LCP Mercy Alvaran and PP Jason Valera
The Rotary Club of San Jose Downtown marked another milestone when it came together on June 19 to hold its first Strategic Planning Workshop at Punta de Tiarra Hill and Stomping Ground Resort at Mapaya, San Jose Occidental Mindoro. This affair was attended by TP and outgoing president Renato Tampol, SVD, incoming LCP Mercy Alvaran, Club Secretary/PE Dondon Soriao, CP Cathy Soriao, Immediate PP Jason Valera, PP Bong Antaran, PP Mel Corpus, Rotarian Sonny Mercado, Rotarian Leo Pablo, Rotarian Iyah Nueve, Rotarian Mailen Valera, Rotaract Johnver Balmes, Rotarian Steven Patrick dela Fuente and new member recruit Rotarian Marichu Castro. There were six active members who were not able to attend the meeting for personal reasons.
The meeting formally started with a call to order that was headed by outgoing TP Renato Tampol, SVD . During the meeting, a reporting of activities was done by TP Tampol where he recounted all what has happened in the past year and was greatly acknowledged by the whole body. After which, a turnover of leadership was witnessed by the body between the outgoing president Transformational President (TP) Tampol of 2020-2021 and incoming president Life Changing President (LCP) Mercy Alvaran of 2021-2022.
LCP Mercy Alvaran is the sixth president after the Rotary Club of San Jose Downtown was established in 2017 by then Chapter President Cathy Soriao. Under her leadership, she has pledged several life changing projects that would not only benefit the people of the town of San Jose but the whole of Occidental Mindoro, as she plans to extend all her proposed projects to the entire Occidental Mindoro constituents or even further. It was during this meeting that the first project in the form of a raffle for a Dell Laptop was formally finalized. The raffle took place in July 2021. The results of the raffle will be announced in another club report.
What was important about the first meeting was the announcement that the club has already hit its target of membership recruitment of 10% of its current membership count of 21 even at this early part of the new leadership year. To add to the roster of members for this year are the following: Marichu Gabriel, a College Professor at the Occidental Mindoro State College, Alice Cajayon- Social Worker Department Head-LGU, Eduard Pangan-Vocational school owner/Baker Erisha Mercado and a graduate of Information Technology course. Unfortunately, the club has also to update its membership in terms of its active members and decided to delist three (3) members due to their inactivity and intention of being removed from the membership list as well.
The rest of the meeting was spent to discuss the different plan of activities, each handled by department heads within the organization. The occasion was both a productive workshop and an enjoyable fellowship affair among its members as they joined together to initiate a new year of new perspectives for the whole of Rotary Club of Downtown San Jose, totally committing themselves towards the motto “Service above Self.”