Dear Charter Officers and members,

August is Membership and Extension Month, a time to focus on Rotary’s continuing need for growth, to seek new members and form new clubs.

Our collective experience as charter members in establishing a new club is quite unique and unprecedented. First, we were given probationary status last April 5, 2005 by Centennial DG George L. Howard to pioneer in establishing the FIRST eClub in the district and consequently in the country. In the two months that followed, until the submission of our charter documents last June 10, 2005, we exerted efforts to establish Rotary eClubONE3780. And we did well with flying colors.

At the last moment, however, we were advised that RI suspended the acceptance of new applicants for eClubs. We had to apply as a regular club and adopt a barangay as our territorial assignment, thus the birth of RC Masambong.

Now, major changes are being made in the club's overall 3-year plan, objectives and direction that are again set into motion. It's a complete over-haul! In effect, we are establishing a regular club and nurturing it to be truly barangay and community based, while waiting for the possible approval of our charter as an eClub. When that happens, we would then leave RC Masambong in the hands of business leaders who are themselves residents of the barangay and its neighboring subdivisions.

In my meeting with him last July 28, CDG George reiterated that establishing the FIRST eClub in the Philippines remains to be our cherished goal. He has correspondingly endorsed to the RI our application as an eClub, with the footnote that should the suspension in accepting new eClub applicants be lifted, we should be the first to be considered. In that eventuality, we will be chartering the eClub again ourselves. We will just end up paying charter fees anew.

In the meantime, CDG George tells us to continue conducting part of our business through the internet, without fully closing the pages of our eClub orientation. Furthermore, www.RotaryEClubONE3780.tk can serve as a fellowship and information hub in the worldwide web, and continue its role of spreading the Rotary spirit in a borderless global community.

Let us strive to remain intact. We should welcome this unique process we are undergoing as our own way of celebrating August as Membership and Extension Month, and our contribution to Rotary’s continuing need for growth, new members and the formation of new clubs.

Rtn. Don Flordeliza, Jr.

Charter President

Rotary Club of Masambong, District 3780

Webmaster, Proposed Rotary eClubONE3780