was a night that we called "Romancing the Ruins" or as someone else called it "A Bevy of Rota-Talents." And that it was ...

A special Congratulations should go to our Valentine Party Chairman, Rtn. EDWARD for an outstanding job in putting together such a wonderful program filled with a lot of music and laughter and good old wholesome family fun.  The setting was the beautiful PINDANGAN RUINS.  The luscious meal was catered by Cafe Esperanza and the evening was filled with the music of love.   Every part of the program was performed in music or dance.  This was no doubt a FIRST TIME for many of the participants to carry out their assigned functions in this manner.  The evening's two Master of Ceremonies were Rtns. RAY E. and ALLAN A.  After calling special occasion to order, YOURS TRULY along with my beautiful and talented wife sang the song "Give Thanks' as prayer to our Lord.  Rtn. ALLAN A. then presented a jazzed up version of the Pambansang Awit.  Pres. ALBERT sang his Welcome Remarks and VP JEROME sang his Greetings.  New Rotarians RUEL and TERRY were re-charged with their own special dance routine, with their respective spouses.  And...of course, Sec/PP TONY sang a beautiful love song, even though he had some "mic." problems.

The Friendship Session was done by the two MCs as they asked musical questions to selected Rotarians who were asked to make 500 pesos donations to the Carmelite Chapel fund.  It was very entertaining and of course the Rotarians were more than willing to make a donation when called upon.  This was all interspersed with various groups of Rotarians rendering classic songs from the Beatles, Johnny Mathis, Jose Mari Chan, Sharon Cuneta and the Lettermen.  PP's ARSING, REY, RUDY, KIT with the ROTA-SPICE BOYS and FERDINAND with the HIP HOGS, all rendered special song and dance numbers to lighten up the evening.  The closing number was presented by a group of ROTA-KIDS, who did an outstanding job and whose family names are all so familiar to the world of Rotary.

Time, space and memory prohibits me from doing justice to all who participated at this wonderful activity.  No doubt that "Romancing the Ruins" will go down in Rotary history as one of the best Valentine Parties, ever...

was 12:29 when RTN. DIEGO, DC/MC started mounting off preliminaries and at exactly 12:30 Pres. ALBERT called the meeting to order and order there was until adjourment time.

RTN. JERRY offered an orthodox theological prayer; followed by the 4-Way Test.  A/Treas. ERNIE stood for RTN. FREDERICK in leading the Pambansang Awit and then, VP ARNOLD joyfully welcomed guests and greeted celebrants.  It must have been RTN. REGGIE who refreshed us with ice cream on the occasion of their Wedding Anniversary, the day before. Thanks!

Recently inducted member RTN. TERRY gave a classification talk of banking, emphasizing that in banking nowadays, merger is the name of the game.  The information that stood out from Sec. TONY's report is that GMA will be our Guest of HONOR and Speaker during our induction in July.  ( In her capacity as VP or President? Ask your favorite - manghuhula" ).  A/ Treas. ERNIE, with only one question asked, nearly fined all members present with either P100 or P200, a price they had to pay for revealing what is new this year.  In his report. Pres. ALBERT, among other things, was delighted with the vitality and excellent performance of the Rotaract Club of UCC, which he partly credited to the cooperation of Dir. REX and A/Sec. FRANK.

It makes a good speaker to introduce a better one - PP ANDY and PP MARK, respectively.  Our Speaker, expert on human relations/ resources and gifted with eloquence, enumerated some of the important yardsticks in measuring a manager's performance.  Integrity; Willingness to take  risks; Ability to predict the future ( to predict it is to create it ); Ability to make profit; Ability to get things done; Good judgment; Ability to delegate responsibility; Ability to attract and hold good people; Ability to innovate; Intelligence; Foresight; Vision; Vitality; and Ability to change and adapt to changes.  After the meeting I cannot keep to myself my personal assessment of the Speaker and so I asked PP CRES and PP ALDY, thus;  "Why are they challenging the candidacy of this man?"   Both agreed that he is the man to support for the District Governorship.  After the appropriate response of Dir. REX, the rest - Plague giving, adjournment - contributed to a fruitful meeting.