Muntinlupa City Center

Being a young club composed of young members, it’s not hard to imagine that membership generation and retention is going to be a bit of an issue.  A lot of things come up: carreer, family, social life, and other things that could be attributed to the rapid decline of club membership in a span of 3 years.
In this light, it was such a great feeling to see our Charter President Gilbert Camasura again.  When he walked into the room, I really thought I saw a ghost.  It’s good to know that with him and his renewed commitment to Rotary, he brings the promise of increased membership and getting all the old members back.
It’s nice to have you back on board CP Gilbert.  Cheers!

All work and no play makes RCMCC a very boring club.  So we decided it was time to crank things up a little bit.  The club decided on an out of the ordinary fellowship night.  We trooped to Paeng’s in ATC where the members showcased some talent, hidden or otherwise, in bowling.
We divided ourselves into 2 groups.  Ladies vs Gentlemen.  What do you know? The boys have talent.  Not to be outdone, with a pizza at stake, the ladies won the second round.  It is noteworthy to mention tough that the Pres Andrew seems to want to put Paeng Nepomuceno out of his throne.  He is that good.

In response to the Governor’s appeal, RCMCC now has 2 new Paul Harris Fellows.  Many thanks to the generous heart of AG Luz Pacifico, Pres. Andrew Frondozo and PE Cesca Policarpio are now Fellows.  AG Luz Pacifico has supported the Club since its birth, being from the Mother Club, RC Filinvest, and being one of the people who helped charter RCMCC in 2006.
Her all around support, in morale or otherwise, has given the Club, and its members, the encouragement they need in order to carry on and face the challenges of being part of this organization.
Cheers!

The Rotary Club of Muntinlupa City Center, despite its small membership, has taken time out to participate in the 6th Annual Badminton Tournament of D3830.  Our club was represented by PE Cesca Policarpio and Club Secretary Helen Alforja.
With over a year or two of absolutely no practice, the two decided to join ‘just for fun.’ Little did they know that they will be pitted against 2 great players who were part of the Philippine Team for badminton.  They survived the game with a merciful score of 2-21 for both sets in a best of 3 match.
Best efforts and perhaps divine intervention put the RCMCC team in Second Place for their level, earning them both a Silver Medal each.

During the first few days of 2009, the Club had the honor of being visited by Gov. Boyet Limon.  This was held in Poquito Mas, Alabang.  During this time,  Club President Andrew Frondozo presented the projects and activities of the Club for the past 6 months.

The Governor, along with District Officers Ronnie Chavez and Baby Vale reiterated the value and advantages of the different grants being offered.  It was business as usual and appeals for increase in membership, TRF contributions, and encouragement to be Paul Harris Fellows filled the room.

We would also like to mention that for the past 2 weeks, we’ve been invited to some joint meetings. This is mention worthy for 2 things: the venue and the topic.

The meeting 2 weeks ago was held in Galley Grill along El Grande Ave, BF Homes, Paranaque City.  The speaker then was a very your and vibrant future Rotarian, Mr. Bede Gomez.  He tackled head on the truth in the financial crisis and the recession.  The bottomline:  The Philippines is not as badly hit as we had expected.  This is mainly due to the conservative banking practices and the awareness and know how in dealing with this.  We had, in fact, weathered the Asian financial crisis, about a decade ago.
Resto plug: you really should go to Galley grill and try their Hungarian sausage and the Pancit Canton mix. YUMMY!!! I had to order take out so that my family coud try it.  Oh, and don’t forget to sing to your hearts content as they do have karaoke there.

Last week,  we had a joint meeting with 7 clubs.  (Since it was unfortunate that the President of  RC Paranaque Midtown was not acknowledged at the beginning or end of the meeting, we would like to acknowledge his presence here. ) This was held at Carlo’s Pizza in BF Phase 1.  The guest speaker was none other than Mr. Chowking himself, Robert Kuan.  The topic was really quite interesting.  “Learning when to let go.”  In his closing remark he said, much to the amusement of the participants:  “Learn when to climax.  And learn when to let go.  Para hindi premature and ejaculatio (ng business) mo.”
Noteworthy bit about Carlo’s Pizza:  you should try their buffalo chicken.  When I had my first bite, all the angels in heaven sang.  Happy tummy.

In November 2008, our club, The Rotary Club of Muntinlupa City Center, together with the Philippine Dental Association – Las Pinas Chapter, held the first Dental Mission and Feeding Program in Sampaguita Compound.

This is the first of a 6 month program concentrating on the dental health of the dwellers in the aforementioned location. We were joined by the Rotary Club of Camino Real. Our aim is to provide ample dental assistance and a bit of the basic education to the participants.To date, we are halfway through the program, having held 3 for the past months.

The last 2 days of January proved to be exciting for both Club Presidents and Presidents Elect. During the Mid-Year Review, aptly entitled ‘Dream on with Gov. Limon,’ there was a lot learned and more excitingly, a lot of prizes to be won. If you were one of the lucky ones to have won the gift certificate for the Triple V chain of resaurants, you can tell yourself, ‘Medyo bawi na ako sa binayad ko.’

Kidding aside, during the presentation of projects per group, it was very heart-warming to watch that there have been a lot of projects and Rotary has been making a dent in the communities, ultimately, District 3830 have really been Making Dreams Real.

The Rotary Club of Muntinlupa City  Center is a non-stock, non-profit, service-oriented organization under District 3830. Its membership is composed of young, talented, and dynamic individuals with occupational skills ranging from Architecture, Dentistry, Banking, Financial Management, Education, Human Resource Management, Media Communications, Marketing, Training, Administration, and Information Technology.

Being a fairly young club, chartered only in 2006, we are in need of your support for us to be able to pursue our endeavor to help in our communities, to be able to facilitate a significant improvement in their lifestyles. We have a lot of projects lined up for this Rotary Year 08-09. These projects consists of, but are not limited to, feeding programs, medical and dental missions, and other outreach activities to sustain our thrust.

Our club’s flagship program is the Solar Disinfection (SODIS©) Program, which we first introduced to the Muntinlupa communities last year. This year, we continue this program on a larger scale. It has proven itself successful that we have decided to involve District 3830 in this project, ultimately giving it wider reach, and hopefully, higher effectivity.

In this regard, we would like to give you the opportunity to be part of the success of Rotary Club of Muntinlupa City Center and its projects, and become a partner in Rotary’s missions for this year. This year’s mission focuses on child mortality reduction and environmental protection and conservation.