The Council appointed new membership to the Social Science Planning Team, in response to a Council call to add expertise in Local and Traditional Knowledge and those who work directly with rural and Alaska Native coastal villages and/or tribal organizations. The Council selected Dr. Courtney Carothers to serve as a member of the Team, and reserved a seat for ADF&G, who will be nominated and subjected to approval by the Council. In addition, the Council requested that at a future meeting, staff bring back suggestions on a process for the Council to select a Social Science Planning Team member to broadly represent the Tribal organizations. Staff contact is Sarah Marrinan.
The Council appointed members to the Community Engagement Committee, which was authorized by the Council at the June 2018 meeting. A call for nominations was open from June through September. From the nominations, the Council chose seven committee members representing fishing communities from all over Alaska. The committee members are: Simon Kinneen and Theresa Peterson (co-Chairs), Jennifer Hooper, Robert Keith, Nicole Kimball, Merissa Merculieff, Tom Panamaroff, Rob Sanderson, and Becca Robins Gisclair. The committee will develop tools and processes to facilitate improved communication and understanding between rural communities and tribes and the Council. Staff contact is Steve MacLean.
In addition, John Jenson was appointed to Chair the Cook Inlet Salmon Committee, and Kenny Down was appointed to the Council’s Joint Protocol Committee with the Board of Fish.