July 1, 1979 - June 30 1980

President: Richard Harris
Vice Pres: Bill DeGrasse
Secretary: Gary Mertes
Exec. Secretary: Carol Norton
Apple Seed: Bob Rowe
District Governor: Tom Watt, Penticton, B.C.

Attendance: 86.97%
New Members: 15
Members Lost: 13
Members end of the year: 174

Prior to assuming office, President Dick Harris and Rotary Ann Bonnie attended the 70th Annual Rotary International Convention in Rome, Italy, June 10-13, 1979. A highlight of that trip was a visit to the home of Klaus Paulen, former exchange student to Wenatchee, '73-'74, from Menden, West Germany.

The first meeting of the year saw "Kuch" Kuchenreuther complete his 40th year of perfect attendance in Rotary. A check in the amount of $1,050 was presented to Rotary International Vice President, Ed Cadman, for the Health, Hunger and Humanity Program. The Club eventually achieved the banner award by contributing over $1,500.

We were honored at our second meeting of the year by the visit of R. I. President, Jim Bomar, from Shelbyville, Tennessee. Also in attendance were District Governor Tom Watt, and Past District Governors Dick Pritchard, Woody Miller, Bill Luce, Lev Craven, Ed Cadman, Jack Larsen and Bert Christianson. We were all inspired by President Jim's message for this Rotary's 75th year.

The Club Student Exchange Program was very active under Marlind Nelson's chairmanship. Virat Poonotok from Thailand, Maris Barreiro from Argentina, and Joao Milki Neto from Brazil were hosted in Wenatchee Homes. Steve McCulloch was selected to go to Finland and Lisa Rosenau to West Germany for next year. Joni Holland was spending her year in Argentina and Sue Robinson in Brazil. Jennifer Schons returned from Denmark and Greg Schumaker from Japan.

Inflation finally caught up with us and dues were increased by $10 to $85 annually, effective January, 1980.

We were saddened by the passing of Past President Jim Schrengohst, and Past President and last Charter Member, Harvey Mills, and long time Rotarian George Staples during the year.

Louis Bovee completed 50 year in rotary including 49 with perfect attendance. Louis was featured in the Wenatchee World for his outstanding work as a volunteer in helping to rebuild a village in the Dominican Republic at the age of 82!

The Interclub Committee, under the Chairmanship of Reed Johnston, sponsored a visit to the Grand Coulee club on May 6, followed by a tour of the Dam.

Past President Ray Shutt, was nominated by the District Nominating Committee as District Governor Nominee '82-'83.

December saw our new Board elected for '80-'81. They included President Bill deGrasse, Vice President Skip Mussen and directors Jim Corcoran, Larry Frack, Bob McCoy and Gene Vanderhoff.

110 members participated in helping Steve Beidler's successful auction of mobile home furniture and the two-day event netted $1,015 for the club budget.

Outstanding programs, under Program Chairman Bill Dalton, included: Paul Larsen's 23 day trip to China; Jim Wade's slide show of a safari in Kenya; a Christmas program featuring the entire Winton School of 17 students and 6 grades under Rebecca Corey; we joined with the Wenatchee North Club for a program and visit with R. I. President Elect, Rolf Klarich from Finland; and we enjoyed the program of Alf Spears, Past District Governor from District 106 in England.

Archie Van Doren was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship by his Wife, Irene, maintaining our goal of at least one such award during the year.

A commitment to provide the reader-board sign for the new Wenatchee Center was made. An area-wide auction will be the first event in the new Center to be scheduled on completion of construction in late November or early December, 1980.

Our club used all twenty rooms we had reserved for the District Conference in Penticton April 17-20.

An historic fireside was held in which members recommended that Club operations be separated from charitable activities, the latter best served through the Wenatchee Rotary Foundation. Also recommended was the appointment of a committee to develop a proposal on handling requests from local charitable organizations. President Dick appointed such a committee, chaired by Paul Larsen. The committee's recommendations as adopted by the club were: The Wenatchee Rotary Foundation will become the charitable arm of Wenatchee Rotary. This will (1) Ease operation and response to requests for funds; (2) Provide better financial control; (3) Provide for tax exemption of all contributions for charitable activities; (4) Avoid duplication of grants.

A highly successful Rotary year was celebrated along with the installation of Bill deGrasse as new President for the year 1980-81 on July 3. President Dick Harris was appropriately installed into the infamous Past President's Club.