Ang Magiting - The Official Web Site of Rotary Club Makati North

District Team Visit: “Reaching Within To Embrace Humanity”

By: Sec. Bob Hecks
June 15, 2011

This RI theme for the Rotary Year 2011/2012 resonated strongly at our meeting last week, which was the occasion of the annual District Team Visit. The Visiting Team Leader PP Mon Puno (RC Makati South West) reminded us that RI President-Elect Kalyan Banerjee asked Rotarians at the 2011 RI Convention in New Orleans on 25 May to go back to their communities “to reach within …and be guided by three emphases – the family, continuity, and change.” The other members of the visiting team:
Deputy District Secretary PP Jaz Rodriguez (RC Makati Edsa)
Director of the Rotary Academy PP Cynthia Reyes (RC Makati San Lorenzo)
Chair, International Service PP Luz Pacifico (RC Muntinlupa Filinvest)
Chair Fellowship Sub-Committee PP Beth Rabuy (RC Makati Jose P. Rizal)
strongly reflected the policy of District Governor-Elect Ismael (Billy) Villareal (RC Makati Edsa) that “the District will exist only to support the clubs,” as PP Mon reported in his helpful speech.

PP Vic Austria’s invocation asked God to help us to observe in our daily behavior the Rotary 4-Way Test. Daniel Wiedmer introduced his guest Karl May, a German architect from Batangas, who intends to visit us again next week. He’s a relative of the distinguished writer of the same name, a fact recognized by PP Dieter Brueckner and Pres. Mac, who has read May in the original German.

Pres. Mac reported to us on the Club’s visit to our Gawad Kalinga village at Tanay, Rizal on June 11. He particularly thanked PP Vic and our Sister Clubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia for their support.

Returning to the District Team Visit and RCMN’s Rotary Year 2011/12, PE Archie presented and commented on Club Plans 2011/12, which were listed in “Ang Magiting”. They include “Actions to Strengthen the Club’s Family of Rotary”. In his presentation PE Archie linked this and other goals to a training program which will involve the Rotary Academy.

“Many new Rotarians are not Rotary-educated enough to make them feel a part of Rotary”, said PP Cynthia Reyes. She went on to say that the Rotary Academy will be helping D.3830 clubs in RY 2011/12 by conducting Basic Rotary and Continuing Education seminars on Saturdays. This message strongly addresses RCMN’s needs. Our serious “missing generation” problem is at least partly caused by our club’s failure to retain new members because we did not properly introduce them to Rotary. In this context, it is worth noting that at this meeting RCMN’s Board of Directors 2011/12 was represented only by its long-serving members. None of the five newer members were present. Can we persuade them to attend our Induction Ceremonies on July 13?

Presenting International Service, PP Luz Pacifico invited us to seek a further “matching” grant from District to add to our US$5,000 Matching Grant just received and to support the Group Study Exchange Team visit to Germany. We learned that the RI Convention in June 2012 will be at Bangkok, Thailand.

Representing District Fellowship, PP Beth Rabuy asked us to support the Rotary Children’s Party on July 9 at Bgy. Valenzuela, Makati “to Rotarize the children early”. We look forward to hearing more about that.

This was a very different District Team Visit from previous years. DGE Billy is strongly communicating his “help the clubs” policy for RY 2011/12. The applause at the end of our meeting, led by moderator PP Dieter Brueckner, indicated that his message is well received and that this policy will be implemented by RCMN.