A Brillianteering Process

At the heart of every Rotary Club is the membership. Without them, everything will come to a screeching halt. Without planners and implementors, service projects will cease to exist. Without dreamers and visionaries, problems that are otherwise easily solvable through cooperative and civic efforts will continue to fester and pester a community. Manila Rotarians, the band of brothers fueled by volunteerism and service, are what makes this Club pulsate with life and enable it to implement life-changing projects.

But to be able to continue doing so, the club members must ensure that they are acting with one mind, pursuing the same direction, and following a singular creed. Towards this end, there must be a regular introspection and examination of where the membership, as a collective whole, is currently at, and reassess where they are going. An examination of whether all the members are beautifully in sync with Rotary’s service mantra is a must.

As an aggrupation of civic volunteers, the Rotary Club of Manila must constantly check and address gaps and unresolved issues that could adversely affect its luster and effectiveness as a premiere service organization. As any other club, RCM has experienced and continues to face unique challenges. But, as was discussed here in January this year, this phase must be considered as simply going through the crucible of severe testing. Surely, even after more than a century of existence, Asia’s first Rotary Club still needs to go through not only sharpening and polishing, but re-sharpening and re-polishing. This is how a priceless creation is perfected.

In fact, a billion years creation of nature, the natural diamond, still needs to undergo a cutting and polishing process to let it achieve a perfect shape, and make it sparkle and shine. In a process called brillianteering, the facets of the cut diamond are polished so that it reflects and refracts the optimal amount of light. It is the polishing of the natural diamond that determines how much fire, brilliance, and sparkle it will have.

The Rotary Club of Manila, just like a diamond, must go through the same process. Let today’s General Assembly, and everybody’s faithful and collective follow-through effort to make our Club sparkle and shine – through everyone’s active participation and positive contribution -- be a memorable and brave brillianteering process.