There are a number of milestone years in the Club’s history but none bigger and more anticipated than the 50th anniversary of its birth. By an uncanny turn, the man chosen to lead the Club on this “golden” year—Eddie Yap-- has direct connections to its illustrious past: he had been president of RC Pasay, Makati’s mother club, in the mid80s; he was also a one-time member of RC Makati West, the first of the Club’s eight “daughter” clubs.
Pres. Eddie came to the presidency with a mind brimming with ideas and a heart eager to get things moving, done, and done well. He did so even as he hewed to the cherished traditions of the Club, sought counsel from the elders and support from fellow members, and drew everyone to the table to partake of and contribute to the menu of projects and activities on the year’s agenda.
His term gets high marks in terms of compliance with the RI Strategic Plan for 2013-2016, goals that clubs are tasked to hew closely to.
Support and Strengthen the Club
• Serious about getting every member of the Club to the contributors’ table, he devised a clustering scheme that covered everybody on the roster. The clusters were each assigned a month to take charge of the weekly programs, to drum up attendance and recruit new members, with the month’s comparative results published in the newsletter, Kaunlaran. Aside from encouraging member engagement and participation, the clustering scheme made it easy to check on individual and group performance, as the cluster heads made sure that their members showed up to be counted at every turn.
The cluster scheme bore fruit with the record attendance of members and Anns at the induction ball, reversing the usual turnout where guests outnumbered members and Anns, and in the induction of eleven new members, resulting in a net gain of six after the loss of five, including two deceased.
• To achieve balance without unnecessarily putting a strain on the members’ pocketbooks, Pres. Eddie reformatted the budget by matching revenue against expenditures in major categories of service—administration, unfunded programs, humanitarian, and selffunded projects for easier appreciation and fiscal planning, always with an eye on the bottom line.
• The grand anniversary fete at the new Shangrila at the Fort on March 12, 2016 was a certified social coup, thanks to two events that generated the funds needed to pull it off—first, a dance concert billed as “Spirit of ’67, Spirit of 50” that packed an animated crowd at the Alphaland Tent in Makati and a staging of The Nutcracker ballet at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The two events, captained respectively by PP Tito Panlilio and the Valerios—PP Reuben, Ann Mimi and son Miko, and a cash donation by Pres. Eddie himslef—raised enough funds to cover the expenses for the March 12 gala dinner for some 500 members and guests and a Vienna Spring Concert performed by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and the country’s top classical singers.
• Aside from raising funds, both the danceconcert and the ballet packed a large crowd of Rotarians and Anns. The dance concert was front-acted by a band of RC Makati members, while the year’s crop of Baby Rotarians gamely served as ushers.
• Another source of funds was a 120-page souvenir magazine for the 50th anniversary that raised a tidy sum as well. The positive response to President Eddie’s phoned-in requests to members for ad placements were solid proof of the strength of the Club and how ready and willing its members are to answer calls for support, especially from the president.
• One of the goals for the 50th year was to enlist 50 Paul Harris Fellows, one for every year of the Club’s existence. When PDG Tony Quila, chairman of the TRF Committee, began tapping members, the response was overwhelming, his efforts resulting in the enlistment of 100 PHFs, double the target set in July 2015, a feat that has shattered all records and is likely not to be matched, let alone surpassed, in the foreseeable future. Remarkably, the list included three babies, all under one year of age.
• At the district conference at Sofitel Plaza in midApril, RC Makati was recognized as No. 1 in total TRF giving, with contributions surpassing those of all other listed clubs combined. The Club also added three to its list of major gift donors and became an EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) Club, while the total TRF giving was boosted by a $50,000 gift by PDG Robert Kuan.
• The Board of Directors has institutionalized a 5-year succession plan to choose and prepare future leaders for the job ahead. To this end, a special committee composed of the presidents of the immediate past five years has been formed to draft selection rules and procedures for approval by the Board. The move was taken to secure the future of the Club and ensure that it passes from year to year to capable and caring leaders who will lift it to new heights of service while keeping it grounded on the cherished traditions that give the Club character and safeguard its status as the premier club in the district.
