Felix B. Amparo, formerly President and General Manager of GE Philippines, Inc. but now retired, joined RC Makati in 2000, with PRID Paing Hechanova and Joe Alejandro as his sponsors. To him, Rotary opened up a great opportunity to serve the community, meet new friends and be enriched by new experiences. He found the Club “baby-Rotarian-friendly.” It had some very good ongoing projects and community service activities run by dedicated members, albeit occasionally these provided a “cover” for “not-so-active” members. Otherwise, everyone always seemed ready to share resources to fund relief and humanitarian efforts. The Club also maintained excellent relationships with brother and sister clubs. Felix served as Club Treasurer and later as Vice-President before assuming the presidency during Rotary Year 2009-2010. He recalls that RC Makati was the lead Club in the district in responding to the immediate needs of Typhoon Ondoy victims. RCM offices became a central distribution center, where goods donated by the Club and other clubs and organizations were packed by Rotarians, Rotary Anns, Rotaractors and Interactors for distribution.

To strengthen Rotary, Felix suggests that “we go back to basics in terms of strengthening membership, improving attendance at meetings, encouraging stronger membership participation in activities, and working on membership retention and Rotary information.” Based on MRCFI rules, Felix automatically became an exofficio MRCFI director before becoming ex-officio Chairman of MRCFI during RY 2010-2011. He believes that unless there is good reason to maintain the Club and the Foundation separately, serious consideration should be given the idea to combine their functions under just one organization.