DGE SID GARCIA’S DISTAS SPEECH
SGV Hall, Asian Institute of Management
May 09, 2009
Great expectations! That is what this District Assembly is all about. Let us adopt this mindset as we prepare ourselves for the never-ending journey of Rotary fellowship and service.
TURBULENT TIMES
We gather here today in the midst of turbulent financial times across the globe. We have seen companies fold and major economies flounder, and it is becoming clearer everyday that we have yet to glimpse the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. We have been told that things will get worse before they get better. In our country, we hear of people losing their jobs even as the government is trying valiantly to create many opportunities for Filipinos. Just two weeks ago, we had a big job fair organized in one of the biggest malls in the city. Unfortunately, most of the people who applied could not be matched with the available jobs, so only a few were hired. Yet, while we have an issue on the sustainability of our economic development, economists say that we will experience a growth of 2 to 3 % this year which, in a world drowning in negatives, is still good news.
ROTARY BRINGS HOPE
There is, indeed, a greater need for us Rotarians to get involved in actions and movements that lend a helping hand and bring a measure of hope to those who are most severely affected by this global financial crisis. We must bring hope—to the communities we serve.
PRIP Mat Caparas, the first and only Filipino to head Rotary International, had for his theme, ROTARY BRINGS HOPE. I would like to call on all of you to rally behind this theme so that together we can bring hope to our fellow Filipinos who find themselves more and more burdened by poverty and the problems it engenders. Indeed, this crisis opens up countless opportunities for us to be of help.
Just recently the Rotary Foundation approved two 3H Matching Grants worth more than $300,000 or nearly P15M. One to RC Makati San Lorenzo for their massive reforestation and community development among the communities in Antipolo, Rizal, the other to RC Parañaque for the expansion of their pioneering project in the treatment of infants and young children afflicted with hydrocephalus as part of their continuing program to reduce child mortality. Such is the magic of The Rotary Foundation! For a mere $15,000 contribution, RC Makati San Lorenzo received a grant, tenfold!Truly, Rotary Brings Hope!
PRESENT DISTRICT PROFILE
Our district is stronger this year and we wish to thank Governors Ato Magadia and Boyet Limon for taking the initiative to strengthen our membership and our contribution to the Rotary Foundation. We now have 75 clubs – 34 clubs in Makati, 17 in Parañaque, 7 in Las Piñas, 5 in Taguig, 9 in Muntinlupa/Alabang, and 3 in Palawan. We have about 2500 members, perhaps more before the term of the Real Good Presidents is done.
ROLE OF DISTRICT OFFICERS
In order to sustain the strength of our district, it is paramount that each club remain strong and responsive to the needs of its communities. It is your governor’s duty to help you become a stronger and more effective club. I commit to help you attain this goal.
I have advised the District Officers to be present as often as possible during your respective club meetings so that they can better guide the clubs and be available to give good advice. The Assistant Governors and District officers will be your coaches and mentors who will help ensure that your Club will move up and grow.
CLUB PLANNING MUST’s
While some of you have begun to plan or are about to do your club planning, I ask you to:
• Make a Needs Assessment of the communities you are serving. Find out what they really need and how you can really help.
• Review the relevance of all your current service projects. You may have to expand a project, or discontinue another, or align still another with the RI thrust, but do the review Today is the perfect time to do so.
I always believe that each Rotary club is autonomous. While I ask you to focus your energy and resources on the RI Emphases, I recognize and respect your particular concerns and emphases. We need not limit the club from doing other projects. For instance, RC Makati Bonifacio is currently involved in taking care of minorities in Bataan. It is something good, so do it! Expand it. Some clubs I know are taking care of battered and abused women. Please continue these good projects. It is important that you do what you think is best for the community.
Very recently, the newly chartered club of RC Alabang Lampara launched a caring program for the National Penitentiary inmates. That is not part of the emphases but that is a very good project. We should allow Clubs to do these kinds of projects as long as they fulfill a real need in the community.
Allow me to reiterate that while it is foremost that you to engage in the RI Emphases, you may also attend to the special projects you have in mind if they are is for the betterment of the community.
INCREASING THE CLUBS’ CAPACITY IN RI AREAS OF EMPHASIS
On the RI Emphases, it is not merely the continuation of what we have undertaken that matters. Instead, we must be able to increase the clubs’ capacity to further enhance the previous successes made on these RI Emphases, which are as follows:
1) Water, Sanitation and Environment.
