President’s Remarks

Good afternoon fellow RCMERs and visiting Rotarians. On behalf of the Club, I wish to extend our warm welcome to District 3810 Governor Lilian de la Cruz and her team who were acknowledged earlier.

Today’s gathering is not a regular weekly meeting. It is a General Assembly and a Governor’s Visit combined. Our directional plans will be presented to include the Governor’s Challenge and the RI President’s Citation. Governor Lai is here to listen to our plans and enlighten us if necessary regarding her Challenge, as our performance will be monitored and reported out towards the end of RY2023-2024. The proposed projects emanating from the directional plans will still require fleshing out and proper vetting necessary to obtain fund support before they are rolled out.

The way it works out is this. Our directors are in charge of various committees. They nominate their chairmen and vice-chairmen who, in turn, are approved by the President. They then proceed to fill up their committees’ respective manning requirements. In a nutshell, the board is a working board. It sets the tone and leadership at the top, while the committees function as the driving force of the Club. The extent of their unity, solidarity and teamwork will determine this year’s performance outcomes and impacts.

We will endeavor to work with an eye on work-life balance because having fun and enjoying what we’re doing is the fuel to keep us moving. We will endeavor to conduct ourselves professionally and in good faith; exercise transparency, accountability, prudence and circumspection; build consensus; mitigate risks that may unduly harm the club and Rotary’s name; and stay true to Rotary’s ideals. While our work is purely voluntary and competes with our personal and professional interests, we will exercise time management and support our club’s funding requirements to the extent that each one is capable of, to ably fulfill our duties and responsibilities to the club.

But at the end of the day, frankly speaking, our Club is only as good as the effort that we ALL put in. The membership is the Club’s foundation. We are supposedly a brotherhood of leaders and respected pillars of the community. We cannot be otherwise. But then, reality bites. As of July 1, 2023 RI has it in its records that we have 238 members. We pay our annual dues for the purpose of having a safe, happy and productive space for us year-round. But are we really getting our money’s worth? Let’s reflect on that.

One month into the new RY, only 66 have paid their annual dues, 3 partially. I hope the balance can be collected by the end of September which will be the end of this RY’s first quarter. Our fining committee can’t wait to get to work! Perhaps they may even get started today.

On average, only a minority, around 1/3 at best, actively join our weekly membership meetings (prompting a wry comment that perhaps we should spell weekly with an “a”). Our committees are not fully manned. The situation is dismal. Some have no members at all. Committee chairs end up doing all the work themselves. Solo flight. If we had women in the Club could we perhaps get a higher level of energy? Just asking. No need to tremble… just yet.

It has also been observed that we can do better in being less tribal or exclusive in our weekly meetings. Various factions stick together and little or no interaction is felt by new members. So, let’s be candid. Have we been true to ourselves as a real brotherhood? Have we been faithful to the 4-Way test? If we have been, then why the angst and listlessness? We need to cure that. No one else can and will do that for us. We swim with our merits or sink with our demerits. We either stand with or fall on our sword.

Over the past 3 weeks since our induction last July 6, your board and officers have rolled up their sleeves to put our house in order. These are some of the things we’ve done.

Our board meetings will include RCMFI Chair Lito Sibayan and Pres Willie Pelino to our optimize our symbiosis and synchronicity.

An ExCom has been set up to work in behalf of the board to expedite matters for good order.

The Secretariat is being reconstructed in light of several movements that require quick action to mitigate operational risk.

A Funds Mobilization Committee with cross-memberships from RCM and RCMFI was set up to expedite fund raising for our various projects.

An Election Committee has been set up and Guidelines circulated in preparation for the election period that begins with nominations on Aug. 3 and culminates with elections on Sept. 6.

The Directors have been busy organizing their committees and working out their project proposals. Some of them will be showcased shortly. The meat and bones will follow.

I’ve asked our Sgts. at Arms to expand their scope to include safety and security protocols for our members at our meetings and public events.

We have reached out to the District and Rotaract for better synergies because we are part of a larger community, the global Rotary family, an inclusive organization. As such, we’ve extended an invitation for them to each send 2 persons to our weekly membership meetings.

We’ve had substantial media coverage over the past three weeks. For more information, please check your copies of the Balita or online.

A lot of ideas are being processed to ensure the membership’s satisfaction and delight in order to motivate everyone to lift the Club to greater heights.

The directional plan was processed in a special board meeting last Thursday and further refined on July 24 after the meet and greet virtual meeting with the Directors.