Alaska Inter-Tribal Council

AITC has been extremely busy since the start of 2008. We have new staff members, began the Citizens Energy/CITGO Heating Oil Program, continued our efforts in tribal capacity building through the NEIEN, Air Quality, and IGAP Grants and have continued to partner with Dr. Aaron Wernham through the Robert Woods Foundation Grant.

New Personnel
I would like to welcome new staff members to AITC:

• Brad Garness joined us in January as the IT Director and NUNAT.NET web developer;
• Nikos Pastos is our Environmental Coordinator; and
• Thomas Purcell has taken our Finance Director position.

Please join me in welcoming our staff!

Of course, Delice Calcote has been doing an excellent job as our Office Manager for several months now.

IGAP Grant
In the first couple of months of 2008 we have re-evaluated our IGAP Grant focus with the help of our Grant Coordinator. Specifically, we have partnered with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify possible training and capacity building in specific areas. Nikos has attended several meetings in furtherance of our IGAP objectives.

In the coming weeks, we hope to choose villages with whom we will do a Needs Assessment evaluation in order to assess the effectiveness of prior work efforts. If you have any questions or know of a village that could benefit, please contact us, our information is available in the About AITC section.

NEIEN
Brad Garness has done an excellent job in preparing the NUNAT.NET website for the Alaska Forum on the Environment, which was held in Anchorage on February 11 through the 15. Brad has continued to work with Zender Environmental Group to develop the content important to villages, tribes and people living in remote Alaska.

Specifically, the Fish Database, Climate Change Database and the community forums were completed. Forward progress continues as expected. Look forward to more great changes on NUNAT.NET.

Citizens Energy/CITGO Heating Oil Program
Finally, the Citizens Energy/CITGO Heating Oil Program is continuing. Although there were a couple of minor issues with which we had to contend, the program is in full swing with 100 gallons of heating oil being delivered in qualifying villages.

AITC and many of the participating non-profit organizations with whom we have partnered travelled to Rapid City, South Dakota as guests of the Lakota Nation to honor and thank Citizens Energy and CITGO for their timely and heart-felt charitable contribution to our people at a time when they need it most.

Quyana!

Steve Osborne
Interim Executive Director, AITC