The International Beat

It may not have been a very busy month for the International Relations Committee but our friendships, in our region and around the world, did not stand still. We were consistently in touch with our sister clubs and we attended the monthly meetings of the Circle of Centennial Rotary Clubs (CCRC).

On our calendar today are three major events, the 75th Charter Anniversary of our sister club RC Taipei (Nov.24-25), the 53rd Annual Anniversary Fundraising Ball of RC Kowloon East (Dec. 2-5) and the 2024 RI Annual Convention in Singapore (May 25-29, 2024).

For the RC Taipei Charter Anniversary, five Rotarians have already signified their intention to attend it. If you want to visit Taipei and/or meet new friends-in-rotary, please message me and join us.

The Kowloon East anniversary Ball is another very popular Rotary event for RCMers. Last year we had a 20 person-strong delegation. I hope that we can replicate that support this year. This promises to be a truly fun event. In Hongkong we will have two lunches and a possible dinner to ourselves. These may turn out to be great bonding experiences while we enjoy the tourist friendly city of Hongkong.

While the RI Convention is still seven months away, it will be practical if those planning to attend, start to book flights and accommodations. Significant savings can be had by booking early. After all even hotel reservations have a cancellable feature. Should you need any assistance to firm up your plans please do not hesitate to contact me.

On August 21st and September 21st, the Circle of Centennial Rotary Clubs held its second and third online meetings of this Rotary Year. The meetings focused on finalizing new memberships and our participation in the upcoming Rotary International Convention. Last September, the CCRC welcomed its first member club from the continent of Australia, the Rotary Club of Brisbane. In our immediate pipeline we are expecting RCs London, Kirkcaldy, Sydney and Melbourne to join the CCRC soon.

The CCRC meetings are held on the 21st of every month, at 9pm Manila time. The rather unusual meeting time is adopted to allow us to include member clubs from three other continents. Should anyone wish to join the meeting to connect to our network of international rotary clubs, again please message me. I will provide you the details for the online meetings.

It would be relevant to mention that RC Kowloon East and an individual member of RC Osaka East stepped up and responded to my personal plea for cooperation and support to our Hospicio painting project. RCKE decided not to buy a painting from the lot but they agreed to give an outright donation to the Hospicio project. RCOE Rtn. Seiichiro Chigusa acquired one of the more coveted pieces for P100,000. I profusely thanked them for their sincere and genuine support to our causes.

In mid-September, as the representative of your International Relations Committee, I accepted an invitation from our sister club RC Seoul Muak to visit Seoul. This visit was timed to coincide with their District Governor’s visit. Additionally RC Seoul Muak invited members of RC Osaka East, both our clubs’ sister club, to get together and to bond, which we did. The visit was very short but productive. Aside from the genuinely good Korean food they feted me with, I was able to reconnect with members I have known for some time as well as meet and get warm with new members. Their President Eun Hae Park and District Governor Lee Young Suk were very welcoming and hospitable (RC Seoul Muak gifted their DG with two bottles of wine, upon receiving it DG Lee turned to me and asked me to please take the gift because he did not have a gift for me 😀). I exchanged banners with them and gifted them with four bottles of Philippine made, Don Papa Rum.

I also bonded with our friends from RC Osaka East……particularly with RC Osaka East President Yasuo Yamada, Rtns. Tony Mizuyama and John Ohashi. Our relationship with RC Seoul Muak is warm and stronger. Our friendship with RC Osaka is solid and with a high mutual regard for each other.

I am considering, with your support, possibly expanding our practice of visiting and showing support to our other sister clubs in 2024. In the recent past our biggest supporters have been RCs’ Kowloon East, Osaka East and Singapore. We have a visit already scheduled to Hongkong. We have the upcoming RI Convention in Singapore firmly in our plans. How about visiting RC Osaka East say sometime after mid April?

Till the next update… Please rethink your travel plans for next year. The big event will be the RI Convention in Singapore. Mark the dates, May 25-29. Stay well.