Saturday night, Jan. 9 2009, brought a large group together at Sterling's restaurant for the Tri-Cities R/C Modelers annual banquet. Food was good, and the company was even better as the helm was officially turned over to new club President Bill Bowen.

Outgoing President Doug Larson was lauded for his successes and hard work over the last 3 years of administration. President Bill Bowen stated "no TCRCM President that I can recall put in as much personal effort for the good of the organization as Doug Larson." Everyone certainly agreed, remembering all the times we would be out there flying, and Doug would show up without an aircraft just to work on some improvement project or repairs.

During his tenure, Doug Larson successfully dealt with and managed several significant issues, including:

• A new lease with the city with new demands from them. The new lease negotiated by Doug gives us more control of our space, expands the area to include parking lots and overfly areas.
• Outsourcing by the City of the offroad tracks and overall site management. Through Doug's efforts, we have an excellent relationship with the new leasee, thus we work together with them well on common issues. As a result, many aspects, from water flow to offroad user control is far improved compared to our previous situation.
• Through Doug's efforts, we have a new relationship with the Parks and Recreation Board. Doug has brokered multi-thousand dollar grants for site improvements. These include funds for a new handicap access restroom, fencing and concrete pad under the shelter.

Larry Mitchell had door and raffle prizes handled. I believe HobbyTown USA in Kennewick donated them. Please give me a correction if I am wrong about that.

2009 winner Kevin Glen announced the 2010 winner of the Clyde Crashcup award: Craig Christensen! Kevin said Craig had it hands down for all the off-field landings and sheared landing gear events on his OTOP.

Pictures to date are from Doug Larson. Please feel free to upload more pictures to this node. Click Album View below to see all the pictures taken.