I will briefly discuss some highlights of my life experiences: humble beginnings, rising to executive status with a Fortune 500 Company, painful divorce, being fired at 55 on a corporate takeover, having cancer, four detached retinas, abdominal surgeries, starting a biodiesel company, eventually taking it public where it is listed on NASDAQ and in the process launching a new industry which is many billion dollars in size today. Throughout the discussion I will comment on mistakes made, lessons learned, and takeaways that I have been told have been beneficial to a number of readers of my book and audience members who have heard me speak.
Biography - Nile D. Ramsbottom
I was raised on a farm in Iowa. I enjoyed sports, music and breaking, training and showing horses. I graduated from Simpson College with degrees in Economics and Business Administration. I worked for Purina Mills rising to a top corporate officer and then was fired, after 33 years due to a corporate takeover. I started over by leading the technology and construction of the first ever commercial biodiesel refinery in the US. The entire industry followed which is now multiple billions of dollars in sales. We took our company public in 2012 where it is listed on NASDAQ.
My wife and I started a 501-C-3 non-profit in 2006 which helps Veterans find employment when they return from active duty. We started locally in Missouri. The organization has now grown to the point where we help Veterans from all over the US, including Arizona. We are privately funded. No government support or corporate support. All our contributions come from individuals. We have helped 100’s of deserving Veterans and their families achieve success and a better life for themselves.
Our hump day Rodeo meeting began with PRESIDENT ELLIE with her cowgirl lid upon her head. Yes, cowgirls and cowboys, it was our annual wear your western wear lunch meeting. It’s Rodeo week in the Old Pueblo! Thank goodness we still carry on this Tucson tradition.
JERRY HARRIS, our resident cowboy dresser and writer, gave us the Inspiration about the cowboy and the rodeo life. He also thanked JIM RONSTADT for his 25 years of service with the Tucson Rodeo Committee – yeah JIM and thank you! PRESIDENT ELLIE gave the Pledge and the song was a John Wayne America the Beautiful patriotic video. We all loved it. By the way, thanks go out to STU GOLDMAN for his pre-meeting piano serenade.
CAM MOORE introduced our many winter visitor guests and in-town visiting Rotarians and guests. Happy birthdays are now hitting the 80 year mark on a regular basis – can we just slow things down for a while? DON CLARK, retired CPA, 1984 member is now 80. JIM RUBOYIANES, still stock brokering at UBS and an active Boy Scout Troop 239 person, is now a young 75. KEN LIGHT, retired from the JCC, hit the big 70! And, KIMBERLY ELY, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, is “young” years old compared to the aforementioned.
BOB WEBB introduced our newest Family Member, CHAR SIGALA, who is a Realtor for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. CHAR stated that she's already worked in the classics car show and hosted Home Hospitality. She's looking forward to continuing to serve as a family member in the club. Welcome CHAR!
SAA FONDA INSLEY, fined MARK IRVIN for his jet plane ride at Davis Monthan AFB. His big accomplishment was two empty barf bags! Wow, IRV, you are amazing.
The raffle included 1-800-FLOWERS (IRENE DECKER); Sullivan’s Eatery (JERRY SULLIVAN); Archive Advantage (DOT KRET); and a Tucson Rodeo DVD and book donated by JAN GREEN. We had two Rotary clubs announce their fundraisers, Donna Hansen from Dove Mountain Rotary Club and Dan Contorno from the Marana Rotary Club. ROGER HARWELL needs bodies for beer sales at the 4th Avenue Street Fair March 24, 25 and 26th. You can drink all the beer that you want! DAVE GALLAHER introduced our co-sponsored Exchange Student, Valentina Scotece from Milan, Italy. She loves it here, but can’t wait to get some fine home cooked “Italian” vittles. JACK PARRIS talked about Herb Taylor, creator of the 4 Way Test and we all recited the 4 lines together.
