July 1, 1941 - June 30 1942

President: Jess Widby
President: Paul Scea
Vice Pres: John Shaw
Secretary: W.A. Luce & Herbert Morse
Apple Seed: Dr. Morse & Clyde Merchant
District Governor: Dick Dowery, Spokane, WA

Attendance: 91.82%
New Members: 23
Members Lost: 12
Members end of the year: 102

At the beginning of the new Rotary year, Russ Conklin was our song leader and Pat Patterson played the piano. Early in November a change was made and Harry Whiteman again took over the song leading duties, and he was ably accompanied by Charles Lund at the piano. Charlie really put "snap" into the National Anthem and in other songs, too.

Our Apple Seed Editor, Dr. Herbert Morse, had some eye trouble, necessitating an operation. Clyde Merchant was drafted into service and, for several weeks, edited the Apple Seed and did a "bang up" job. Clyde changed the style completely and, for the first and only time, it was put out in booklet form.

Secretary Bill Luce, who had been our very competent secretary for many years, resigned from the club early in January as he had moved to Seattle to accept some special work there. This was a great loss to our club. Bill later moved to Yakima where he became assistant County Agent and later County Agent. Bill is considered an expert in his field. He soon became an active member of the Yakima Rotary Club. A resolution was drawn up showing our appreciation to Bill for his services, and signed by the members. In acknowledging the resolution, Bill commented: "I noticed that the attendance was down a little on Thursday--that is if everyone signed the resolution. I could almost tell what was served for lunch by the stains on the papers." Bill was married to Barbara Reynolds of Tacoma, May 3. The Club sent its congratulations to the Luces and a gift. We all had hopes for Clyde Merchant now that Bill finally got married.

Dr. Herbert Morse, founder of the Club, was elected Secretary-Treasurer and very capably handled the duties of that office. The minutes show that Bert's "salary" was raised to $35 per month; he was editor of the Apple Seed, too, for the same money. What a bargain for the Rotary Club.

The Aims and Objects Committee recommended, and the Board approved, the plan of presenting an award, a citation ribbon, from time to time to Rotarians who did outstanding service in our community. On May 28th Charles Bennett, Dick Mitchell and Gilbert Brown were given Citation Ribbons by President Paul Scea for their non-compensated activities in war work. Charlie and Dick served with the Draft Board, and Gil served as Chelan County Rationing Administrator. On May 7th a Citation Ribbon was given to Elmer Reed for his Excellent work as Apple Blossom Festival Chairman. Rotarian "Kuch" Kuchenreuther was Elmer's Assistant Chairman. On June 18th a Citation was given to Art Lavell for exceptional work as Civilian Defense Chairman.

A new and unique plan to sell Savings Stamps was proposed by Clyde merchant. The Board agreed to try it for one month. Members could by 25¢ tickets and as many $5.00 stamps were drawn as there were funds in the kitty each Thursday (no profits). The members liked the plan and it created lots of good fellowship. Often visiting Rotarians would win a $5.00 stamp and, of course, they had pleasant memories of their visit to the Wenatchee Club. Usually $20 to $25 worth of stamps were drawn each week and many members would buy additional stamps weekly. Shine Shiner faithfully bought a $5.00 stamp each week. As a result, several hundred dollars worth of stamps were sold during the first year alone (the plan was continued in the Club a few years). The Rotarian Magazine published a picture and story about this activity of the Wenatchee Club and other clubs became interested and used the plan.

On July 14 and 15, 1941, President Paul and Secretary Bill Luce attended the District Assembly at Kelowna. both reported a very worthwhile assembly and remarked that they were royally entertained by the Canadian Rotarians. At the October 16 meeting Louis Bovee was honored as having 100% attendance for 11 years, and Harry Whiteman requested that all Rotarians entertain one or two soldiers in their homes next Sunday. Our December 18 luncheon meeting was held at the Salvation Army. Major John Allen and Al Howarth were the speakers. A collection of $150 was turned over to the Salvation Army for their Christmas Cheer work. On January 15 Clem Irwin, Library Chairman, encouraged new members to place a book to do with their classification on the Rotary Book Shelf in the Public Library. On January 21 the club voted not to have the Hobby Show this year because members were so busy in defense activities. February 12 Chris Berg was given an ovation for securing a skating rink for our community with the help of other service clubs. On March 4 President Paul and Mrs. Scea and K. P. Sexton drove to Seattle to attend the big Rotary meeting in honor of R. I. President, Tom Davis, and his wife. Dave and Mrs. Fraser also attended this meeting. On March 12 the Board authorized the purchase of a $500 Defense Bond. Lud Solberg presented trophies to the Rotary Marble Tournament champions March 26. In June John Shaw resigned as incoming President since he was moving to Spokane to take the position of Assistant Superintendent of the Spokane Schools. Vice President-Elect, Art Pohlman, was made President and K. P. Sexton was unanimously chosen Vice President for the coming year.

Our Club provided the following financial support: $50 to be used to help start an ice skating rink; $200 for Scout A Vista after "Kuch" Kuchenreuther made his report; $1109 to the "Y" summer camp program; $75 to the underprivileged school children fund; $50 to the Boy Scout summer camp fund; $150 to the Salvation Army Christmas Cheer Fund.

The programs during the year were unusually good, thanks to the very capable Program Chairman, K. P. Sexton. The frequent fellowship stunts, spiked by Ray Michael and his Fellowship Committee, added a great deal to the meetings. Cliff Godfrey added to the team. The International Service Committee, led by Elmer Reed, was very active and provided several good speakers from Seattle and other cities. They would speak to us at our noon meeting and then a forum, open to the public, at the high school in the evenings. These meetings were well attended and the club got much positive community feedback for having them.

Some outstanding programs were: Harold Barto, Professor of history at the Central College of Education, spoke on "Our Stake in the Far East." Professor Ivor Spector, University of Washington spoke on "Russia's Position in the World Today" in a joint meeting with the Soroptimist Club. Professor Chen Cheng Kun, University of Washington, spoken on "The Chinese Situation" at an evening meeting with Cashmere and Chelan clubs and the Rotary Anns. At a joint Rotary & Kiwanis meeting, Reno Odlin of Tacoma spoke on "The Anatomy of Inflation." Walter Williams, President of the Seattle Rotary Club and Chairman of the Washington State Defense Council , talked on "War Problems." Stanley Long of Seattle, Past district Governor and Past vice President of Rotary International, spoke on "Rotary Yesterday and Today."

The total gain of 23 new members was remarkable, unequaled by any other year to date except the first year when we gained 31. When we reached the total of 100 members many thought we had reached the limit for a Rotary Club in Wenatchee. The matter was put to a vote of the Club and the members did not approve a membership limit. Our Club continued to grow and develop more good Rotarians to serve our community.

Attendance record for the year, 91.82%, was helped by the month of April with 98.18% which included three 100% meetings. Rotary International recognized our record of three consecutive 100% meetings for clubs of 100 members. The April record will be exceeded only two other months in the Wenatchee Club's history, November, 1944, 98.78% and April, 1945, 99.51%

Our Club honored two members who passed away during the year, Bert Shepard and Win Winstanley, by building a fund to save the "Picture Rocks" which were removed from the Columbia River banks before flooding by the building of Rock Island Dam, and place them in front of the City Museum as a lasting memorial to the two men, both supporters of the museum.