WELCOME Rotarians announced KURTIS DAWSON this Wednesday’s meeting. PRESIDENT KURTIS rang the bell at 12p to officially get the meeting started then made the announcement on the buffet, we will have fellowship then at 12:15p we will start the presentation.
After some great fellowship with each other and a delicious Asian inspired lunch, PRESIDENT KURTIS DAWSON started the meeting. We were led in the pledge and song by DANA COLE. Today’s song was “God Bless America”.
The inspirational moment was given by JEFF RONSTADT who recited Ghandi’s “Prayer for Peace”.
Seargeant at Arms KHRIS DODGE stepped up to the mic to introduce our guests for this Wednesday luncheon. There are a lot of guests today, thank you for coming today. Welcome and it’s great to see all of you here.
In the absence of PAT ZUMBUSCH, member HUGH THOMPSON had a couple minutes at the podium to tell us about today’s meeting Sponsor, Wellspring Financial. HUGH informed the crowd of the great financial advice he and his wife, Allyn have received from PAT and Wellspring Financial. A huge thank you to PAT ZUMBUSCH and Wellspring Financial for sponsoring today’s meeting.
PRESIDENT KURTIS introduced MICHAEL GUYMON who then introduced Tina Czerwinski, Director of Manufacturing Operations at Caterpillar, who will present “Caterpillar: Tucson Proving Ground – Electrification Transition.” Tina then gave a short background on herself and gave some history on Caterpillar. She then shared Caterpillar is working on building a better more sustainable world. Here in Southern Arizona, Caterpillar has three sites she manages; The Mining Operations office located in downtown Tucson, Tinaja Training Facility located in Green Valley and the Tucson Proving Grounds, also located in Green Valley. The purpose of the Green Valley locations is to break stuff. These locations test the equipment for various stresses, the heat of the desert, how long they can run, how much energy they take to run and what parts wear out first. All this validation and research allows Caterpillar to manufacture reliable and solid and tested equipment. If the mine is not running or moving material, the mine is not making any money. These testing and validation sites are imperative to the operations of Caterpillar. The site in Green Valley encompasses 6,000+ acres to test and validate the current equipment as well as compare older equipment to ensure constant improvement in Caterpillar equipment. The locations in Green Valley are completely off the grid and self-sustained. Around 400 acres of the Green Valley site is developed with solar power. Caterpillar has a great relationship with Freeport McMoRan that is adjacent to the Tucson Proving Grounds. Caterpillar takes equipment over to their mine on occasion to replicate the exact work that the equipment needs to perform. As you can imagine there is a lot of proprietary technology that Caterpillar covets. At the location there are over 200 pieces of equipment they can test. Caterpillar chose Green Valley for other reasons too; the caliche is as hard as concrete and a great way to test the durability of the equipment. They also have autonomous vehicles that are sometimes driven via remote control from a site that is miles away or even in other countries. We finished with a few questions for Tina from the club. PRESIDENT KURTIS DAWSON announced the book “Little Henry’s Big Dream – Exploring the World of Construction” will be added to our Make Way for Books Library, Tina Czerwinski will sign the book before it is added to the library as we continue to support children’s literacy in Tucson.
Our Rotary Club has one birthday this week. We celebrate a Happy birthday to: SEAN HOFFMAN (8/11). A very happy birthday to you!
Next there was a new member introduction by MICHAEL GUYMON. MICHAEL introduced ANA GREIF to the club. Welcome ANA!
A Blue Badge presentation was next. CLIFF BOWMAN presented MICHELLE WARD with her blue. Congratulations MICHELLE!
The Raffle and King of Clubs game presented by KHRIS DODGE. King of Clubs card was not drawn. Better luck to all club members next meeting.
Next up…Rotary Announcements:
PRESIDENT KURTIS DAWSON began today’s announcements by reminding the members the announcements are on each table to view and listed on the website as well as in the Tucsotarian.
PRESIDENT KURTIS thanked the members that have arranged 2nd Wednesday “Events Around Town” lunches. Space is limited, sign up and sign up soon on the Website. KURTIS then shared a slide on the big screen of Red Badger Selfies he’s received since challenging all of us to take selfies with Red Badgers. Lots of fun selfies were shared. KURTIS then reminded us all that Wilbur is available to travel with any of us. If any of us have a trip planned, take Wilbur along then send in pictures of his adventures that will all be shared with the Club. A slide was shown of Wilbur’s travels so far.
DEBBIE SHEPPARD took the mic to give a Happy Jackson about the Wine Fellowship. There will be a wine tasting event on August 29th at George Wine Shop from5:30p-7p.
JIM MURPHY then announced another Happy Jackson along with Nicola Hartmann, Executive Director at Sister Jose Woman’s Shelter, a Car Show beneficiary. There will be two opportunities to donate to this non-profit. The first donation drive will be held on August 21st and the second on October 2nd. There will be two service projects too, September 21 and October 5th. See the website events calendar for full details.
PRESIDENT KURTIS DAWSON closed by thanking all our members and guests for being here today. The scholarship cups are on the table if you’d like to donate. Happy birthday SEAN HOFFMAN, welcome to the club ANA GREIF, and congratulations MICHELLE WARD on your Blue Badge. A huge thank you to PAT ZUMBUSCH and Wellspring Financial for sponsoring today’s meeting.
Next week there is no meeting, remember to sign up via the website for the 2nd Wednesday lunch “Events Around Town” gatherings for excellent fellowship hosted by our members. Our next meeting will be back in the normal meeting rooms when we will hear from Chief of Police Chad Kasmar, this meeting will be sponsored by member MIKE LEVIN and Port of Tucson.
JEFF RONSTADT gave the final toast before PRESIDENT KURTIS rang the bell to adjourn the meeting.
