The President’s Corner

My dear Fellow

Olympians,

This has been

another whirlwind of

a week.

It started with a club visitation to our

Matched Club RC Pasig West. Dir

Ju represented me in the meeting.

Together with RC San Nicolas

Makati, we donated books for Aloleng

Elementary School, one of our

beneficiary schools in Pangasinan

which was devastated by Typhoons

Ondoy and Pepeng way back in 2009.

In the afternoon, PP Ting, who is into

agro-forestry and is in charge of our

Environment endeavors, went to the

Bureau of Plant Industry to request

for more seedlings for our chosen

community, The Habitat Taguig with

Pres. Christine of RC San Nicolas

Makati. We shall be given 50

seedlings for said activity

On Tuesday, we had one of the most

fruitful meetings in a long time. Of

course, it was the start of the Hand

Holding Program where PE Jay

handled most part of the meeting. PE

Jay, Congratulations! You will make

a great President! In the meeting,

too, we agreed that future meetings

will be done at lunch time in our new

home, the German Club. Thank you,

Rtn. Sabine for arranging and

making this possible. Special

occasions, though, like Inductions,

Gov's Visits, meetings with Speakers,

etc shall be done in the evening.

Cont’d on page 2…

RCMO BET WINS BERTH IN THE VOY NATIONAL FINALS

The

OLYMPIANS The Official Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Makati - OLYMPIA

VOL. 01 NO. 22 • JANUARY 2011

An RCMO-sponsored youth won in the recently concluded District

Voice of the Youth contest.

Braullio "Blackie" de Castro, a graduating senior of Colegio San

Agustin, was awarded First Runner

Up in the contest. This gives him the opportunity to represent D-

3830 in the National Finals of the Impromptu Speaking Contest on

February 11. He will join Mojah Shanel Galit, who was adjudged

Champion, in representing the

district in the said finals.

The contest had 17 district finalists. Each was asked to speak

on their definition of success and

their roadmap to achieving it. They were given 15 minutes to

prepare and maximum of 6 minutes to deliver their piece.

Most of them said that success is

making the most of what they have

and being able to give because of it. De Castro defined success using

love, freedom and service as the parameters of success.

PDG Jimmy Cura, Ms. Baby Doble

and PDG Willy Segovia composed

the esteemed panel of judges.

The District Voice of the Youth Impromptu Speaking Contest was

hosted by Rotary Club of Pinas West

and supported by 9 other clubs. Present during the event were

District Governor Ed Alvarez, DCC for New Generations Chito Chavez and

her team composed of DDCC Erwyn Alcomendras and District Rotaract

Chair Tess Filoteo, Global Presidents

and Rotarians. CP Rose Acoba, Dir. Ju, Lady Susan and Madz Almendral

supported Braulio.

The President’s Corner cont’d from p.1

One of the things that we tackled is how we can encourage more members to

participate. Although we have the Tete-A-Tete in place, we strongly advocate

participation in our own meetings and service projects. We talked on the issue of

making make-ups and agreed that we shall have a make-up card made for each so

that in cases like it is impossible to attend our own meetings and activities we

will not be absent when we attend other clubs' meetings and activities. This is

specially so as we have members who frequently go out of town or out of the

country. We discussed that commitment is the key to our attendance concerns.

For consideration is putting a "fine" for unexcused absences.

We are lucky that we will be signing soon an agreement with our vocational

partner, Tele Development Service. MOA Signing will be done during the

January 25 Induction Ceremonies which has been reset to February 1, 6:30pm at

the Metro Club.

I commend Rtn. Sabine for inking our Matched Club Agreement with two clubs

- Rotary Club of Boracay and Rotary Club of Tagbilaran from Districts 3850 and

3860 respectively and for introducing us to Children’s Joy Foundation as a

model program which we may do as a club.

Our Service to New Generations Committee headed by Dir Ju with PND Wilbert

and Co-chair Nica presented the developments in the preparation of the two

youth activities - the Mr. and Ms. Rotaract and the Global Peace Festival which

we shall be doing these months of January-March. Let us help our youth by

promoting both activities especially the individual components of the Global

Peace Festival like the Thousand Messages for Peace, Peace Run, Lending

Hands, Dance for Peace, Peace Concert, etc..

On Wednesday, our amazing PN Renny signed our second Foreign Matched

Club Agreement with RC Cilandak Jakarta. We now have 3 foreign matched

clubs, 10 official local matched clubs with two more to ink. As an update on our

first Indonesian Matched Club, RC Bandung, we are communicating with

President Merry and sending weekly bulletins to them.

Thursday, PE Jay and I attended the last Pre-Pets session of the Incoming Team.

PE Jay shall be attending the PETS (Presidents Elect Training Seminar) on

February 11-12 at the Summit Ridge in Tagaytay. We are continuously

preparing for this.

On Saturday, we had the Voice of the Youth Extemporaneous Speaking Contest.

Our contestant, Braulio de Castro, who is one of our Interactors, made us proud

by bagging a place to represent D-3830 in the National Finals. Let’s cross our

fingers that he may bring home the bacon to us and our District.

Finally, I encourage everyone to have a Facebook account. We have our official

club account (rcmakatiolympia@gmail.com). Our greatly acclaimed weekly

bulletin, The Olympians, is now on Facebook! That's another first for you!

