Editor’s Note

Our library showcases vintage editions of Balita, starting with the 1948 series. They are all nicely bound and lovingly tacked in our office in Arquiza Street, Ermita, Manila. Immortalized in the pages of Balita is the monumental journey of our Rotary Club –- the meetings, programs, activities, fellowships, the thoughts and mindset of our former Club leaders, the challenges faced and actions taken to overcome them, as well as an assortment of stories about historical pivots and turns. All these form part and parcel of our Rotary’s Club’s evolving story. All these are integral to our Rotary Club’s great legacy.

Balita began coming out with a digital format only in 2020. But all past publications are still in hard copies, hence the imperative of pursuing its digital archiving. Digitally preserving Balita, storing copies of our newsletter in digital form, and ensuring its easy access by the current and future Manila Rotarians, will be a truly fitting way to pay homage and tribute to our Rotary Club’s colorful, radiant and deep history.

Beginning with this issue, Balita will start featuring “Vice-Versa,” a fortnightly column of Vice-President Reggie Yu. His column, whose title is a witty word-play on his current role in our Rotary Club, will feature his personal and succinct commentaries on interesting and burning issues of the day. It will be recalled that his earlier column, “Straight from the Horse’s Mouth,” covered society’s most recognizable personalities whom he had an opportunity to deal and engage with. Balita will feature “Vice-Versa” every first and third week of the month.

The Balita Editorial Board was especially delighted and excited, and surely RCMers felt the same way, when Phenomenal Leader President Hermie Esguerra made the announcement during last week’s meeting regarding a project to digitally archive our records, documents, and library materials. This is indeed a project which must be prioritized and zealously pursued.

Our Rotary Club, as we all know, is the first in Asia and is now more than a century old. Throughout the more than 100 years of service, our Rotary Club has accumulated and preserved quite a volume of documents and records, which are repositories of our heritage and rich history. Among the records tacked in our library is the complete set of Balita, which has reported and chronicled our Rotary Club activities since 1920 when the first fortnightly issue was published.