SB JM Santos Puts Membership at the Center of JCI Manila’s 2027 Story

PASAY CITY — For John Michael Santos, or SB JM, the story of JCI Manila in 2027 should not be told simply through the number of projects completed, awards won, or milestones reached. It should be told through what happens to the people who call the chapter home.

Speaking before members during the Know Your Candidate Forum held September 24 at Vikings, SM Mall of Asia, SB JM, ALAB’s standard bearer for JCI Manila president for 2027, presented a membership focused platform built around a simple question: What story will members be able to tell after experiencing JCI Manila?

SB JM drew from his own experience as a member, recalling a time when he could attend a General Membership Meeting and still feel that he barely knew anyone in the room.

“It is easy to feel lonely in a membership of 600,” SB JM said. “A member can attend the GMM and not actually meet anyone.”

For him, that experience points to a challenge that goes beyond increasing attendance. With hundreds of members coming from different batches, professions, businesses, and circles, creating genuine relationships cannot simply be left to happen on its own.

“I believe brotherhood should not be left to chance,” he said.

Four Stories for 2027

SB JM framed his platform around four stories: the member story, the brotherhood story, the sister chapter story, and the community story.

The first asks what kind of person a member becomes because of JCI Manila.

By the end of 2027, SB JM said he wants members to be able to say that they became better leaders, better businessmen, healthier individuals, and people who are able to spend meaningful time with their families.

The second is the brotherhood story.

SB JM envisions JCI Manila as a place where members can form relationships that extend well beyond meetings and projects.

“Dito ko nahanap ang barkada ko pagkatapos ng high school and college,” he offered as the kind of story he hopes members will eventually tell.

He spoke of members finding lifelong friends, business partners, and even the future godparents of their children through the organization.

The third story extends beyond Manila through stronger relationships with JCI sister chapters and other local organizations.

SB JM said he wants other chapters to eventually be able to say that JCI Manila played an important role in their development and growth as local organizations.

The fourth is the community story, one in which communities touched by the organization can genuinely say that JCI Manila helped make their lives better.

Together, the four stories form the foundation of what SB JM described as a platform centered on the membership experience.

Brotherhood by Design

One of the clearest themes of SB JM’s presentation was his proposal to deliberately redesign chapter activities to create more opportunities for members to interact.

Rather than relying on friendships to develop naturally among hundreds of members, his administration would introduce programs intended to encourage interaction and engagement.

Among the examples he cited was an enhanced GMM format.

Instead of packing meetings with three or four speakers, SB JM proposed limiting some GMMs to one or two speakers and using the additional time for member engagement, conversations, activities, and business networking.

The goal is to make a GMM more than an event members simply attend. It becomes a place where they actually meet one another.

For SB JM, this is particularly important for newer members who may enter JCI Manila without an established circle inside the organization, an experience he himself remembers.

His platform therefore treats brotherhood not merely as an outcome of membership, but as something that can be intentionally nurtured.

Building Brotherhood Through Travel

SB JM also wants JCI Manila members to experience more of the larger JCI movement outside the chapter.

Drawing from his experience in national relations and his participation in international JCI events, SB JM advocated for more members to travel together to national and international gatherings.

Once members travel beyond Manila, he said, they encounter fellow JCI members aged 18 to 40 who may come from different cultures but are often dealing with many of the same challenges.

“Those are business owners to corporate executives,” he said. “We get to learn from these people.”

But the value, he stressed, is not limited to conferences and formal programs.

Travel also creates opportunities for members to experience local culture, food, and nightlife together. The journey itself becomes part of the membership experience, turning delegations into groups of friends and creating memories beyond the confines of official chapter activities.

Sharing the JCI Manila Playbook

Perhaps one of the more outward looking elements of SB JM’s platform is a proposal to deliberately share JCI Manila’s resources, knowledge, and experience with other chapters.

“The greatest asset of JCI Manila stands in our resources. It is our connections, knowledge and experience,” SB JM said.

Rather than keeping those advantages within the chapter, he said it may be time to “share the JCI Manila playbook” with other local organizations.

Under the concept he presented, JCI Manila could partner with another chapter and provide a team, from project leadership to finance, to help that chapter develop and implement a project for a chosen beneficiary.

JCI Manila members would then follow the chapter’s journey through implementation and eventually attend Area Conference or National Convention alongside them.

SB JM painted the picture of JCI Manila members watching from the audience as a chapter they helped is called to the stage.

“Masaya rin tayo, kasi tayo ang naging parte,” he said.

The idea reframes success. JCI Manila would not only celebrate what it accomplishes itself, but also what it enables others to accomplish.

SB JM said the desired outcome is for sister chapters to eventually say, “JCI Manila helped us grow and become a better chapter.”

Taken further, he said stronger local chapters ultimately contribute to a stronger JCI Philippines.

Continuing What Already Works

Despite laying out new ideas, SB JM made clear that his platform does not call for changing programs simply for the sake of putting a new administration’s stamp on them.

On community development in particular, he acknowledged the work of previous boards and directors and said successful initiatives should continue.

“Wala na tayong dapat baguhin dito,” he said of programs that have already proven effective. “Maganda naman ang nagawa ng mga projects.”

The approach suggests continuity alongside innovation: retain programs that already deliver results while reconsidering how members experience and participate in them.

Voter Awareness and Nation Building

SB JM also identified voter awareness as an advocacy he wants JCI Manila to pursue heading into the next national election cycle.

With 2027 falling before the 2028 Philippine elections, he said the chapter has an opportunity to help educate voters and participate in nation building.

He called for JCI Manila to help voters become better informed so they can make their own choices among the country’s prospective leaders.

For SB JM, such an initiative would place the chapter’s leadership development mission alongside a broader civic responsibility to the community.

Making JCI Manila Matter More

Toward the end of his presentation, SB JM returned to the four stories with which he began.

Success for the member story, he said, would mean members leaving the year able to say they became better leaders, healthier, more confident, and more capable of growing their businesses.

For the brotherhood story, it could be as personal as finding a new circle of friends or meeting a future business partner.

For the sister chapter story, it would mean other local organizations recognizing JCI Manila as a contributor to their own growth.

And for the community story, the measure would ultimately be whether people could say JCI helped make their community a better place to live.

Yet SB JM emphasized that putting greater attention on the membership experience should not be mistaken for abandoning the standards associated with JCI Manila.

“I am not asking everyone here that we are going to lower our standards,” SB JM said. “It was never our story as JCI Manila.”

Instead, he offered a distinction that encapsulated much of his platform:

“We will just make our approach more deliberate and make it matter more.”

Addressing the Board of Directors, commissioners, chairmen, senators, past presidents, and members in attendance, SB JM thanked those who had helped build the chapter and gave a simple assurance about the people who would entrust the next year to his team:

“Aalagaan namin kayo.”

For SB JM and ALAB, the proposition for 2027 is therefore not simply another calendar filled with projects.

It is a year designed around the people experiencing them: the member who becomes a better leader, the stranger who becomes a brother, the local organization that becomes stronger, and the community that remembers JCI Manila because its presence made a difference.

If SB JM’s vision comes to fruition, the legacy of 2027 will ultimately be measured by the stories its members and communities are able to tell.