Executive Director’s Report
Dear Alaska Miners, If it’s April, we must be in Juneau. Or Washington D.C. Or Fairbanks. Or all of them! As many of you have expe- rienced, it’s been an incredible whirlwind of activity and great events for us this spring. We have spent many days in Juneau on your behalf, high- lighted by our second Juneau Mining Forum, again cospon- sored with our partner Alaska Metal Mines. This fabulous event gives us a chance to bring Alaska mining to the forefront with our elected representatives in the Legislature. And for many of you to meet one-on-one with your own elected officials, as well as the agencies that have so much impact on our work. In Juneau, we also had an epic and memorable History Night, honoring some of the amazing pioneers of Alaska mining in Southeast Alaska. We are representing you this month in Washington, D.C. at a new event, Alaska Resources Day in DC, partnering with nine of our other resource develop- ment associations to take our story on the road (some might say it’s going into the belly of the beast!) so those in a position to help clear paths and open doors for future Alaska mining know the truth. Then there was Fairbanks — how could that seem like it happened so long ago? You’ll see evidence through- out this magazine of the epic spring convention we had in the Golden Heart City. You know we haven’t been able to meet in Fairbanks for a spring convention since 2018. What you might have lost track of is how much we added to this year’s agenda: n Mine tours at Kinross Fort Knox and to the Permafrost Tunnel; n a new Young Profession- als event; and Shark Tank! n Curling; n History Night celebrating three amazing Alaska mining pioneers;
n a full week of programs
this year as our communications director and has led our charge into social media, giving you more ways to follow and connect with us wherever you like. She’s also brilliant at the innovative programs we’ve created to con- nect with young professionals, like our after-hours events, and the new "Shark Tank" contest at our Fairbanks Convention. Darlene Strickland has been with AMA for more than a de- cade and has always been our voice of reason and steady hand on the business of our associa- tion. She is relentless in keeping our information current on each single member and she’s almost certainly the first voice you hear on any call to AMA. Jennifer, Carin and I often joke that when Darlene goes on vacation, the walls start to sag, and we don’t know where anything is! They are all so good at tak- ing care of you and our associ- ation (and me, which cannot be a pleasant job). I am thankful every day for them. And I’m thankful for each of you, mak- ing us the strong association and family we are.
and speakers;
n our largest Fairbanks
trade show ever; and
n a sold-out award ban- quet to honor four amazing AMA members. All of these wonderful events are only possible thanks to our tremendous generous and loyal financial sponsors and trade show vendors. They carry the freight to make everything else we do possible. Hand in hand with that financial support comes the priceless and selfless work of our many volunteers on the Fairbanks convention commit- tee, helping us plan, organize and deliver the goods for you at this year’s event. If we’ve made one mistake, it might be that we’ve set the bar so high, we’ll have to work even harder to beat this next time! I also need to take a mo- ment to thank, and tell you how proud I am of, our amazing AMA staff. Jennifer Luiten has been with AMA (can you believe it?) for six years as our membership and fundraising director. She’s an expert cat herder and lion tamer, and the master at organizing the millions of details at the events and programs that keep AMA strong. She is also a joy to work with, as all of you know. Carin Currier joined us just
Deantha Skibinski AMA Executive Director
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