• The Rotaract Club and Interact Club participated in district events, notably the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and District Rotaract-Interact Assembly (DRIA), while the Interactors undertook a “wildings” preservation project on the slopes of a mountain in Batangas and represented the Club in the District Youth Olympics.
• The Rotaract Club and Interact Club participated in district events, notably the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and District Rotaract-Interact Assembly (DRIA), while the Interactors undertook a “wildings” preservation project on the slopes of a mountain in Batangas and represented the Club in the District Youth Olympics.
• The Club traveled overseas to visit sister clubs in Bangkok, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Taoyuan, Macau, and Tongkah in Thailand, hosted brother and sister club delegations at the welcome dinner in their honor prior to the induction ball in July, and entertained guests from Bangkok, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney, and Taoyuan, who came for the Club’s induction in July 2015 and the 50th anniversary in March 2016.
• The Anns, ever playing a supporting role to their spouses, had their own program of activities— meriendas hosted by Ann Dellie Yap at the Yap residence, a spiritual recollection and visita iglesia in preparation for Holy Week, and most significantly, the Last Angel gift-giving project under which they delivered Christmas presents to 662 children in select charitable institutions, communities and schools.
• Keenly appreciative of the value of fellowship and the fun and fulfillment human connections bring, the Club made it a point to intersperse the service program with socials—small-group dinners in intimate settings and get-togethers for bigger groups organized for an array of occasions and reasons--to mark a birthday, to welcome friends, to say thank you, to celebrate success.
All these demonstrate the healthy relationship the Club enjoys with its own members and Anns, its sister and brother clubs, and other Rotary clubs in the district and elsewhere, which reinforces the ties that hold the Club together and its links with other clubs, and adds to the strength it has shored up in all of its 50 years.
Focus on and Increase Humanitarian Projects Throughout his term, Pres. Eddie and his team of officers, directors and advisers were in multi-locations to oversee projects, meet with project partners, and connect with the beneficiaries.
• Two milestone projects took center stage—one, a fresh run of the long-running National Awards for Community Service (NACS), which this year recognized the outstanding community projects of ten Rotary Clubs, one from each of the ten Rotary districts in the country; and two, a brand-new Air Quality Monitoring System made up of an initial three stations equipped with state-of-the-art machines that read and evaluate air quality data, in real time, 24/7, for transmission to the public through a website and apps for both Android and Apple devices. The 50th charter anniversary gala dinner was the stage where trophies and cash prizes were handed out to the winners of NACS, and when Pres. Eddie Yap unveiled the Air Quality Monitoring System project in a video presentation.
• The Medical Missions Committee offered free surgery at the Philippine General Hospital to over 50 patients suffering from breast cancer, goiter and gall stones.
• Over 900 children afflicted with primary complex in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Malabon, Navotas and five other sites were given the prescribed 6-month medical treatment under the “End TB Now” program.
• Five modules of the supplemental feeding program nursed some 150 undernourished children back to health in Calatagan, Batangas, Bay Laguna and three other places.
• A medical mission in Malabon City offered medical attention and free medicines to 260 elderly patients.
• A $65,000 global grant has been disbursed for the 2014-2016 round of TB medical treatment modules for 900+ kids in 14 sites, from Navotas to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.
• A global grant of $94,560, applied for during IPP Reggie Nolido’s term in partnership with RC Shanghai, RC Beijing, RC Migeum of Korea, District 52 of China and District 3600 of Korea made possible the delivery on March 16, 2016 of fiberglass boats to 168 Leyte fishermen who had lost their livelihoods to the ferocious wave surges of Yolanda in 2013.
• In April 2016, the Club received a new global grant in the amount of $85,000 to be used to fund a new round of anti-TB treatment modules for over 700 young TB patients in places as far north as Pangasinan and as far south as Palawan.
