Townhall Meeting

INVOCATION by Rtn. Celso Abastillas

Let us all bow our heads and feel the presence of God:

Lord, you are the most perfect, the mightiest and yet the kindest and the most compassionate. We Love and adore you Lord. We thank you for the gift of 100 years of services to humanity by the Rotary Club of Manila. We Thank you too for giving each and everyone of us the opportunity of using, if not our money, our time, talents, experiences, and good intentions of helping the weak, the needy and the less fortunate.

As we meet today to discuss the centennial projects of our club, may you give us clarity of mind and vision, patience and wisdom to plan and discuss our projects so we can deliver better services to the society in general and to the least of our brethrens in particular. May you show us the way to continue with vigor and enthusiasm, the century of rotary movement in the Philippines and Asia.

Lastly Lord, may you give all members of our club, a gift each of long life, so they can discharge their duties and obligations continuously, first to you, to their families, to our club and to the people whose lives and welfares depend on us. All these for your greater Glory. Amen.

Good afternoon fellow Rotarians. I have opted to hold a Town Hall Meeting today instead of our usual regular Rotary meeting to update our membership of our programs and projects for our Centennial Celebration, not only for the Rotary Club of Manila but also for the whole Rotary movement in the Philippines, led by our beloved club.

I wish to thank Gov Obet and members of his committee for accepting the chairmanship of the Centennial Celebration in 2016, under whose leadership he has initiated some of the projects, which we will present this afternoon. We have reviewed and revisited the projects that have been started and accomplished and new projects that are “work in progress” for your information and consideration.

During the meeting last Thursday on Aug 2, called by the Council of Past Presidents and presided by Past Pres Archit Bartolome, the mantle of implementing and completing existing projects undertaken by Gov Obet and his committee together with the programs and projects started by the present leadership were consolidated and consequently endorsed by Gov Obet to the Centennial Board under my leadership.

As such, I and the Board have accepted this collossal challenge to have a succesfull celebration of our 100 years of service to humanity and the lives we will touch for the next century as our legacy to the Rotary Club of Manila and the Rotary movement. These projects to be presented to you are aligned with the 6 Objects of Rotary and we hope we can involve our very own District 3810 and its 126 clubs, and the other Rotary clubs in the 9 other districts to be participants and beneficiares of this Centennial Rotary movement.

In this connection, I have appointed Rotarian Romy Nones as the Secretary General and Coordinator of this year’s Centennial general activities of events, projects and programs reporting directly to the Centennial President. I wish to thank Secretary General Romy Nones for his unconditional acceptance of this position, which will entail time, effort and sacrifice as a good and an engaged Rotarian. Let us give Romy a big round of applause!

Of course, no project or program will be successful without funds to support our advocacies. Our House and Means Committee headed by Past Pres Boy Guevarra and Past Asst Treasurer Hermie Esguerra will play a major role in the fund raising activity. We shall submit to them the total fund requirements of each Centennial project thru the Centennial Budget Officer, Treasurer Nicky Villasenor, within 30-45 days from today, after thoroughly discussing budgets with each and every chairperson of their respective committees. I am aware of the challenges that goes with any fund raising activity and I appeal to the Council of Presidents to tap their vast network resources to help raise the funds necessary to achieve the goals spelled out in today’s projects and programs for our Centennial Anniversary on the week of June 22, 2019.

On another note, I wish to thank the members of our Steering Committee, who are committed and daring to do new things in Rotary to make our club relevant for the next 100 years! Pls stand up and be recognized. — You know who you are. Maraming salamat.

As I have said time and again, great things that happen in Rotary are never done by one person but by a group of Rotarians. I wish to appeal to all our members to join us in this Centennial journey by choosing your committees and be Rotarized and counted — to bring out the best in the Rotary Club of Manila under One Century, under One Mission, under One Rotary. With your valued and unconditional support, the best is yet to come for our beloved Rotary Club of Manila.