It was announced last December that there will be a tree planting competition as part of our team building exercises in Sariaya, Quezon on January 7-9, 2011. Everybody was so excited on how it will go, awaiting for the rules and regulations, names of member in each team which was released this January. The rules of the competition is as follows: a) The plastic bag of each seedling must be carefully removed before planting otherwise the growth of the tree shall be retarded; b) trees shall be planted in 2 rows, must be 1.2 meters apart; c) the trees must be planted on the west side of the property 1.2 meters from the perimeter (concrete fence); d) there shall be only one designated starting area and only one finishing area; e) mahogany seedlings are stationed in the super kamalig area; f) each team must identify their trees by their team color immediately after planting; g) trees to be planted shall be claimed from the tree administration via coupon by a team transporter; h) each coupon corresponds to 2 seedlings; i) claimed seedlings before time is up is good as planted and must be planted; j) claimed seedlings can only be transported on foot by 2 at a time by a team transporter; k) the team transporter does not necessarily mean one person only; l) each team shall appoint a tree administrator to man the tree administration; m) the tree administration releases the seedling to a team transporter upon request and presentation of a coupon; n) each team shall appoint a verifier to form a verification team of four; o) the verification team shall verify the coupons and count the trees planted by each team; p) mis-aligned trees shall not be counted; q) the team who planted the most number of trees wins; r) in case of tie, winner shall be determined via draw lots; s) the tree administrators and verifiers collectively decides on the winner; t) the decision is final and non appealable; u) the winning team receives Php 20,000.00 and the losing team(s) shall plant the remaining seedlings at the end of the exercise as the case maybe and shall replant all mis-aligned trees as the case maybe.
 
Night before the competition, everybody gathered at the common area for clarification of the rules and regulations. Rules were straightened out that night. Questions were answered and suggestions were noted. During that night, one can truly feel that the group didn’t want to compete with one another instead thinking of ways on how to meet the target as one team. But of course the competition still need to be pushed since it set on the plan.

At 05:30 am, everybody was up preparing for the tree planting. All went to the site together where the trees will be planted. The competition began at exactly 06:00am. The transportation of the seedling was too far from the site where it will be planted but the eagerness to plant those seedlings was seen in everyone’s eye. After an hour, the competition was over. The Maroon team which was composed of Capt. Burt Sabay, Roxxy Flores, Alvin Tormon, Alvin Hurtada, Irene Caleon, Lizel Niviera and Minerva Ocampo was declared the winner. But the interesting side in this competition was that the digger of other team was digging holes for other teams and the others are helping out the teams in planting the transported seedlings. This is one situation we love to see and happen with work assignments in the office. We are actually competing by collaborating and NEWSIM as our organization is winning. I believe we will all benefit from this.

The next morning the losing teams were up to finish the job up to the finish line. Everybody was having fun inspite of the body pains that all of us felt. We even exceeded the target of planting 500 mahogany seedlings because the whole team worked as one. The maroon team also helped in finishing the job and to top it all the prize of Php20,000.00 was distributed to all. Hurrahs to NEWSIM WIN TEAM for the teamwork and a job well done!!!!!