The Navigator

My Presidency was curtailed by pressing personal circumstances related to my personal safety.  Only a few months in to my term I was forced to leave the Philippines but in the time leading up to my assuming the Presidency and in the few short months I was in the position I laid the foundation for the year that saw the club receive many rewards and accolades.

While I was not able to see many of my project through to completion I can still feel some satisfaction in the knowledge that I made a significant contribution to the community during my brief term.   Credit goes to my vice President David Poley who took over on short notice and ran with most of the projects I had set up as well as implementing some of his own making it a very successful year for RCCM.

My Achievements

Projects I instigated that
were later completed

Well Capping project – This is the placing of a cement cover and pump on open wells and was one of the first projects as President.  I approached the Barungay captain of Gun Ob and was taken around to a number of communities with open wells.   I took pictures and documented the number of users for each well and was able to identify a dozen wells suitable for well capping.  I sent my employee to research the costs of materials and find a team of workmen willing to undertake the capping for a set price.  The project was well underway when I left the Philippines and considered so successful that after completing the wells I had identified more were added by the new president.

School Crossing Project – After living on Mactan Island for a year I always noticed how the local school crossing guard struggled with traffic that often ignored his direction to stop. When I looked at him and thought about a school crossing guard back home it occurred to me that part to the problem was a lack of apparent authority.  The guard here was dressed in the same street clothes as everyone else.   I idea of the School Crossing Project was born.   I created a prototype with I presented to the club consisting of a HiVis Jacket, Whistle and stop sign mounted on a 5’ pipe.   The club agreed to produce 50 units of these to donate to the community and they were all manufactured and assembled in my home.  School crossing kits were donated to the City of Mactan and City of Peuto Princessa via our sister club.

Water for 500 homes – While visiting Palawan to formalize a sister club agreement and implement our Safety crossing project I was introduced by David Poley to the owner of the Mactan Water company that had a water recycling plant.    He mentioned they had an overcapacity in their water plant and the idea of donating this water to the surrounding community was born.  The basic offer was to provide the water free if we provided the means to distribute it which meant building a network of pipes.  I took this idea back to the club and it was agreed that this would be one of the major projects for the year.

Meal Dream – Close to where I was living I noticed a drop in and feeding center for children.  I decided to investigate further and went in and met Bobbie Cuenca the man behind the drop in center.  We talked about his dream of expanding his feeding program and I invited him to visit the club and share his dream.  The club agreed to sponsor a feeding program and the Meal Dream was born.

Donation to Police – I re-instated a project designed to encourage better policing in the community by rewarding exemplary individuals in the force. I was asked by the new Police commander for some sort of guide lines or criteria in selecting the reward recipient.  I was aware in the past that this had been left entirely at the discretion of the commander and also heard some club members express reservations that the past choices really reflected the objectives of the project. His question was an opportunity to direct the reward more towards rewarding those who worked with the community.  I drafted criteria which I presented to the club and then presented to the commander for selecting the reward recipient and in February 2010 the award was made.

Membership Drive Night – One of my stated objectives was to increase membership and working closely with David Poley we developed a campaign to recruit new members.  One of our first projects was a membership drive night.  We noticed that RCCM had a very high turnover and had lost a lot of members so we decided to invite them back and at the same time provide feedback on why they had left the club. We also encouraged to currently members to invite a friend for the evening as well as creating a banner to promote the event.

New Member Orientation – With my own introduction to the club fresh in my mind I decided that some sort of new member process and orientation pack was needed.  I worked with David Poley to produce a new process and comprehensive folder containing all the information about the club and Rotary in general.

Contributed plaque with 4 Way Test -  The four way test is a cornerstone of Rotary and most clubs permanently display this in the club house.  The club had been given a beautiful hand crafted bronze Rotary symbol by a Japanese club but no decision was made on how to display or use it.  When I became President I had the idea of creating a plaque with the four way test and the bronze symbol on the top for permanent display in the club meeting room.  I asked David Poley if he would like to contribute 50/50 to providing the plaque and he agreed.  The plaque was completed and is now displayed at all meetings.

