Alaska Village Electric Cooperative > Messages from the CEO > February 2016 Back Page — Nominating Committee Selects Board Candidates.

February 2016 Back Page — Nominating Committee Selects Board Candidates.

Posted: March 9, 2016

With the bylaw changes passed by the membership last year, nomination of candidates for board seats is now the responsibility of a seven-member nominating committee appointed by the AVEC Board of Directors. The committee was appointed in October 2015, and met numerous times via teleconference to complete its assignment.

Members of the nominating committee must be village delegates. Serving this year are:

• Ben Atoruk, Kiana
• Peter Atchak, Bethel
• Walter Bachman Jr., Minto
• Clarence Dull, Toksook Bay
• Herbert Lockuk Jr., Togiak
• Albert Ningeulook, Shishmaref
• Darrel Vent Sr., Huslia

The nominating committee, under the chairmanship of Albert Ningeulook, submitted the following candidates for your consideration:

Gene Peltola, Bethel. With 30 years’ experience managing nonprofit organizations and 12 years of for-profit experience, Peltola is well known in the statewide business community as well as in the legislative arena, Peltola is executive director of the Orutsararmuit Native Council of Bethel.

Fred Sagoonick, Shaktoolik. Sagoonick is the general manager of Shaktoolik Native Corp. and serves on the board of directors of AVEC (since 2007) and Bering Straits Native Corp. He has also served on the  Shaktoolik City Council and as mayor for two terms.

Walter Sampson, Noorvik. Sampson recently retired as vice president of Land and Regional Affairs at NANA, after 42 years of service. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and has served in numerous volunteer positions, including president of the Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly, chairman of Kobuk Valley Resource Commission and commander of the Kotzebue Civil Air Patrol. He has served on AVEC’s Board of Directors since 1989.

You will receive ballots in the mail in late February so you can cast your selections to fill the two positions being vacated by Sagoonick and Sampson. We will send you more complete information about the candidates with that ballot. We hope you will all vote in this first, momentous member election of directors.