1992

Westside Newcomer Club founded by Pam Graven, Clare Beske, Debby Strang, and Sandra Dinsmore Frank.  Pam Graven was our first president.

1993

As the Las Vegas valley’s population continued its rapid growth, the Westside Newcomers Club membership grew too.  The club’s environment was always social and welcoming.  As with most social gatherings, the sharing of food was central to most of our activities.  These gatherings gave our members an opportunity to showcase their “delicious” culinary skills.  Eventually, the idea to compile our members’ recipes in a book form gained great interest amongst our membership.  One of our “good southern cooks” volunteered to chair the cookbook committee.  After several months of collecting member recipe submissions, sorting, and editing, The Westside Newcomers Cookbook/Sharing From Our Kitchens was in print. 

President Debby Strang

1997

Members who had left the club for more than three years were able to rejoin this year.  Some charter members rejoined, and our membership grew by over 200 women.  A group for singles was added and is still going strong. 

President Barbara Schwartz

1999

The club spanned the 20th and the 21st centuries!  We added email addresses and fax numbers to the President’s column and we invited members to attend Board Meetings.  A website was established through a local affiliate, and WNC was listed in the Newcomers Clubs Worldwide Directory.  We created a new logo, and initiated a member survey for current and future planning.  Also, our financial records were computerized for the first time.  We started an evening New Members Coffee and a younger Newcomers Committee.  Our Bylaws were revised and a liability insurance program was procured to protect the club.  WNC logo clothing was made available and the first WNC dinner dance attracted over 200 people.  And of course, we had a Millennium celebration luncheon in January. 

President Jo Ann Malkin

2001

The 2001 WNC year was very notable. This was the year when WNC became incorporated and also chartered in Nevada to protect all officers from any and all litigation. During the year, several programs were “firsts” for the club such as WNC attending the dress rehearsal of Nevada Ballet’s “Giselle” at UNVL Judy Bayley Theatre. The day after 9-11 was our luncheon, which was very well attended. Our speaker that day was Mayor Goodman. Going ahead and having this luncheon at the horrific time helped us all unite together and reinforce our patriotism. In December, WNC held its last dinner dance and was enjoyed by all who attended. The WNC December luncheon was the largest attended luncheon in the history of the club being held at the brand new Palms Resort and Casino. Elvis paid us a nice singing visit, which was the highlight of the program. At the January installation luncheon, not only did the new officers get installed at the new Red Rock Country Club, it was also the celebration of the WNC’s ten year anniversary. Not only did several charter members attend, there were also in attendance nine past presidents. At that time, WNC received several awards for its past service to new Las Vegas residents over the years. Dema Guinn, First Lady of Nevada, and Lia Roberts, Honorary Council to Romania presented special awards to WNC. All in all, 2001 was a very busy year but one that was very noteworthy. 

President Barbara Bartholomay

2002

This was the first and only time that our membership roster included over 1000 members.  We celebrated the 10th anniversary of our club, and entered the computer age by buying WNC a computer and software that could handle our expanding database.  Dema Guinn, wife of then Governor Kenny Guinn, came to a luncheon and became an honorary member of WNC. 

President Roberta Greenberg

2004

The Desert Newcomers of Henderson were invited to attend our luncheon with guest speaker Mayor Oscar Goodman. This was the first time another newcomer club joined us for a monthly luncheon. We linked our monthly Newsletter to the website, thus reducing our printing and mailing costs, and we developed a program for record retention for all necessary reports for WNC.  Board Games was added as a new activity, and our first spiral bound Directory was printed which proved to be very user friendly.  For the first time, Chairs and Co-chairs were encouraged to provide pictures, write-ups or samples of their activities to display at the new member coffees. This "Activity Fair" was very successful and is still currently used. 

President Paula Johnson

We began the year by purchasing a laptop computer to be used by the Treasurer and a digital camera for our Historian.  The newsletter, which was linked to the website the previous year, was sent out via email to those who requested it.  This reduced the cost of mailing hardcopies to part of our membership.  Procedures were put in place to streamline the reinstatement process of lapsed members. 

President Gaylynne Schaefer

2006

It was a smooth year. We combined the Board Meeting and the New Member Coffee on the first Wednesday of the month.  Members were appreciative of gaining an extra free Wednesday each month.  Things went well, everyone did their jobs as expected, and the membership grew each month.  

President Patricia Cullen

2007

We really joined the computer age by creating a WNC website which was not only beneficial to current members, but also made it much easier for new people to find us.  We had our first “email” board meeting with all board members able to participate.  For the first time, a column call Norma (a take on Norm!) appeared in the Newsletter.  WNC was listed in two Las Vegas Relocation Guides which realtors give to people new to Las Vegas.  We encouraged members to receive their newsletter via email, and we refocused our mission to welcome newcomers, get them involved, and make them feel comfortable when they come to our activities. 

President Audrey Zeibert

I came into the year  without an agenda, but soon realized that I had a number of things to accomplish – the most important of which was to make this the best newcomers club in Las Vegas. I immediately went to work to change three bylaws: giving associates the right to vote, eliminating restrictions on associates and changing the minimum number of years that a person could join WNC from five to ten years or by board approval. To make the new members feel welcome, I sent them welcome letters and encouraged them to get involved. A number of our new members became involved by establishing new events, including: Conversation in Spanish, Chef International, and Chinese Mahjong and reinstating an old event canasta. We tried some new things at the luncheons, with our theme luncheons including the Easter parade, and birthday celebrations. New venues for the luncheons were also tried, including doing family style dining, and a buffet luncheon, as well as never before tried restaurants which everyone seemed to enjoy.

President Judi Hanson