Water is essential to human life. Some 1.1 billion people or almost 20% of the world population lack access to safe, clean drinking water. About 2.6 billion are without basic sanitation and services. Every 8 seconds, a child dies from preventable waterborne diseases translating to 6,000 deaths annually. The need for our help in this area is far from over, so it is imperative that we continue to undertake more water projects in our communities.
I am very pleased that this Rotary year, we have tied up with the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) to help preserve the environment and clean up the rivers and lakes. Laguna de Bay in particular. We will also work closely with the city governments of Paranaque, Muntinlupa, and Makati so we can help in environmental preservation and preserve the Pasig, Parañaque, and Muntinlupa rivers.
2) Health, Nutrition, and Wellness.
The fact is nearly 6.6 million children never get to see their 5th birthday. Good nutrition is therefore necessary to the health and growth of a child, as it improves the immune system and promotes brain development, among other benefits. Many health conditions are related to hunger. On the average there are over 854 Million malnourished people in the world on any given year—that’s 854 million people who, because of a weak immune system, are doubly susceptible to all kinds of diseases.
This year we are promoting nutrition and feeding programs. We will tie-up with various NGOs who are engaged in this and we will also promote prevention of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB). We will likewise give emphasis on wellness programs among beneficiaries and fellow Rotarians as some of us ourselves are not well enough. We cannot serve others effectively if we ourselves are unwell.
3) Education and Literacy.
Illiteracy causes poverty and hampers social development. More than a quarter of the world’s population is unable to read or write. In India alone, many of the 40,000 fatal traffic accidents that occur each year involve truck drivers who cannot read traffic signs. Mllions more are functionally illiterate, meaning they do not possess the necessary reading and writing skills to meet the demands of everyday life. This tragedy is not confined to developing countries like the Philippines. It is also a serious problem in industrialized nations. In the USA, for instance, some 27 million Americans are functionally illiterate, and 75% of them are unemployed.
We thus need to engage in programs to increase the knowledge of our young people. We need to help develop their abilities and life skills. Other focus areas in literacy will be teaching people how to handle health problems like malnutrition & personal health care, addressing social problems, and preventing crimes through good values formation programs, so we can help build a society with less crime and fewer criminals.
We have to come up with various literacy projects: Livelihood skills training for the out- of-school-youth, promoting the Concentrated Language Encounter program, supporting the Adopt-A-School program, and providing more books to schools through book donation, just like the Books Across the Seas program of RC Makati, which has pledged to generate 100,000 books for donation this Rotary year alone. You may also consider building more libraries. The RC Paranaque Metro South is very much engaged in this and you can learn from them so you can build libraries for the communities you serve.
For your information, we are doing a nationwide book donation program for all the districts in the Philippines. In coordination with all the clubs we plan to donated 100,000 books per district. This means that a total of 1 million books will be given away this year and made available to the communities Rotary serves.
ON DISTRICT EMPHASES
As for our other District thrusts, they are as follows:
1) Adopt A Community or an Institution
Rotary, to be relevant, must have a community to serve. For those clubs who have not yet adopted a community, do so right now. Identify and take care of a community not only for this Rotary year but for the next 3 to 4 years. We have to establish a Rotary Community Corp (RCC) and once we have mobilized all the RCCs, we will organize an RCC Summit so we can help to make their work more effective.
2) Partnership With Selected District Partners
We will continue promoting District Partnerships. For Gawad Kalinga (GK), we will have a total of 29 GK sites. I would like to congratulate RC Makati Buendia for adopting the Paranaque European Village. They recently bagged a $30,000 multi-district project with two Rotary Districts in Taiwan, which should enable them to engage in undertakings that enhance the GK project in the Paranaque European Village.
Let us continue our partnerships with the Department of Health, the Red Cross, the Development Center for the Handicapped Foundation that runs the Stepping Stone Learning Center, Foundation, the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation, and the cities under our District.
3) Promote the Internationality of Rotary International
We will mobilize the Foreign Matched Club Committee to get their support in promoting foreign matched club relationships.
We will also launch the first WCS-International Project Fair. We ask your clubs to come up with projects that we can present to foreign districts, projects that have a rich potential to become the subject of partnerships. The project fair is set for November 25-26, 2009. I hope to see you all there.
4) All clubs are encouraged to organize Interact and Rotaract Clubs and actively support youth service programs. Let’s continue to care for our youth.
5) Let’s support the “Every Rotarian, Every Year” program. May I request each of you to commit a US$100 contribution per Rotarian this year. In the recent DISCON, PRIP Rajendra Saboo said that we cannot rely on a few Rotarians alone to support The Rotary Foundation. We need all Rotarians – Every Rotarian! I ask that you heed this wise advice and lay out your support. Simultaneously, we will also ask certain Rotarians to consider becoming a major donor this coming year.
