MINUTES -- Seventh Meeting
Friday, April 21, 2000
Commonwealth North U.R. US Study Group
Economic Survival and Development Subcommittee
Vicki Otte and Jon Kumin, co-chairs
4th Floor, CIRI Building, 7 am

Purpose:These minutes are intended to reflect highlights of the meeting. They are
not a comprehensive record. The intent is to inform people who were unable to attend
as to the essential elements of the meeting. Should any participant have corrections or
clarifications, please forward them to Jon Kumin (Vicki Otte was not able to make this
meeting). The agenda is in standard print -- minutes have been added in italics.

Goals for this meeting:

Continue debating the various issues raised to date,
focusing on the draft position papers prepared by various
committee members.

Guests:

None (at this time it appears the consensus of the group
continues to focus on debating the issues)

Introductions/sign-in:Present for this meeting were:
Jon KuminTim WeipkingDuane Heyman
Hart HodgesJewel JonesPat Burden
Milton ByrdNancy KingBetty Emerick
Grant Hunter

Discussion Points:
We have agreed on a workplan that uses draft position papers on significant issues as a
basis for discussion. Those available will be debated (such as Grant Hunter's paper on
sovereignty and Bob Poe's on lack of capital). Other tasks for this meeting include:
•developing a final comprehensive list of issues
•assigning each issue to a person for preparation of a draft position paper.

Four papers were discussed, on sovereignty (by Grant Hunter), lack of capital (Bob Poe),
education and leadership (Jay Page), and Scale; Education (Milton Byrd). In general it
appeared the papers reflected developing consensus, although individual concerns were
raised and debated with each one. Examples include:
•We need to followup and verify par. 3 of the sovereignty draft about DOT not
building certain airport projects due to sovereignty concerns.
•The traditional, cooperative "we" culture in rural Alaska may not function as well
in the capitalist model as the highly individual "me" culture of entrepreneurial
America.
•Lack of viable business plans may be more of a problem than lack of capital.
•Capital may be more available for big projects than the typical "mom and pop".
•We need to coordinate overlaps -- example would be between the Service
Delivery group and ours on educational issues.