditions?

2. Accreditation System was introduced to have a clear idea of organization’s state

PEERS [No true identity yet]

1. Attend all organization meetings and give OSA feedback

2. Utilized process documentation - “Official Documentor,” but did not have a full grasp of the whole process

3. Aim was to make organizations better through HR - Realizes that HR is part of OD

Not an organization under COA - Arm of OAS

Gave OD trainings or team-buildings

1. “GD Factory” - Had a giant GD book that they’d just pull activities out of

2. Did GDs in OrSem

3. No diagnosis or contextualization 

OSA would get people from STRAINS to help them in Formsems, Evsems, run evaluations

PEERS was in a tiny office right beside OSA/Always in Colayco Pavilion 

PEERS sat in the Accreditation to take note of improvement to be made in organizations, and eventually to formulate interventions: Seminars, meetings

Partnered with COA to handle OD, but there was talk about changing the organization structure/cluster system of COA and OSA was letting go of PEERS as an arm - Posed the question of whether or not it should close down

PEERS realized that what COA and OSA were offering were only a small part of what PEERS did - Became two-pronged:

1. Community of Enthusiasts - Gathered people who were interest in the art of OD

2. Provided services

Focus on Community Organizing

1. We went to different areas: fisherfolks, organized their community: OD provided us with tools, we suggested who to set up their cooperatives (basic orientation, basic organizational setup, how to go about processes, how to elect a leader)

2. That’s probably how DepEd started working with us: they saw us working in communities

3. We diagnosed, if they needed financial management training, we outsourced

4. We partnered with CORD, they would give us speakers

5. We tied up with SOA orgs and they would ask Strains to go to their communities to help setup their orgs or check up on their orgs (structures, vision-mission)

Not necessarily Youth-Oriented: Mothers, fisherfolk, urban poor - Focus on nation-building

OSA wanted PEERS to focus on a particular sector: YOUTH

You couldn’t apply to the organization - You were invited

1. Only got Freshmen as newbies

2. Not yet a flat structure, still had “President and “Vice-President”

Re-alignment of the operational structures and system to the vision

Base Products Development

Saw the need for CHANGE: Interventions with clients are ineffective, members’ competency level was low, members clamoured for the need of rethinking the current processes

• Identified Problem Areas: Fixed Team Structure, inefficient training program, full customization for every intervention, non-research based products, lack of integration with other Ateneo institutions

• Key Elements: Membership levels, Ad Hoc teams for client engagements, Community Building Team (CBTLs), Product Development, Market and Climate Survey 

CLOSED DOOR POLICY: 

• Formation of Special Teams: HR, R&D, CliRel

• Formation of Product Teams: Vision and Strategy, Structures and Processes, People and Group Processes, Leadership, Diagnosis

• Focus on developing the competencies of the members and training everyone in OD

  • Super serious, up or out: Had quizzes on OD, and if you failed/weren’t performing, you would be kicked out

  • Half of the new members (20/40) were cut off by the middle of the year

  • No engagements

• No fielding of people/departments, but there was the S6

S7: 2 HR Heads, TRD is known as “R&D”

Vision-Mission

• Vision: The Ateneo Student Trainers, imbued with Ignatian values, aims to be an effective team in the field of Organization Development. Ultimately, we want to create, through our service, a more humane society by helping form person who will concretely live out the same Ignatian values.

  • STRAINS Vision Tree

• Mission: To serve as Organization Development Consultants to Ateneo and non-Ateneo groups and organizations to help train, develop, and strengthen their knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards attaining an integrated non-academic formation.

Critical Elements:

• Excellent Service to Clients

• Effective Membership Development

STRAINS decided to be the main OD arm of COA - Didn’t want to be an organization because of the accreditation process and because of the lack of manpower

Helped COA in setting up processes and programs to offer (ex. Quarterly OrgHealth Survey for all COA Orgs for accreditation)

Each org and athletics council had one or two strains personnel to help them with their YES report, evaluation tools, OD process, diagnosis)

Seniors graduated, we tried to recruit new people, but because of the confusion of the identity we couldn’t market the org for what it was

Forming of the CBTLs, still trying to keep the members into the organization

1. Competency, HR, then TRandD

2. Train, keep them, then have them echo it to the other members

3. No concept of departments but the CBTLs (point-person) were under the HR

   1. Tasked with keeping the group cohesive and encourage them to attend every activity the org has

   2. Rationale: outside of their academic life, they have a home to go to

Formation of LCLS and Development of Products

1. Hard to have engagements without knowing what to do, needed an initial diagnosis

2. Products delivered a differential diagnosis

3. Needed a cookbook in a way, was the primary source, skeletal frame

4. Would dry-run every part of the product via the Product Team

5. The products were a string of SLEs designed to learn what the goal was

6. 60% of work was allocated into Product Development

Trained the entire organization in Conflict Management

COA Arm, but for just one year

TD was being created and Strains was made into that

Finalizing of the Products

More processes more systems so the organization would function properly

Became S7: ERH

Became an accredited organization

Start of Mentorship Program

Vision changed to “Youth and youth-oriented organizations”

Change in Core Values: From Obsolescence to Sustainability

Start of IPMs

The ERH also held the position of COA VP ORD (transition from being a COA arm)

1. No ExReps

2. Only ExRel engagement was DepEd NLSTGO

E-Team Deployment (Wanted Blasts) - Deployment to engagements was done through manual sign-ups (using folders placed on the table in the room)

Started SSP (Structured Strategic Planning) Forms

TRD

1. Start of the JC Specializations

2. Started the OCC Product

3. OD Article of the Week

4. Learning Circle Sessions 

5. Book Reports for LCLs (Weekly)

Meet the Presidents started

Marketing efforts

CEP Amendment 

Start of S-Report (now C-Report)

Start of Frontliner Feedback 

Start of Content Workshop

Name Change (STRAINS to CODE) 

Start of Faci Workshop as a part of AP Training

Start of IPM Alerts, MIMT (Offline Excel Sheet)

FinLog

1. First FLCs (2 members would switch roles between Finance and Logistics every semester)

2. STRAINS shirt

3. Start of internal fundraisers

Start of Goals Monitoring Form

First RiB Participation

Learning Circle Sessions were stopped

Mock Engagements

Content Database

CODE Website

Start of OD on Overdrive

Start of C-Teams, IDF, and PIES