6) Financially Support the End Polio Campaign
Are you aware that the first polio immunization, which happened in the 80’s, started here in the Philippines, particularly in Makati City? This is why Philippine Rotary must be a part of Rotary’s final drive to end polio in the world. We are now nearing the end of this new battle to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. The Rotary Foundation donated so much money and we have been asked to match this donation of $200 Million by June 2012. To date, we have about $70 Million in donations from all over the world. Our district cannot be left out. I have requested PDG Jun Tambunting to help us in this $200 Million Campaign.
The polio virus is 99% eradicated. Now they are found in just 4 countries and these are Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Even if there is no more polio in the Philippines, our support is needed to end it.
ON MEMBERSHIP GOALS
Recruitment has always been important, but retention is more important at this point. We have gained over 500 new members and I do not like to lose them! We need to focus on educating, guiding, and mentoring them so that they would stay with Rotary.
I ask that we go for at least a 90% retention so that all the gains that we have won this Rotary year will go to waste. We will promote best practice membership retention programs, and I ask the clubs who are steady in this area to act as coach and share with us their success formulas for others to learn from. I also ask that the clubs come up with involvement programs for new Rotarians under the four avenues of service. i.e.: community service, vocational service, club service, and international service. Let us get them involved in youth service as well.
As I speak to you now, we have 5 new clubs in the district. And from the pronouncement of our Governor, we could very well have another 3 or 4 more before his term ends. For this Rotary year, we will continue to go on club extensions if there is a clear opportunity to do so.
We need to take care of these newly chartered clubs, so we will go slow on membership recruitment this year. We will have our hands full taking care of the new clubs and strengthening the existing clubs. Our goal this year will only be a net gain of 10% inclusive of retention. I have laid out some goals: for clubs with membership of below 20, attain a net gain of 5 new members; for clubs with more than 20, to grow to at least up to 30 members; for large clubs composed of 50 members and up, I would like you to grow by at least 10%.
ON PUBLIC IMAGE
And as we go about serving and bringing hope to the communities, it is necessary that we let the world and the communities we serve know of the good things that we do. Each club must get wired and have a website. All clubs need to have a public image program as a vehicle to make known the good things that Rotary is doing.
Our district website this year is www.rotary3830.org.
LIVING THE ROTARY CORE VALUES
My fellow Rotarians, with all the important things we have to accomplish, allow me to re-visit the core values of Rotary and as you to re-dedicate yourselves to them. In order for clubs to become relevant and effective, we must learn, know, and live these core values as we strive to be better Rotarians ourselves:
1) Fellowship.
As every Rotarian knows, fellowship was the very reason why Paul Harris organized Rotary on a cold, wintry night over a hundred years ago. I cannot over-emphasize how important it is for each club to become active in fellowship activities. I ask that you come up with activities or projects that will excite the members to attend the weekly meetings. Why do some clubs have a 50% attendance only and others have even less? Is it the quality of speakers? Is it part hesitation? What are the ingredients that make a club meeting more exciting? I ask those clubs who have a record of good club meeting attendance to share the best practices they have so that the other clubs may learn from your experience.
Each club should develop their own culture and practices like coming up with their own club song and designing a new member orientation so that the fondness and bonding that fellowship brings will remain strong. I would also like to see more participation from the families of Rotarians – the spouses, the children. We cannot leave them out for they are part of the Rotary family. Come up with projects requiring participation of the spouses and especially for our children, so that eventually, they will become the new generation of Rotarians.
Clubs should also come up with new Rotarian Involvement programs. When I joined the RC Makati in 1988, I was not sure if it was the right club for me. The one who took care of me took time out to bring me to all activities he could get me into. The club likewise invited my spouse to Rotary activities. In due time, because of the involvement I found myself in, they gave me assignments ranging from committee chairmanships to doing a variety of projects in the different avenues of service. I thus became more and more involved.
Therein lies the secret – involvement! A new member needs to have a mentor – someone who will walk the new member through and make him/her an effective member of the club. That is the only way they can be Rotarized and know what Rotary is all about.
2) Diversity.
The basis of our classification in Rotary is our vocation. As you do your planning, identify the vocations that are not yet represented in your club, representation of which you feel will further strengthen your club as it engages in your service projects. With more diverse vocations within the club, we can learn and see more perspectives on how Rotary work can be done.
