Rotary Notes 4: Citizen Self Reliance, Public Image

Citizen self-reliance -- non-dependence from the government, politicians and legislators, other people -- is important. It requires mature, self-confident and responsible citizenry. But self-reliance does not mean living alone or in small clusters of people, say a clan. Self reliance simply means more personal and parental/guardian responsibility in running their own lives, more civil society and voluntary organizations' role in  building a peaceful, non-coercive and dynamic society.

Last weekend, July 14, 2012, there was a District 3830 training on Membership Development and Public Relations held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). Our Club President, Rose Antonio, attended it, took photos and posted them in our club facebook group. I wasn't there, but like a number of ideas presented in those presentations, so I copy-pasted some of them here. I don't know who made this presentation.

I like this slide on the cockroach or ipis, very wacky. And the description on generations. And the Einstein formula, not the E = mc2  :-)

And these thoughts on maturity, on tolerance, empathy, communication, and shibumi, cool.

About public relations and public image, some useful tips, can use them in my blogging and writing...

If I was only free last Saturday morning, I would have attended the above seminar.

Meanwhile, our mother club (they chartered the creation of our club in March 2000), RC Rizal West, invited us to their first meeting of the current RY last July 05, 2012, Thursday night, Makati Sports Club. The main speaker was Past District Governor (PDG) Sonny Coloma. Gov. Sonny is also working now at the Office of the President in Malacanang, the 2nd or 3rd time he joined government. His main job is being a professor of management at the AIM.

I am a big fan of Gov. Sonny, along with many other PDGs of our district, like Jimmy Cura, Rafael "Butch" Francisco, my Governor in RY 2006-07, Ed Alvarez, many others. Gov Sonny is a soft-spoken, good humored, articulate speaker. In one of his talks several years ago, he called me as among his favorite bloggers. He was kidding of course.

He was introduced by Gov. Jimmy Cura, That night, Gov. Sonny talked about servant leadership, the characteristics of a good, listening, leader. Among the nice quotes I heard from him:

* Listening, the reason why we have two ears and one mouth, is so that we can hear and listen more, before we speak.
* Healing, letting go of the past, or mending ways, offer a hand or ear of healing past conflict and misunderstanding.
* Empathy, consideration.
* Many others. I also like his description of Fort Bonifacio (that's where our club is based) -- "Fort Bonifacio is an island of Taguig surrounded by Makati" -- haha, so true.

Lower photos, our group pictures, obviously :-)
----------

See also:

Rotary Notes 1: Barangay Roads and Solar Panels, August 30, 2010
Rotary Notes 2: Climate, Carbon and Cancun, December 14, 2010

Rotary Notes 3: TRF, Global Grants and Civil Society, June 17, 2012