/ Dir.RICHARD seemed to be in a hurry to get the meeting started.  As the Day Chairman and Master of Ceremonies, he was no doubt thinking ahead to his term as President in 2001-2002.  RCSFU has a tradition of "well-prepared' leadership.

Now let me get back on track.  After Pres. ALBERT called the meeting to order it was Rtn. ALAN S. who filled in with a very good prayer and of course the all important 4-Way Test.  This was followed by the Pambansang Awit led by Rtn. ARNEL in lieu of Rtn.SAMMY.  A short luncheon time was enjoyed by all.  PP/SEC. gave a short secretary's report.  It is always good to hear from Sec. TONY.  I know that to have both a Secretary's Report and a President's Report might sound a little repetitious, but our leaders have a way of making reports that sound exciting.
The official Welcome and Greetings was given by Rtn. FREDERICK.  None of the birthday celebrants were present so there was no special celebration, too bad.  Rtn. DIEGO gave another advertisement for the Philippine Veterans Bank during his Classification Talk.  I am still not sure what kind of work he does.  Rtn. JERRY is fast getting the reputation as the best Fine Master in the Club. 

The Friendship Session was fun, exciting and challenging. It seemed like he was giving the Rotarians an I.Q. test while painlessly extracting money from them.  Good job, Rtn. JERRY. Pres. ALBERT's President's Time is always informative and challenging.  Again, this is something that we have come to expect from the 'MEGA PRESIDENT."   The introduction of our Guest of Honor and Speaker was done by Dir. ALI. Our special guest was JULIUS D. MENDOZA, Ph.D. who is a Rotary Foundation Alumnus. Dr. Mendoza was a member of the 1982 GSE Team that went to the East Coast of the U.S.  None other than our very own PDG CES was the Team Leader of the said group. Dr. Mendoza was tasked with speaking on the subject of "World Understanding Through Fellowship and Peace." This most knowledgeable Alumnus did a very good job.  I was amazed when the open forum dealt entirely with questions in life and death.  It was discovered that Dr. Mendoza did his Masters Thesis on 'The Problem of Death'" This led to questions by some of our Rotarians on the subject of death.  PDG CES gave a very nice response and the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 P.M.

st week, we had celebrated the 95 years of existence of the Rotary International.  Amidst this celebration, we must take cognizance of the purpose or objective of why Rotary was built.  As history puts it, Paul Harris organized the first Rotary Club with the idea to foster small town fellowship in the big city and to build a business network and a mission to provide critical services to people in desperate needs.  Our country is now beset with many catastrophes like the spewing Mayon Volcano, which will certainly displace many residents, the flashfloods in Cagayan de Oro, ushered by the impending price increase of oil, turmoil in other parts of our country and the problems brought about by pollution, drugs, corruption, etc.  In 1986, our country was beleaguered by political instability brought about by tyranny of one man.  However, the people later restored peace as they join hands, literally and figuratively, to topple the dictatorial system of government.  This happened during the EDSA Revolution.  As we commemorate the EDSA Revolution, let us learn the lessons of unity, solidarity and teamwork.  It was for these ideals that brought back democracy to the people of the Phils.  As Rotarians, the responsibility of introducing change is very timely, however, these changes must be directed to the upliftment of the sufferings of our less fortunate brothers.  Let us bear in mind that as Rotarians, it is our foremost mission to relentlessly give service that it might improve the plight of those suffering. The lessons of unity, solidarity, and teamwork as embodied in the EDSA Revolution should serve as our frontier in our effort to solve the problems being experi

It is not my wish that we bring immediate change to the plight of our suffering fellows for that would be impossible neither we should change the world in one day for that is vain but at least if we have the courage to change to become more unified in addressing these problems, transformation can be attained.  As we embark on change, we too should lessen the urge to criticize just for the sake of criticizing but rather give credit to where credit is due.  We should do more rather than talk more to be able to transcend to the challenges of the many problems that plagued our country.

Last Friday, February 25, 2000, our club sponsored the On - the - Spot Essay Writing Contest on the " Four - Way Test Values " participated in by college students in San Fernando City.  I would like to thank PP Joseph Dumuk who gave lecture on the Four - Way Test being the District Chairman on Vocational Service ; IP / Dir. JEROME for spearheading this project ; VP ARNOLD for representing me;  to Directors ALI, REX & RICHARD, A/Sec. FRANK, Rotarians REGGIE, EDWARD, SAMMY and JUN B.  Thanks also goes to Director of Lorma College, Mr. Jose Mainggang for the use of the Audio Visual Room. This contest gave us the opportunity to inform the Youth on the 4 - Way Test as an ethical guidance devised by Herbert J. Taylor.

Likewise, my sincerest gratitude for those who attended the 62nd Charter Anniversary of our Grand Mother Club, RC Baguio. They were VP Arnold, ID Jun Tio and