RCMO is doing very well. I thank our Lord for being given the opportunity to

lead it. I cannot ask for more.

Cheers to RCMO! Cheers to all!

Feature

January is Rotary Awareness Month

The monthly theme of Rotary

International for January is Rotary Awareness. This was what CP Rose

Acoba shared in the Club Assembly held last January 11. She explained

that being a new club composed of

mostly new Rotarians, RCMO members must know the history of

Rotary and that of the club, its programs, advocacies and service

endeavors. She further stressed that Rotary awareness is not only for the

members to know more about Rotary

but for them to be ambassadors to let the world know of Rotary. CP

Rose urged everyone to be the living example of Rotary ideals to let others

become aware of Rotary.

For the club, she said that as it is on

its first year, it is just beginning to establish its own identity and

culture. She expressed high hopes in the way that it is turning to be,

i.e., the members, though coming

from different backgrounds and nationalities, have found friendship

and camaraderie to be of service to the community. This, she noted, is

helping to establish an image that

RCMO is a hardworking, committed club to make this world a better

place to live in. According to her, this is the best way of letting the world be aware of Rotary.

ROTARY international NEWS

‘Reach Within to Embrace Humanity’ is 2011-12 RI theme by Joseph Derr (Rotary International News -- 17 January 2011)

RCMO: "Here to Last” "Here to Last” "Here to Last” "Here to Last”

Rotary International President-elect Kalyan Banerjee will ask Rotarians to Reach Within to Embrace Humanity during the 2011-12 Rotary year. Banerjee unveiled the RI theme during the opening plenary session of the 2011 International Assembly, a training event for incoming district governors. He urged participants to harness their inner resolve and strength to achieve success in Rotary. "In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he can draw on. And the only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves," Banerjee said. Once Rotarians find their inner strength, he continued, they can accomplish great things in their communities and around the world.

"Discover yourself, develop the strengths within you, and then unhesitatingly, unflinchingly, go forth and encircle the world, to embrace humanity," he said. He emphasized the family as a starting point in serving others. "The communities we live in are not built of individual people but of families -- families living in homes together, sharing their lives and their resources and their common destinies. Good families lead to good neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods build good communities." Rotarians can focus on projects that support families, such as those that provide safe housing or improve maternal and child health, he said. Continuity in Rotary’s work, including polio eradication, is also important, Banerjee said. "There are so many things we are indeed good at: working for clean, safe water; spreading literacy; working in so many ways with the New

Generations, our youth, in our newest Avenue of Service and assisting them to become the leaders of tomorrow." Citing Mahatma Gandhi’s call to "be the change you wish to see in the world," Banerjee said Rotarians should also focus on change. "If we wish for peace, we start by living in peace ourselves, in our homes and in our communities," he explained. "If we wish environmental degradation to stop, if we wish to reduce child mortality or to prevent hunger, we must be the instrument of that change -- and recognize that it must start within us, with each of us." The theme inspired the roomful of Rotary leaders, including Jogesh Gambhir, governor-elect of District 3250 (India). “It is a touching theme, but also very purposeful and meaningful,” said Gambhir. “I’m sure we can inspire the clubs into action to solve the problems in the community. That’s the ultimate goal of Rotary.” “There are no words for me to describe how remarkable it was. To me, he was right on and weaved everything together beautifully," said Jane Millar, governor-elect of District 6290 (parts of Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, USA). "I am so thrilled to be a district governor when this man is president. “I loved the focus on family, continuity, and change," she added. "Family is the center of everything, and not just our immediate family. It’s also about the family of Rotary and the world as one big family."

RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee announces the 2011-12 RI

theme during the International Assembly in San Diego, California.

3 New Matched

Clubs for RCMO

The Holidays did not deter the International Service Committee from forging friendship agreements with Matched clubs both locally and internationally. Rtn Sabine Haak successfully signed agreement with Rotary Club of Boracay and Rotary Club of Tagbilaran, Districts 3850 and 3860 respectively last December 27. PN Renny Harman likewise signed the second Matched Club Agreement in Indonesia with Rotary Club of Cilandak Jakarta D-3400. At present, Rotary Club of Makati Olympia has 3 foreign Matched Clubs, 1 from Korea and 2 from Indonesia and 10 local Matched Clubs from 7 other Philippine districts. It is scheduled to sign agreement with two new Matched Clubs, RC Pasig Sunrise, D-3800 and Rotary Club of Limay, D-3790 in the next two weeks. PN Renny Harman heads the International Service Sub-committee with Rotarian Bernie Marcelino as Co-Chair for Local Matched Clubs.

Club Leadership Plan

T he Club Leadership Plan is the recommended administrative structure for

Rotary clubs. It is based on the best practices of effective Rotary clubs. These

best practices include:

• Developing long-range goals that address the elements of an effective

club and annual goals to support them

• Convening regular club assemblies

• Involving all club members in the activities and fellowship of the club

• Maintaining open lines of communication

• Ensuring continuity in leadership

• Providing regular, consistent training

The plan can be customized to fit each Rotary club’s needs.

editorial team

adviser Rose Acoba editor Joel D. Adriano

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