November 21, 2012

Secretary’s Corner_11212012

Per advise of AG Doray Giorla, we decided to call off last week’s meeting even if nine (9) of our members were present. Pres. Jojo Bacarro and PP Pol Leoncio could not make it due to the Electrical Engineer’s convention at the Mall of Asia’s SMX Hall.

If we proceeded to hold a ‘formal’ meeting, this would have dragged down further our attendance rating for the month – a matter that we are trying hard to improve. At last week’s Pinaglabanan Bulletin all three ‘editorials’ had a common message - about our poor attendance. PP Tony Abola even went to the extent of reminding us that as Rotarians we all swore to attend our club’s weekly meetings. Like a ship in trouble we have been sending out our distressed signal, and only the collective efforts of our members will be able to bring us to a safe harbour.

If attendance woes continue for today’s meeting, we will call on the “Buddies” to report on the members assigned to them and ask if they are present or absent.

PE Therese Montecer has started listing her choice for club officers and committee chair persons for the next Rotary Year. This list would have to be revisited since PP Tony Abola has declined to accept the VP position. See PP Tony’s email on this subject.

We have invited Kagawad Danny Florano of Barangay Onse as our guest of honour and speaker. He will talk about Growing Red Tilapia as a livelihood project. Let us all welcome Kagawad Danny!

Cheers and enjoy Rotary J

Sec/PP Jovie

November 14, 2012

Secretary’s Corner_11142012

Our Club had four (4) meetings for the month of October and our average attendance was only at 55%. There were nine (9) members who failed to attend a single club meeting for the month. Already that’s a glaring 27% reduction in our attendance rating.

To help improve our numbers, the Club resolved to implement the “Buddy” system where members who regularly attend, will be assigned a member who is frequently absent to personally remind and entice said member to attend our meetings. Every meeting, the “Buddies” will be asked to report whether the member assigned to him is “present” or if still absent, the Buddy will report why his assigned member is still absent.

The nine (9) members with zero attendance in October and their respective Buddies are:

 Joe Castro                            - Gina Sanchez

 Macy Chan                          - Doray Giorla

Gil Ilagan                               - Pepe Peralta

Baby Macatangay               - E.G. Lim

Noel Mesina                         - Gina Sanchez

Ompong Ordanez                 - Gina Sanchez

Belle Sinense                        - Gina Sanchez

Teddy Tan                            - Pepe Peralta

David Taningco                   - Tony Abola

We have also noted members who have attended just One (1) or Two (2) meetings for the month. These members comprise another 20% of our total membership. Their presence can greatly influence our Club’s attendance rating if only they can make an extra effort to come to our meetings more often.

Aside from the Buddy System, AG Doray Giorla suggested that we resume the Indian Stick method of selecting speakers amongst our members. This suggestion was carried and schedules will be prepared by our Club Administration Director, IPP Nan Sallan.

It should be noted that moving our weekly meetings in the evening for the month of November was supposed to improve our attendance. However, only 13 members were present for last week’s meeting. As discussed, we will evaluate our Club’s attendance rating after one month and implement measures at getting our numbers up for future meetings.

Cheers and enjoy RotaryJ

Sec/PP Jovie 

November 07, 2012

Secretary’s Corner_11072012

Our meeting last Oct. 25 was an ‘evening meeting’ and Dr. Al Lopez was our speaker. He spoke on the subject, Stem Cell Therapy. He brought with him his colleague, Dr. Maria Antonio Cudal, a Geriatrics and Pathology specialist, not because there are several members who would qualify under his Geriatric care but rather his specialization in the field of Pathology made him qualified to answer questions about Stem Cell Therapy that has become a controversial subject in today’s news. As always, more time was devoted to the ‘open forum’ than the actual speech.

Attendance was still low in spite of this being an ‘evening meeting.’ Those present were the usual members who diligently attend our weekly meetings regardless if it’s a noon time or evening meeting. Doubts surfaced if moving our meetings to Wednesday Evening will improve our club’s attendance performance. At any rate, after one month we will evaluate and adapt measures towards getting more members to attend our weekly meetings.

Relative to the subject on ‘attendance,’ it became evident that recruitment of new members should be stepped-up. This year, and the immediate past Rotary Year has seen us inducting new members, but these new members have been remiss in attending our weekly meetings. Last Rotary year, during the term of PP Nan Sallan, we held the last Thursday of the month as an evening meeting to allow members who found it difficult to attend our noon time meetings to catch-up. This practice continued to this RY under Pres Jojo Bacarro. But even our so called ‘Rotarians of the night’ seldom show up for our evening meetings even for only once a month.

We’ve tried inviting interesting speakers, two senators even – from each side of the political arena, and yet we were not able to achieve 100% attendance. I still remember stories way back in the 70’s when the club achieved 100% club attendance for the whole Rotary Year! Once, a member was confined in the hospital, the club decided to hold the meeting inside the hospital room where the member was confined in, thus the club still hit the coveted 100% attendance for that week. These days, we are far from that attendance plateau. Sadly, some of our current members are too distant from the level of commitment we had way back in the 70’s.

Could implementing the ‘buddy system’ help in getting our attendance ratings up? Members who frequently attend meetings [“AP” for always present] will be assigned members who seldom attend [“FA” for frequently absent] as their ‘buddy.’  The AP Member will ascertain that the FA Member assigned to him will attend our weekly meetings. Do you think this will work?

Cheers and enjoy RotaryJ

Sec/PP Jovie