RCCM Project Folder – Working closely with David Poley we developed a folder of proposed projects available for sponsorship.  These were loose leaf flyers placed in a general purpose RCCM folder.  These folder were given to anyone visiting the club and also a PDF version was mailed out to a number of clubs overseas resulting in some sponsorship of our projects.

Relationship with mother club – When I first joined RCCM I was told that we had a mother club ‘The Rotary Club of Mactan’ but there was absolutely no communication with this club. This situation actually resulted in duplication of effort when both clubs became involved in a dump site project. I decided that I would be the one to try to rebuild our relationship with our mother club and as President Elect I attended some of the meetings of the mother club and found them to be most receptive of the idea of building a close relationship and working together.  Almost immediately we became involved in joint projects with them and started to communicate on a regular basis.

Donation to DSWD – Each year an anonymous donor make a donation to the DSWD orphanage through RCCM.  The club supplements the donation.  This donation came up soon after I took office and the communication back from the orphanage was that they really wanted a new Air-conditioning Unit.  This alone would have taken most of the available funds not leaving much for anything else.   The club discussed how we might provide the air-conditioning unit separately to the main donation of supplies.   The mother club became aware of this need and announced they had a surplus of funds from another project they had just completed and would provide the full amount for the air-conditioning unit.

RCCM Website – I set up and hosted this website and even though I am no longer a member of RCCM I continue to maintain it free of charge.  I wrote most of the page content on the site including designing the sponsor ship Options.  I want to make special mention of the front FLASH banner of the site was created by my son Edward Bennetts.

Overseas Sponsorship – During the time I was President we attracted two sponsors via our Internet promotions.   Up until then members funded most projects undertaken out of their own pockets.  My idea was to attract overseas funding for projects.   I also created a paypal account to accept online donations and this was instrumental in being able to receive these donations from overseas.

Book Donation Program – The book donation was one of the projects included in the RCCM Project folder.  Working with David we discussed on a number of occasions how we might source book donations with the logistics of shipping and distribution being the challenge.   There was also a proposal to help support the Albert Switzer Foundation School and a visit by one of the member was organized to see what was needed.  I was not around for the outcome but both of these project came together with a book donation to the Albert Switzer Foundation School.

Some of my Planned Projects
started but not completed

Adopt a pre-school The previous President had come up with the idea of adopting a pre-school in Kalawisan.  That preschool was still in need of repair and painting and I decided to continue his project inviting him to report back on costing.  I also had an idea to expand this project and met with City Hall to discuss how RCCM could work with them as I was aware that pre-schools were also a priority that year for local Governments in the Philippines.  My idea was to get overseas sponsors to adopt specific pre-schools.  While the improvements to the Kalawisan preschool did go ahead sadly I did not have a chance to expand the project.

Dental mission to Olango Island – Met four times with a Dentist and Rotarian from another club about setting up a dental mission to Olango Island.  We had a number of dentists arranged willing to donate their time and the only cost was to be material.  Sadly this project did not eventuate.

Set up Community corps – Met with an eminent community leader in Gun-ob with a view to create a community corps there.  I was provided with a list of other community leaders who would be interested in working with Rotary to implement improvements in the community.   A meeting was planned but was abandoned due to my own personal circumstances.

Setup Interact Club in Schools – In the past the club had many interact club within schools on Mactan but very few were ever active.  In the year leading up to my presidency the Interact clubs had become defunct. I decided that rather than have lots of non-functional clubs it would be better to have just a few and nurture them.  With the idea of also setting up a Community Corps in Gun-ob I decided there would be good synergy in created an interact club at the Gun-ob High school.  I had three meetings there and had a proposed list of members.  It was just a matter of formalizing the club but sadly this is another project that stopped when I departed.

Christopher Bennetts – My Resignation from Rotary

I officially resigned from the club because I could no longer function as a President while living outside of the Philippines.  There were also the most disgusting false accusations made against me by Evan Iliadis who I have never met.  He has been involved in an Anti-Philippines Rotary website for a few years and by virtue of being the President of RCCM I became the target of a campaign of vicious lies and slander by him.

I do not want to further involve RCCM into what some members consider a private matter but as stated I only became his target because I was a Rotary President and therefore I have a right to defend myself but will not do so here.  I have prepared a response to this allegations on my site Christopher Bennetts