JANIE LEASK: Good morning. Apparently there's some of our members and guests that are at the Captain Cook this morning and will be coming over in a bit. Welcome to Commonwealth North. My name is Janie Leask and I'm manager of Community Relations for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. And welcome you out on this chilly morning.

Good new/bad news. The bad news is it's 5 below at least it was at my house in Muldoon. And the good news is we're gaining almost five minutes a day, yes, which is great.

Okay. Cell phones. If you do have your cell phones with you we'd appreciate it if you would turn them off or put them on silent.

Today's program is Dr. Ken Osterkamp from Alaska 20/20 is here and he's going to give us a progress report on their updated 2005/2006 document which you have before you. We're going to do things a little bit more differently than what we have done before at Commonwealth North Forums and we are going to not pass out cards, you know, write down questions. We're going to open up the floor for questions after Ken's presentation. So if you do have a question just raise your hand and Ken will be happy to field it.

So I would like to tell you a little bit about Ken before he starts his presentation this morning. Ken is the chief executive officer of Alaska 20/20 and he's been that since March of 2003. In 2004 he managed the transition of Alaska 20/20 from a program of the Alaska Humanities Forum to a stand alone non-profit agency. Ken was raised in Fairbanks where he completed his undergraduate education at UAF in 1990. And in 1996 he earned a Ph.D. in political science from the Claremont Graduate University in California.

Before joining Alaska 20/20 Ken worked in Washington, D.C., as a consultant for Bios Group providing strategic planning services for Fortune 500 and government clients, so would you, please, help me welcome Ken Osterkamp. (Applause)

DR. KEN OSTERKAMP: I may have to sit down while I talk because I need to use a microphone. I'm just getting over a bit of a cold.

MS. LEASK: This one is a very powerful microphone.