To be invited to Rotary is to be recognized as one who has excelled in a given profession or field of business. Thus, collectively, Rotarians use their individual skills and talents to promote the projects of Rotary more effectively. When I was in charge of Gawad Kalinga in Villa Paraiso for our club, we had a project of building a community center. We had to use the talents of our members in the club. We picked members of related vocation to be in charge of construction, one who would take care of the children’s health, one who will teach the children, who will supervise welding, one who will provide jobs, and so on and so forth.
If you could only tap the resources and talents of your members, you could really do wonders. Diversity in membership is a tool we can use to heighten our respective clubs’ service capabilities.
3) Integrity.
Integrity is the wholeness of body, mind, and spirit.
Integrity is about being a person of character, of trust, being a man of your word. Simple things such as paying the right bill, coming on time, honoring a deal without a written contract, etc. – these are indications of a person of integrity. I thus call on each Rotarian to be a man of your word. In the olden days, it was called “palabra de honor,” word of honor.
When my father died in 1968, my mother asked me to accompany her to the bank to pay off a loan made by my father in the amount of almost P50,000 at that time. When we got there, I asked Mr. Morales, who was then the Executive Vice President of the bank, “Here is the money, Sir. Can we have the documents signifying that the loan is extinguished?” And he said, “There is no document. We just took the word of your Dad. All we have here is a voucher that he owes us. His word was good enough for us!”
Let us reflect on this value of the days gone by. Perhaps there is so much greed in this world now that we have forgotten the glory of being a person of character. I ask that each club come up with programs promoting integrity in your profession and your club practices. The natural consequence of integrity is ethical practice leading to good governance. In this light, RY 2009-2010 is a special year because in May 2010, we will elect our national leaders starting from the president, senators, congressmen, down the line. It is an opportunity for us to promote ethical values as an important prerequisite in choosing the future leaders of this country. It is important that you consider coming up with projects on how we can participate in electoral education.
We are currently trying to partner with Finex or the association of Financial Executives on how we can serve in the area of voter education. As long as it is non-partisan, Rotary will help our fellow Filipinos choose their candidates by identifying the right ingredients to look for in the future leaders of the country. This is one way we can serve the nation. It is congruent to our motto that is “Service Above Self!”
4) Leadership.
As Rotarians, we are all leaders. I ask that each club promote the continuity of projects and club leadership.
The Real Good Presidents and the Sharing Presidents have come up with good projects, and we will not abandon them. In fact, we will strengthen them. We will make them better. This is what project continuity it is all about — building on the success of each club president and taking care of the projects that the past governors and the past presidents have made real. Let us not waste the resources that they have put in place over those years.
I also ask all the leaders to identify potential leaders who can be club officers, chairmen, and club presidents. To this end, I have requested the Rotary Institute to set in place a Rotary education program that would train leaders on the club level. After all, Rotary is all about the clubs — good and strong clubs.
We will mobilize the Rotary Academy and the Rotary Leadership Institute and we will go to the clubs and the clusters. We will not be having Saturday seminars anymore except for only two as Rotary International requires that we have a membership development seminar and the Rotary Foundation seminar which have both been slated on a Saturday. Thus, the rest of the Rotary education program will be done on a club or cluster basis.
THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS
Amidst the world financial crisis, environmental threats, and conflicts in many parts of the world, we Rotarians must bring hope to our people. We must remain steadfast and strong.
Each club must increase its capacity to provide humanitarian service in Rotary’s areas of emphasis such as water, health & hunger, and literacy. By engaging in these projects, we shall be able to bring about the alleviation of poverty in the communities we serve. In doing this, let us strengthen our partnership with the NGOs and the local governments.
I call on all the clubs to make it your responsibility to attain the goals of Rotary this year. In the words of Winston Churchill: “The price of greatness is responsibility.”
For Rotary to become a great or an even greater organization, each Rotarian must make it his/her responsibility to take care of the club s/he belong to. If Rotary is to bring meaningful and relevant changes, we must take the responsibility for growing our club membership. We need more hands to help us in the work of nation building. No one else can do this for us. Everything begins and ends with the club. It is the daily action of each and every Rotarian that will dictate the future of Rotary in our communities.
Allow me to end with a quote from my President, RI President John Kenny, in his address before Rotarians in San Diego, USA in January 2010: “Whether Rotary will thrive or whether it will falter; whether our service will mean much to many or a little to a few; whether Rotary is known with respect or seen as a relic of days gone by, all this is up to you.”
My fellow Rotarians, the future of Rotary in our hands!
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