The LB Talk News Team
by Oliver Carlos
One month ago, I wrote about the CSI Centennial Team. I didn’t expect it would be a box-office hit. So many people viewed and read it. Among all Blog is Life articles, only the inaugural episode entitled 333, had more reads.
One encouraging feedback I got was from a good ‘ole friend and former colleague from UPLB, Dr. Melds Ocampo-Moscoso. She suggested that I write about my other teambuilding efforts, specifically the LB Talk News Team, which she considers as one of best teambuilding projects she has ever seen. She said that she told our story in her Development Communication classes in the past 2 decades. I was flattered and was also humbled.
LB Talk is a news magazine TV program produced by UPLB and the local cable TV provider of Los Banos. It aired once a week over Channel 8 on cable television. It began in 1998 as an election coverage project, but later expanded to include news and feature stories about Los Banos and neighboring towns in Laguna. The show had a zero budget as everything in LB Talk was done voluntarily.
When I came aboard on LB Talk in 1999, Melds was the main host of the show, and I was assigned as the news director. I formed a team of volunteer students to produce the news segment of LB Talk. I was a journalism teacher back then, so I invited the freshmen taking my subject. I got a handful of committed volunteers whom I trained to be television news reporters.
The name of our news segment was “Balitang Los Banos”. We aired the most important news stories that happened in Los Banos for a particular week. I taught the volunteers how to gather info, make a shot list, select video clips, write news for TV, construct a 3-column script, and perform in front of the camera. I led by example by doing all these tasks by myself as they watched me. Then we did things together, I assigned them tasks little by little, with me still around to guide them. Later, they were doing everything by themselves without my physical presence.
We gathered news on Mondays to Thursdays, had them edited on Fridays, and enjoyed the fruit of our labor on weekends as we watch them on Channel 8. Then the cycle would begin again on the next Monday. We were together for about two years doing that routine.
Soon, they became household names as local tv journalists. The most popular ones in the team were Virna Mascardo who did the regular news, Lourdes “Duday” Caballero whose beat was S&T and academe-related news, Judie Rose Tugado who read the police and crime news, and Jenny Plantilla, who specialized on light-hearted stories on holidays and festivals. A few more volunteers joined us later, but these 4 ladies were the originals, and thus they were the ones who had the most complete experience. They were there from start to finish, until LB Talk folded up in 2001.
When people ask me about teambuilding, I would tell them that I learned my stuff from the Master Teambuilder himself — Jesus. He had a simple formula that is tried and tested, and very effective. It’s called discipleship. Jesus’ method has 3 parts namely: (1) Phase 1 — I do it, you watch me; (2) Phase 2 — we do it together; and (3) Phase 3 — you do it, I watch you.
After Jesus gathered his 12 disciples, he spent 3 years with them, showing them his life, day in and day out. At first, these men watched him preach, teach, heal the sick, and perform miracles. Later, he had the disciples participate in them. We read in Luke 9:16 (NIV) that Jesus gave some tasks to his disciples as he did the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000:
“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.”
Then later, Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20. He told his disciples that they were now on their own. They have been trained well and they can deliver.
Do you have people under your care- in your work and in your family? Are you training them the “Jesus way”? Do you envision that one day they will grow up to be on their own? In what phase of the training are they in right now?
