May 17, 2000

What are we in Power For?

By: Dennis Valdes

As always, let me begin my column with A Review of Last Week’s Rotary Events. We had our 9^th Cigar Night at Cat’s in the New World Hotel. The turnout was pretty good – quite a few Baby Rotarians came – which was really one of the key objectives of Cigar Night to begin with.

Rtn. Tony Yap and Baby Rotarian Atab Rivera co-organized the event, a wonderful collaboration between one of our stalwarts and new blood. For P500, attendees received a Cuban cigar, glass of wine and a merienda cena buffet that we could not even finish when the last dregs left at 9:30 PM. Thank you both!

Unlike past Cigar Nights, members were no longer bringing prospective recruits to the event. No matter, since we have already set quite a record in membership growth for the year – 27 new members or a 60% growth from our July 1, 1999 base of 45 members.

Immediately after Cigar Night, several RCMA’ers drove up to Tagaytay Highlands to prepare for their participation in the weekend Belle Cup. Congratulations to Rtn. Luther Jao, whose 54 in Scramble and 65 in Best Ball for a two-day total of 119 or 26 under par snared the Division II Runner-up honors.

Luther’s success marks two weeks in a row that RCMA members have won golfing honors in amateur events – of course, we all know that last week Baby Rotarians Bet-bet Espiritu and Eddie Boy Romualdez combined to win the Riviera Cup.

Other golfers at the tournament commented at how the event seemed to be an RCMA tournament because we were very recognizable in our RCMA Golf T-shirts. Keep the flag flying guys! Congratulations also to Rtn. Mike Sy, whose annual sartorial contributions to the club continue to win us kudos from all over.

On to part two of my column – always a discussion of What is Happening This Week.

On Friday, an RCMA delegation leaves for Hong Kong to visit our sister club: RC Tsuen Wan. This annual visit is always a highlight of the year, since our sister club really puts out the red carpet for us – limousines, etc., etc. On our part, we always attend the black tie event in our best jusi barongs – not only do we highlight who the RCMA’ers are at the event, we really show off our national costume!

Unfortunately this year, only one Ann can attend with us – Ann Gina Lagos, who will accompany Baby Rotarian George. Speaking of which, George may have set a record here – for being the only Baby Rotarian to have gone to Tsuen Wan – can we check our club history here?

Not too many events in the forthcoming week, I’m afraid, since we are beginning to wind down our activities for the year. Which also brings me to the third and final part of my column – What is Happening Today?

Today is our Governor’s Team Visit, headed by ISDG Jun Galindez. This is really like a pep rally for PE Paul Chuatico – for him to tell us his plans for the coming year and get us all excited about all the coming events. In response, ISDG Jun will give us feedback on how we are doing as a club and what the incoming Governor will expect from us in turn.

I’m sure we’ll be "all ears" as we enjoy our breakfasts!