Among the most high profile legacies of Immediate Past
President (IPP) Rose Antonio to the club is having a facebook group with the
biggest number of likes among the 88 clubs in RI District 3830. Yes, while other clubs much bigger than ours
have facebook likes of below 500, even below 100, ours has 1,818 likes as of
this writing. This means that same number of people, Rotarians or non-Rotarians,
can see updates about our club if they regularly check their facebook accounts.
One positive result of this is that a number of
professionals and businessmen in Taguig or nearby cities have expressed
interest in joining the club. They see the regular updates, photos especially,
of where the Club went to, the fellowships and community projects, club talk
with resource speakers, participation in District activities, and so on.
IPP Rose has exercised prudence in selecting who among
those who wrote to her saying they want to join the club, deserve a response.
Because there are obvious applicants who only want to spam the club members
with the various business projects that they are selling.
So far, four new Club members have passed through the
insightful scrutiny of IPP Rose’s eyes. They have been invited to the club
meetings, we have interacted with them, shared with them our professional
background and activities, and so far so good. So the Club has decided to
officially let them in. The nearly-inducted members were Era Eguia, a finance
staff of a European bank, Mike Michener, a “life coach” and counselor; Daryl CAbato,
an agribusiness trader, and Henry Villa, a customs broker.
The entry of these four new clubmates plus about three
other new members has expanded the classification membership of our club.
Whereas before, many members are in the construction-related businesses, now we
have members doing professional and entrepreneurial work in banking, life
counseling, life insurance, agribusiness trading, freight forwarding, glass
fabrication, human resources, medical practice, think tank, and so on. This
expanding mixture of club membership in different fields will be reflected
further in future club community and youth projects.
Rotary has lots and lots of community projects spanning various
sectors – in healthcare, housing, education and youth training, water and
sanitation, livelihood and community development, environmental conservation,
and so on. RI District 3830 is one of those in the forefront in various big
humanitarian projects among the 10 RI Districts in the Philippines, and even
among other districts in neighboring Asian countries.
The rainy season has started in the country and we
already saw lots of flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, down to
Mindanao. Helping those who are affected by heavy flooding will become a
repeated activity of Rotarians and other civic organizations in the country,
usually up to November.
We cannot give what we do not have. Since such community
projects will require funding, in cash or in kind, we need to raise funds for
the club from our friends, aside from pulling out resources from our own
pockets from time to time.
These and many other activities need to be publicized and
popularized to other people, especially the non-Rotarians. We are
non-politicians or government officials who bask in media limelight for
political and even personal gratification. We just do these things out of pure
and sincere help to our less privileged brothers and sisters, and still have
fun via fellowships with like-minded professionals and businessmen.
This Rotary Year 2013-2014, I have been assigned by First
Class President Meann de Leon, to be the Club Public Relations (PR) Director.
My role is to help popularize and announce to the District and the public at
large, our various Club and District activities, especially related to
community assistance and development in poorer or calamity-affected areas.
With a dynamic club leadership backed up by committed and
fun-seeking members and other Past Presidents, plus a dynamic support by the
District leadership headed by First Class Governor Robert Kuan, there is little
doubt that our Club can expand further both in membership and in various
community projects this Rotary Year.
Cheers clubmates and friends. And more power to First
Class President Meann and Governor Robert.
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See also:
Peace President Rose Antonio, May 23, 2013
Charter President Bobby Dimayuga, May 26, 2013
Classification Talk by Dr. Jed Inciong, July 12, 2013