Finally, our program was introduced by IRV, who mentioned that his Rio Nuevo partner, Fletcher McCusker couldn’t make the presentation. Thank you IRV and Fletcher. Christophe Dupont represented Caterpillar, a fine USA based company. Christophe gave us some company facts. They operate in 180 countries and their above ground design operations (surface mining, shovels, trucks, dirt movers) are located in Germany, Wisconsin, Australia and Illinois. And, they intend to merge these four locations into one in Tucson. Tucson will be the design engineering hub. Interestingly, the engineers sometimes never see their end result. In fact, Tucson has a “proving ground” south of town in Sahuarita. This 90 year old company will also partner with the U of A College of Mines and Engineering – yeah a collaboration. Currently there are 80 employees in town. A projection of 400-600 employees will be here around 2019. The new building will be located at the base of “A” Mountain, west of the Freeway. Thank you again to IRV, Fletcher and the “new” Rio Nuevo board for making this great business deal for our community. This proves again that boys just love playing with dirt, however this time it is BIG time! Our toast was given by PRESIDENT ELLIE and it was for “Cats”!
Prodip Dutta was born in India. He had his post-secondary education at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur near Calcutta (renamed Kolkata) where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Geophysics. He continued his education at the same Institution to earn a Master’s in Applied Geology. Subsequently, he joined the Geological Survey of India exploring for coal, needed for the burgeoning industrialization of India. He got married to Gouri. They have a daughter, Neha.
After 16 years with the Geological Survey of India his restless soul was looking for a new pasture. With his wife, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana and started a new life as a student again at Indiana University. Prodip earned a Ph. D. in Geology specializing in finding petroleum and groundwater. He joined Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana as a faculty. The job suited him well as it allowed him to do research along with teaching. His research interest took him to five continents, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. He skipped Antarctica (too cold) and Africa (too hot; he had no idea what Tucson was like). He also traveled extensively throughout the world where he presented his research papers and chaired scientific sessions.
Academic life was not satisfying enough. Coming from a poor country there was a greater call to help the poor in India. Along with a friend and his wife, Gouri and Prodip started a microfinance project to help the rural women and their families to achieve their economic independence and free them from perpetual poverty. So far, the program has helped more than three thousand families. Every year, more than a thousand women get a loan to start a business to escape poverty.
After teaching for 28 years Prodip retired. At the same time Gouri, a computer scientist working with the State of Indiana also retired. For health reasons, they moved to Tucson in August of 2016. They have been attracted by the big blue sky, dust-free air, glorious sun set, and nearby mountains. Tucson might be their last stop. Take a moment and say hello to Prodip Dutta!
We still need all of the Sunday March 26th slots filled. This is a fun way to raise money for our scholarship fund. If you are mentoring any new Rotarians, suggest this as a service project. I know some of you may be selling car show tickets at the same event and are already booked so thank you for that. Come join Jim Murphy, Roger and myself and support Suds for Scholars or Beer for Brains and help us reach our funding goal this year.
Rotary Club of Tucson served as the International Partner for the Rotary Family Health Days in Nigeria this past year, September 29 to October 1. We just received a warm thank you from Olugbemiga Olowu (Olu) for the role we played in this very successful project. The Rotary Foundation has accepted the Progress Report with a final report due the end of this month. More than 140,000 Nigerians were served at 158 sites and 213 Rotary Clubs participated. This three-day annual program provided holistic, comprehensive and preventative health screenings for both infectious and non-communicable diseases such as counseling, testing and referrals for HIV/AIDS, TB, diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, malaria, cancers, polio immunization and more. Program management strategies included: national and district steering committees, club and community mobilization, media plans, training of volunteers and good stewardship processes. Olu was thanked in return for this opportunity to truly demonstrate the current theme of Rotarians Serving Humanity.
I attended PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) on 24 and 25 February at the Mesa/Phoenix Hilton. The guest speakers included John Matthews (Zone 25/26 Director, 2017-2019), Jeffrey Cadorette ( Zone 24-32 Director, 2018-2020), Shirley Grace (Past District 5230 Governor), and Ian Riseley (Rotary International President 2017-18). Ian Riseley's theme for this upcoming year is "Making a Difference," and he is very much a proponent of sustainable resource management. We had several breakout sessions with key takeaways including a review of potential bylaws "gotchas," a rundown of youth programs including RYLA, Interact, and Rotaract, and ways to update the club's website. Of note, during the district breakout sessions, Governor Elect Joe Hentges discussed a return of District $60 sponsorships for RYLA, a $1 increase in district dues, and merging the 5500 and 5495 PETS in 2018 with the Zone 25/26 program which is held in LA.
