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

Valedictory

By: Dir. Eric Natividad

This was President Joe’s day to talk about his year at the helm of our club.

President Joe equated his term to that of a raging war, a raging war against poverty, a raging war against illiteracy, a raging war against homelessness.

Under his leadership, the club fought many winning battles, with feeding programs, with scholarship grants through PP Boy Ampil, with the recent turnover of five (5) houses for the GK program as well as with the clean water system installed at the GK village.

President Joe went on to mention the battles won with the help of Ian Alas for community service with his efforts in the Rotaract / Interact. The LEAP Congress was given special mention for its aspiration to change the values of young people for the better, to what they can be, what they can do.

And allies were aplenty. Our sister clubs in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore all pitched in to assist our club in this raging war and to win the battles fought.

Alas, even with the Herculean efforts of President Joe, the war keeps on raging.

As he ends his year at the helm of our club, President Joe said he feels like a soldier retiring. And he is now ready to turnover the baton to the leadership of PE Klink.

Then the accolades started to pour in…. PP Pabling Calma. DG Ato Magadia. Ariel Rivera. et. al.

PP Ric then said that President Joe is still our president and that PE Klink will be taking care of the club only in his absence and not as our new president, not yet anyway. President Joe is our president until the end of June 2008. And so the wine will continue to flow! (President Joe provides the bottles of wine for every meeting.)

PP Pabling Calma raised the issue of succession. We still do not have a president to take over from PE Klink. This is seen as a huge concern. President Joe is urged to use his persuasive powers to resolve this concern before he ends his term. And President Joe said that he will do this best. Calling Chito and Robert.

Discussion moved on to the issue of new members. Mike Clancy made several suggestions such as having a signage / stand in the hotel announcing our meetings with “RCMN Meets Here every ….” Vic Austria asked whether members were asked about their ideas regarding this concern.

And so the meeting ended. President Joe went on to receive several recognition and awards. On its 35th year of service, RCMN received The Five Star Mark of Excellence award. It also marked its 35th anniversary with a total contribution of US$35000 to The Rotary Foundation for RY 2007-08.