ASAE Quad City Section Newsletter - qcesc

Although our official meeting season is over, there
are still some great opportunities to support ASAE.
The ¼ Scale Tractor Competition will be held
June 2­5 at the Quad City Downs. Please make
every effort to attend. If you would like to
participate, please contact our Section
representative, Andrew Dochterman, at (309) 765­
7120 or DochtermanAndrewC@JohnDeere.com.
Also, don’t forget the ASAE National Meeting this
summer in Tampa. It sounds like there will be a lot
of great sessions and activities.
Have a great summer and I look forward to seeing
you at some of these upcoming events! ­ Steve
Newbery, 2004­5 Quad City Section Chair
March Meeting Review The Annual Awards
Banquet and Spouse/Guest Night was held at the
Viking Club in Moline on March 29 th with over 70
members and guests present. The meeting began
with two concurrent technical sessions.
In one tech session, Fabio Dotto, a Brazilian native
currently working at John Deere Harvester Product
Development, gave an overview of Brazilian
agriculture. Part of his presentation focused on the
evolution of farming in Brazil’s tropical region
(Cerrados) that is located north of the Tropic of
Capricorn. Primary crops that are grown in this area
are soybeans, corn, and cotton. He spoke on the
high potential this area has to expand agriculturally,
but also stated that Brazil faces challenges in
transporting the high volumes of grain from outside
this area.
The second speaker, Miles Keaton, of John Deere
Seeding, gave a presentation on his experiences in
Brazil during his recent 15 month expatriate
assignment. He spoke on both work and social
experiences. His presentation touched on
similarities and differences that he observed in the
Brazilian culture compared to the US culture.
Politics, foods, and construction practices were just
some of the topics that he spoke about. Miles and
his family were able to participate in several of their
town's celebrations that included Juninho (All
Saints) and Carnival, as well as taking the
2
opportunity to visit vacation spots, such as Iguaçu
Falls in nearby Argentina. Miles offered these
suggestions for success in an international
assignment: (1) be prepared, (2) be flexible, (3)
expect the unexpected, (4) learn the local language
and customs, (5) set and strive for specific
objectives and (6) keep your documents in order!
In the other tech session, Craig Timmerman of John
Deere Davenport described the development and
features of the D Series motor graders while Jill
Hanus of the John Deere Product Engineering
Center in Waterloo described the development and
features of the 5025 series tractors.
The after­dinner speaker, Section Member Travis
(Rusty) Unterzuber, Deere & Company Engineering
Standards, discussed parallels between being
competitive in racing and succeeding in your
profession. Drawing on over 20 years of racing
experience, Rusty’s “Keys to Success”included: (1)
COMMITMENT (2) Plan ­> Organize ­> Execute ­
> Evaluate ­> Plan … (3) The difference (between
success and mediocrity) is in the details. (4) $ can be
traded for time until you run out of time! (4) Be
there early and often (5) You’re not in this alone!
(networks are important) (6) Use the rules and
existing technology to your advantage (7) Be
flexible and (8) INTEGRITY –play fair! Photos
from the March meeting are included as a separate
file at the Section web site.
Award Winners –The following Section members
were recognized at the March meeting:
25 year members: Ronald Birr
Richard Clark
Jerry Duncan
Kevin Ehrecke
Wendell Hunt
David Lienemann
Dennis Roe
Jerry Sandau
Paul Schuck
Travis (Rusty) Unterzuber
Don Yarbrough
40 year members: Roger Curry