It was a very fun evening once again and members and guests got together to enjoy an evening of friendship and fellowship. Over twenty members and guests were there. Danny at Trident II really goes out of his way to welcome our club members and almost everybody knows our name. The next Social Mixer will be the 30th of the month at Trident II.
In early 2016, Rotary, and the Board discovered that there is a lack of clarity around RI’s policy governing Rotary clubs, districts, and other Rotary Entities when participating in activities involving guns, weapons, and other armaments, and when interacting with gun companies, including for sponsorship purposes. To address this lack of clarity, the board and RI staff gave an extensive review of our current policy, the various factors to consider and the implications. At the January 2017 board meeting the board adopted the attached revisions to the Code of Policies. The notable changes included:
Prohibiting Rotary clubs, districts and other Rotary Entities from transferring ownership of weapons.
Prohibiting clubs, districts and Rotary Entities from conducting or sponsoring gun shows.
Prohibiting clubs, districts and Rotary Entities from accepting sponsorships from gun/weapon companies or stores, and preventing use of Rotary’s logo with the name or logo of a gun/weapon company or store.
Prohibiting clubs, districts and Rotary Entities from using any visual that includes weapons.
Prohibiting licensing by RI of guns or weapons.
Although the policy changes prohibit the transference of ownership of guns, weapons or other armaments, and prohibits sponsorship by or co-branding with guns and weapons manufacturers and entities, clubs are still permitted to conduct sporting events that may include guns. (e.g., turkey shoots, skeet shoots, etc.)
NESDAYS, 12:00 PM-1:20 PM
I will briefly discuss some highlights of my life experiences: humble beginnings, rising to executive status with a Fortune 500 Company, painful divorce, being fired at 55 on a corporate takeover, having cancer, four detached retinas, abdominal surgeries, starting a biodiesel company, eventually taking it public where it is listed on NASDAQ and in the process launching a new industry which is many billion dollars in size today. Throughout the discussion I will comment on mistakes made, lessons learned, and takeaways that I have been told have been beneficial to a number of readers of my book and audience members who have heard me speak.
BOB WEBB introduced our newest Family Member, CHAR SIGALA, who is a Realtor for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. CHAR stated that she's already worked in the classics car show and hosted Home Hospitality. She's looking forward to continuing to serve as a family member in the club. Welcome CHAR!
ROGER HARWELL needs bodies for beer sales at the 4th Avenue Street Fair March 24, 25 and 26th. You can drink all the beer that you want! DAVE GALLAHER introduced our co-sponsored Exchange Student, Valentina Scotece from Milan, Italy. She loves it here, but can’t wait to get some fine home cooked “Italian” vittles. JACK PARRIS talked about Herb Taylor, creator of the 4 Way Test and we all recited the 4 lines together.
Prodip Dutta was born in India. He had his post-secondary education at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur near Calcutta (renamed Kolkata) where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Geophysics. He continued his education at the same Institution to earn a Master’s in Applied Geology. Subsequently, he joined the Geological Survey of India exploring for coal, needed for the burgeoning industrialization of India. He got married to Gouri. They have a daughter, Neha.
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Rotary Club of Tucson served as the International Partner for the Rotary Family Health Days in Nigeria this past year, September 29 to October 1. We just received a warm thank you from Olugbemiga Olowu (Olu) for the role we played in this very successful project. The Rotary Foundation has accepted the Progress Report with a final report due the end of this month. More than 140,000 Nigerians were served at 158 sites and 213 Rotary Clubs participated. This three-day annual program provided holistic, comprehensive and preventative health screenings for both infectious and non-communicable diseases such as counseling, testing and referrals for HIV/AIDS, TB, diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, malaria, cancers, polio immunization and more. Program management strategies included: national and district steering committees, club and community mobilization, media plans, training of volunteers and good stewardship processes. Olu was thanked in return for this opportunity to truly demonstrate the current theme of Rotarians Serving Humanity..jpg?_=636247581078845793)
It was a very fun evening once again and members and guests got together to enjoy an evening of friendship and fellowship. Over twenty members and guests were there. Danny at Trident II really goes out of his way to welcome our club members and almost everybody knows our name. The next Social Mixer will be the 30th of the month at Trident II.
