Greetings!

    Before the start of our Year of Service, we had our Strategic Planning right here at Valle Verde Country Club on February 2013. Our references, and which necessarily were the bases for our assumptions at that time, were the following:

1. The District (five-year) Strategic Plan initiated by then DGE Lirio Sandoval.
2. RI’s Future Vision Plan which was in full roll out in July 1, 2013. Under the Future Vision Plan are the following innovations/ changes to make Rotary more vibrant, dynamic and relevant among other imperatives:
   1. Grant model: global grant, district grant, and packaged grants
   2. Six (6) areas of focus: peace and conflict prevention and resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic literacy and education, and economic & community development
3. RI Presidential Citation which spelled out the mandated activities and the parameters and criteria for club/s to deserve the citation.

    With the foregoing background, situation, and assumptions, we set our goals for the district, the zones (which we grouped into more manageable clusters/areas), down to the different clubs.

    For membership, we said that we must grow by at least 10%. But we were confronted with the situation that two clubs would transfer to another district to which I, as the then DGE, concurred with then incumbent district governor Lirio Sandoval to allow them to leave for mutually beneficial reasons. Furthermore, another club would probably be terminated, while a few other clubs are struggling to survive having membership difficulties and/or challenges on “making both ends meet”.

    With the foregoing dim scenario, as a team we aimed higher with the end in view of still achieving our goals. The membership committee chaired by PDG Jun Farcon came up with our membership campaign slogan which we collectively approved. Said slogan is dubbed as: “5 5 5” or simply put; give me five, or become twenty five so our district will be two thousand five hundred.

    On TRF contributions, the RI Presidential Citation requires that all Rotarians must contribute to the foundation, regardless of amount, with a total contribution of at least one hundred dollars per capita. On this, our Annual Funds Chair CP Manny Reyes, set our aim higher as well, concurred by the DRFC PDG Fabie Enriquez, to a total contribution of three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000.00). As district governor, I approved this goal.

    On service projects, on top of the recurring or continuing pet projects of our clubs, we were certain about what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to make, at the very least, a dent on environmental protection, helping save mother earth and contribute to efforts to address global warming and climate change.

    Clearly, we prepared for this year, and by the grace of God, our district was spared from the wrath of super typhoons.

    We came up with our flagship project on environmental protection, with CASPI (Committee on Advocacies, Special Projects, and Initiatives) headed by Lt Gov Bobby Rosadia as catalyst. The menu of projects listed under this flagship project complements the other projects of the clubs and to be implemented or monitored by the District Service Projects Committee headed by Chairman PDG Efren de Guzman. We put in place and implemented the following during the first half of the Rotary year:

1. Partnerships with agencies and organizations such as:
   1. DENR - for the seedlings and plants that our clubs used for tree planting and greening activities facilitated by the District Tree Planting Committee under PP Gener Dizon.
   2. LLDA - bamboo planting along riverbanks to prevent erosion and help improve the carbon-capture capacity of the environment.
   3. DTI - shared service facilities in the government’s efforts to include everyone, particularly the marginalized, in economic growth.
2. Organized and trained the beneficiaries, particularly the so-called enemies of the environment in Upper and Lower Kilingan of the Marikina Watershed facilitated by the Rizal cluster under DDG John Barredo and the CASPI.
3. The District Disaster Preparedness Committee under Chair Butch Regencia came to work to save families and individuals during floodings brought about by typhoons or Habagats. This committee also distributed relief goods to flooded areas.
4. The District Environment Committee chaired by PP Cristy Baroga conducted the well attended district-wide “Environmental Forum for Teachers” with the view of educating the educators on the basics of environmental protection. Our district, thru the efforts of PP Cristy Baroga, “exported” this forum in Tacloban to share with the teachers in the area the ideas of the renowned speakers. This was done in cooperation with DG Ed Chiongbian of District 3860.
5. In quick reaction to the Bohol-Cebu earthquake and Super Typhoon Yolanda, we created the (interim) District Committee on Calamity Resource Generation under Chair Muffet Manahan, and the Special Committee on Mobilization under PP Lina Sarmiento.
6. For the second phase of our efforts to help Super Typhoon Yolanda survivor families, we created our Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Committee that will soon implement our “Boat For Lives” Project chaired by Lt Gov Jun Angeles with PDG Tony Puyat as adviser.

    From here, let us proceed to the programme prepared for us by our host club, RC San Juan West and Chairman Augie Soliman.