July 28 Meeting Notes

President Earl Crowe opened the meeting at 7 am with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Milt Herman lead the Club Members with the Invocation.

Announcements:

Kathleen McNalty announced that on Saturday, August 1st, 7-11 am. our Goathead Warrior volunteers will meet to cut and pull the goathead weeds in South Wenatchee (exact location is TBD, and you will receive an email if you put your name on the volunteer list. Volunteers should wear sturdy shoes or boots, and  bring heavy duty gloves (The goatheads are sharp!). Shovels are provided. Be prepared to be outdoors for a few hours with sun protection and water bottles. It might be beneficial to have your hands free, so a small day pack or fanny pack comes in handy to carry a water bottle. To volunteer, contact Kathleen McNalty. More information on the exact location will be provided prior to Aug. 1st. Wear your Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary Club "Rotarian At Work" T-shirt! (If you need one, let Earl know.)

Kathleen also said she attended the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market at Pybus Public Market this last Saturday to get a sense of what we'd be doing as volunteers there. She helped hand out face masks on Saturday, but said there might be more to do later on (post CoVid). She and Taro Masuda are asking other Rotary Clubs to join ours as volunteers assisting with carry-outs, clean up, etc. It would get the Rotary name and logo in front of the public. Our dates for Rotary to "take over the market" are Saturday, Aug. 22nd, Saturday, Sept. 19th, and Saturday, Oct. 17th. Wear your Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary Club "Rotarian At Work" T-shirt! (If you need one, let Earl know.)

Jim Adamson asked for club volunteers to be mentors for our 9 selected Challenge Scholars for this year. We have had mentors previously vetted and trained and would like those will mentoring experience to step forward again to help out. Those who have not been trained will get trained by Jim A.  President Earl said he has been talking with the Washington State Patrol to get free background checks for our mentees to work with our scholarship recipients.

Brags and Confessions:

President Earl Crowe said his daughter Lucy got a letter from the Wenatchee School District saying there would be no in-person classes this Fall; only on-line classes. His daughter Emma is attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg, is living on campus in a dormitory, and is attending on-line classes there. Kaity VanWeerdhuizen, Earl's daughter, recently bought an Ellensburg toy store's inventory and is now selling it online.

Carol and Jim Adamson had been in Oregon to attend their oldest grandson's graduation party. He has been accepted at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Wayne Massing sold his 1995 Ford Explorer (called the "Exploder") that had 219,000 miles on it. He's owned it for over 20 years! A Vietnam Veteran is the newer owner!

Rotary Moment:

Wayne Massing, Club Sargent-at-Arms, presented the Rotary Moment on "Rotary Action Groups". The RAGs are independent, Rotary-affiliated groups made up of people from around the world who are experts in a particular field, such as economic development, peace, addiction prevention, the environment, or water.

Action groups offer their technical expertise and support to help clubs plan and implement projects to increase our impact, one of Rotary's strategic priorities.

Some examples of the Rotary strategic priorities and related RAGs are: Promoting peace, Domestic Violence Prevention RAG; Fighting disease, Addiction Prevention RAG, Alzheimer's/Dementia RAG, Diabetes RAG; Providing clean water and sanitation, Water and Sanitation RAG.

Probably one of the most notable Rotary Action Groups is the one to eradicate Polio.

Program:

Sam Mack introduced Nicole Begin, a local realtor, to give a prospective of the real estate market and sales of the Wenatchee Valley during the CoVid-19 pandemic.

Nicole Begin has been a realtor with the local John L. Scott Real Estate office for 3 years. Her background in interior design and construction.

Wenatchee Valley real estate inventory is down slightly; possibly because of the CoVid crisis. New construction is up over 51% from this time in 2019. Recent property sales have resulted in bidding wars.

Sales of the most sought-after Wenatchee properties are in the $360k median price. Properties in the $550k-$850k range have increased 180%. Most of those buyers are from the Seattle area, and are older retirees! Most homes sales have been in the 1800 square foot size with a 2 car garage. The trend is for builders to build homes in the 1300-1800 square foot range, as opposed to the "McMansion" built 10 years ago.

The rental market in Wenatchee has been as low as 1%, but is now up to 4%. With low interest rates for home sales, many renters have become buyers.

The current CoVid phase requirements only allows 2 persons to be in a home for a showing. That can be the realtor and one buyer, or two buyers. In the future, relaxed regulations may allow 3 people at once into a home showing.

President Earl presented Nicole with a children's book, donated in her name to the North Central Regional Library for the presentation she gave to our club.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:45 am.