The Balikatan Board in its series of meetings in February 2011 had identified the following initiatives for prioritization in 2011:

Alumni-in-Missions

One of the purposes of Balikatan is to support IVCF-Philippine graduates who are in full-time church or para-church work. In the past years, Balikatan has not given adequate focus on this objective. To correct this oversight, the Balikatan Board will be looking into how Balikatan can enhance its current practice in providing support to alumni-in-missions.

Closer Ties with Fellowship Groups

The Balikatan Board would like to explore the necessity of forging formal relationships with each of the local fellowship groups, primarily if such arrangement would further enhance the attainment of Balikatan’s purposes. Currently, there is no formal relationship between Balikatan and the local alumni fellowship groups. However, the fellowship groups have been supportive of the objectives of Balikatan; and together, have provided significant financial support to IVCF Philippines operations.

IVCF alumni fellowship groups in the USA and Canada were established independently out of the initiative of a few IVCF alumni in respective cities who wanted to re-connect and have fellowship with fellow alumni. To-date, there are about 17 alumni fellowship groups, some more formally established than others, and some are meeting more frequently than others. Balikatan had provided support to these alumni groups primarily in providing leads to new alumni in their respective areas and information and updates about the IVCF ministries in the Philippines.

Membership

The Balikatan Board encourages every IVCF alumni in the USA and Canada, especially those who have been exposed to Balikatan, to become a member of Balikatan. The membership fee is the primary source of Balikatan’s operating revenue, which is mainly used to pay for remittance costs of alumni donations to IVCF Philippines (i.e., your donations are received 100%), travel expenses of the IVCF Philippines representative to the annual Balikatan conferences, and related expenses of Balikatan’s automated tool (i.e., newsletters, on-line membership applications, and on-line donations). Receipts from membership fees, which are dependent on the number of members, are currently not adequate to cover Balikatan’s total operating expenses.

Trust Fund

The Balikatan Board would like to re-introduce the Trust Fund as another donation opportunity for Balikatan members and IVCF alumni. The Trust Fund was established more than two decades ago as a possible steady source of funds to cover IVCF Philippines’ emergency needs.