“If it wasn’t documented, it didn’t happen.” This is the over-all impact, essence or impression that has been instilled in our minds as we left Baguio City after the three-day seminar on DOCUMENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE: Effective Documentation Practices for Secretariats in Local Government Units (LGUs).
Documentation in Local Governance was a capability training program conducted by the Baguio City-based Local Governance and Community Development Initiatives, Inc. (LGCDI), held at the Hotel Supreme and Convention Center in Baguio City on December 3 – 5, 2018. The training was designed to develop and enhance the knowledge, skills and competence of participants in documenting meetings, programs, projects and activities and packaging the same for various purposes.
A total of 78 attendees coming from different LGUs across the country actively participated the training, broken down as follows: Isabela (6); Nueva Vizcaya (4); Batanes (2); Mountain Province (2); Abra (4); Bataan (4); Palawan (6); Labrador, Pangasinan (5); Dasol, Pangasinan (5); Balonga, Pangasinan (5); Anda, Bohol (3); Roxas City (8); Iloilo City (9); Zamboanga City (2); Panabo City, Davao del Norte (3); and Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat (10).
Dr. Felipe Comila, the director of the Institute of Public Affairs of Benguet State University, was our first speaker who said, “Our goal is to be able to visualize the data and get a sense of their values. We plot histograms and compute summary statistics to observe the trends and the distribution of our data.” Dr. Comila shared insights on data collection and gathering. He said that topic on data finds its place in Statistics subject, the branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of masses of numerical data. He dwelt on the topics of classification of data, the quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches, data analysis, data cleaning, types of data display, data gathering methods and guidelines, among others. On top of these, he emphasized that data are collected to be examined, considered and used to help in decision-making.
Gearing towards e-coverage is the ultimate goal in photojournalism and video documentation in governance. This is the concept highlighted by the second speaker, Mr. Paul Joseph Nuval, Director of Research and Extension Publication Office of Benguet State University whose topics were focused on capturing photos and captions, back-to-back with feature and news writing.
“Photography as an art is a method of capturing permanent images by the action of light projected by a lens in a camera,” said Mr. Nuval, who is also a development journalist and writer. He presented a brief walk-through on the three elements of photo-journalism such as the action oriented, people centered and photography composition; the basic camera angles to include the eye-level, high-angle, and the low-angle shots. He also shared some photojournalism tips in writing good captions. What may be new to many of the participants were the photo-journalism principles of the rules of third and the depth of field.
Writing news and feature is “the writer’s best friend in documentation,” Mr. Nuval affirmed. To refresh the participants on the basic principles in news writing, Mr. Nuval academically reviewed the structure of a news story highlighting the inverted pyramid and the 5WsH, the parts of a news story, the formula of news, the factors essential to news, the elements of news, how to write a news story, the types of news stories according to approach or treatment, the quality of a well-written news report, as well as writing leads. He also explained the need of a post activity report in governance. He said writing post activity reports(1) helps to document the activity, (2) educate readers by walking them through how a process or an activity is done, (3) serves as a future reference, and (4) comply to a given requirement such as for funding agency’s record of accomplishment. Mr. Nuval concluded the first day of the seminar by quoting a line from the famous American author, E.L. Doctorow who said, “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
Mr. Dan Ricky Ong, Assistant Secretary to the Sangguniang City Council of Baguio, and our third speaker kicked off the second day of the seminar with his topic on efficient and effective filing of documents backed with the nature and purpose of documentation in governance. In his topic introduction, Mr. Ong said, “A well-planned system contributes significantly to efficiency of operation as well as to a company’s image. Whether records are filed in a computer or in a steel cabinet, they have to be readily accessible.”
One of the most unpleasant office jobs is filing. Yet it is one of the most important jobs because files can be a wealth of information, but only if one can get his fingers on it. In his presentation, Mr. Ong discussed the basic filing procedures, the effective file management, scanning documents and photos, as well as the use of the mobile file compactor. He defined the Mobile File Compactor as a system to condense storage space by replacing stationary access aisles with moving access aisles. He said, “Converting to a Mobile File Compactor System will greatly reduce storage floor space. It typically exchanges five to six stationary aisles for one moving aisle, but the exact number of moving aisles you need will depend on your activity level.” Towards the end of his topic, he suggested two mobile applications Adobe Scan and Microsoft Office Lens, in addition to the flatbed scanner, a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. He went on from one table to another to demonstrate how to download the applications from Google Play or App Store and even illustrated how to scan an image using the mobile apps which automatically converts to PDF file.
The fourth and last speaker, Dr. Kara Panolong, the Director of Public Affairs Office and a professor in Language Education at Benguet State University presented the four equally important topics on Guidelines in Effective Documentation, Maximizing Technologies in Documentation, Packaging Information for Various Purposes and Taking the Minutes of the Meeting during the afternoon session of the second day, continued until the third or last day of the seminar.
It was Dr. Panolong who emphasized the “If it is not in writing, it didn’t happen” tagline in her introductory session in guidelines in effective documentation. She said, “Good documentation provides a written history of discussions and action points.” She further discussed that as a decision-maker, “it helps to “see” the ideas you are discussing. Whether that is in the form of a list, or simply forcing yourself to put difficult ideas into words, writing them down can help.”
In her topic on Packaging Information for Various Purposes, Dr. Panolong stressed the importance of graphic excellence such as infographic style dubbed as the modern powerpoint presentation, other than the traditional textual or tabular form as a tool in presenting data that gives the viewer or reader the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest place.
Wrapping up, “Making every minute count” towards a more effective taking of the minutes of the meeting concluded the three-day Documentation in Local Governance seminar. Dr. Panolong quipped, “A meeting is an event where minutes are taken, and hours are lost.” Meeting minutes is a written or recorded documentation used to inform people of what happened during the meeting and define the next step planned. In taking minutes meeting, Dr. Panolong underlined the three essential skills of listening, writing and technical skills; understanding the basic parliamentary procedures, making technology as an aid like the use of a recorder and video camera, as well as carefully observing accuracy, conciseness and understandability in written reports.
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