• Giving Education the attention it deserves, the Books Across the Seas project, better known as BATS, stuffed school libraries with books as it has done for 28 years, keeping alive the links that connect it to the Brother’s Brother Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, primary source of the books it gives away. So far, 15,442,217 books and other reading materials have been distributed to some 65,000 schools since the project’s inception in 1988.
• As in years past, the Club held career guidance talks for the seniors in its adopted school, the Heneral Pio del Pilar National High School in Makati, which is also home to the Clubsponsored Interact Club.
• It also carried on with its assistance to the Philippine Institute for the Deaf, including donations of P385,000 to the scholarship fund, two hybrid air conditioning units, and LED lightbulbs that cut the power bill by half.
• The Club kept up its support of the Stepping Stone School for children with special needs with donations towards the TRF global grant that funded an artsand-culture therapy program. The Club was there on special occasions such as the Christmas program and at the inauguration of a training facility for hotel room service.
• Its desire to help up-step the quality of education in public schools led the Club to partner with the Ronald McDonald House Charities for a 16-monthlong ‘Read to Learn’ program for Gr. 1 and 2 pupils in four schools in Bay, Laguna. The program was prompted by a study whose results revealed that four of 10 pupils finish the level without learning to read.
• The Bantay Bata team worked with the Makati Social Welfare Department for seminars on capacity building and bullying, and organized a whole-day outing to Manila Ocean Park for special-needs children under the care of social workers.
• The community development goal was advanced with a donation of P300,000 to Rotary Homes for two housing units, the construction of two drinking water stations at the Virgen de los Remedios Elementary School in Bamban, Tarlac, and support for RCC Bukluran, the Club’s Rotary Community Corps in Guadalupe Viejo.
Enhance Public Image and Awareness • This year saw the Club’s stock rise to new heights with an exclusive arrangement with the Philippine Daily Inquirer for weekly press releases on significant projects and activities, brokered by Public Relations Dir. Shah Tamano and Andrew Prieto. The year-long publicity on the top national broadsheet brought RC Makati to national prominence and further raised awareness of Rotary as the world’s top humanitarian organization. It also served to aid in membership recruitment and retention while enhancing the Club’s drawing power for guest speakers.
• The 50th anniversary dinner and concert at the spanking new Shangri-la at the Fort on March 12 enjoyed pre-and post-event publicity. The event was given prominent space in major dailies with full-length feature stories accompanied by fullcolor photographs that boosted the Club’s stature as the premier Club in the district—the first among equals—and polishing the public image of Rotary to a radiant shine.
• The Air Quality Monitoring System project was also written about by top columnists in the major dailies prior to and after its formal launch, thus increasing public awareness both of the project and of the air quality in the metro, and of how they can use the system to their advantage. President Eddie Yap was also interviewed on ABSCBN’s morning show, Umagang Kay Ganda soon after the installation of the monitoring unit along Ayala Avenue.
• The Club joined other clubs for District 3830’s public image campaign where we posted a large poster of our feeding project on a wall of MaCEA’s Locsin Underpass that traverses Ayala Avenue on Legaspi Street.
• The Club was featured twice in the Philippine Rotary Magazine, the first time on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in March, the second in April—both with several pages of stories and photographs on the history, projects and leaders of the Club.
There has been much celebration in the RC Makati clubhouse in Guadalupe Viejo and at The Peninsula on Ayala Avenue where the Club holds its weekly meetings because there have been many reasons to celebrate.
Fifty glorious years of humanitarian service measured in dreams fulfilled, lives made better and decent communities carved out of slums, and joyful fellowship affirmed by strangers turned into acquaintances, acquaintances into friends, friends into family. And the 50th year crowned with impactful projects and celebrated in the Club’s own distinct fashion--a fusion of remembrance and recognition made joyful by the sweet notes of music that touch the heart and linger in the soul.