The fiftieth anniversary of Rotary's long term youth exchange programme has been held in great style at two centres within D 9790 - Wangaratta and Myrtleford - over a weekend in October. Both Clubs paid key roles in the establishment of the programme in 1958/59. The events celebrating the milestone were held in conjunction with the annual Australian Rotary Youth Exchange Conference.

The celebrations of the weekend were somewhat saddened by the recent death of the last of the programme's founding fathers, Peter Barnett, whose death was reported in the October edition of Pete's Pen.

The theme of the Conference was "Celebrate the past……plan for the future" and took the lead from words District Governor Peter has said to all Clubs in the District during his Official Visit: "Your Club has a history to be proud of. But your future is not in your history. Honour the past but look to the future". District Governor Peter opened the Conference on the afternoon of 10 October in Wangaratta, the official Conference venue.

The keynote speaker for the Conference was Mary Wooldridge, MLA, and State Member for Doncaster who herself was a past Rotary exchange student to Canada in 1984 and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Melbourne. She painted a snapshot of youth in the 21st Century - 'Generation Y' - and what makes them different from other generations of young people.

The remainder of the formal part of the Conference saw a series of short presentations on aspects of the youth exchange programme in order to inspire attendees and open up other possibilities to be explored by Districts and Clubs in embracing the programme, often stated by many to be the 'jewel in the crown' of Rotary International's many programmes. There were also a number of workshops in which participants were asked to offer their collective views on the way ahead.

The two evening functions on successive nights in Myrtleford and Wangaratta concentrated on the past of youth exchange and the Conference was pleased to welcome back the very first youth exchange student who was hosted by the Rotary Club of Myrtleford, John Rogers from the United States. Also present on both nights was Marjorie Price, selected by the Rotary Club of Myrtleford, as their student to 'exchange' with John and a number of other students sponsored from Clubs in District 9790, and others, including Norm Jordan, who was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Cobram in 1959.

At the Wangaratta Dinner, these three oldest exchange students cut the 50th anniversary of youth exchange birthday cake. Also at the dinner, recognition was paid to the families of Peter Barnett and Clive Schliebs (Wangaratta) for their pioneering role in the establishment of the youth exchange programme and in promting international goodwill and understanding. The awards were accepted by Audrey Barnett, Peter's widow, and Gary Schliebs, son of Clive.

The Dinner also saw the awarding of the first Honorary Memberships of the Australian Rotary Youth Exchange Conference to the four founders of the organisation, nearly 25 years ago. Three of the four were present to accept the memberships whilst the fourth, Brian Relf, was unable to attend due to illness.

The Conference was attended by delegates from all Australian Districts as well as Brazil, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Scotland, Taiwan, Thailand and the USA.

At the Annual General Meeting of the Conference on the final day, David Anderson (Rotary Club of Yea) was re-elected to a second two-year term as Chairman of the Australian Rotary Youth Exchange Chairs' Conference and will now oversee the implantation of as many as possible of the recommendations which came from the working part of the Conference as the delegates planned for the future.

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