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Economic Development and Advocacy for Southwest Alaska
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December 2013
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There's a lot to get to this month so we'll skip the formalities! We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and is staying safe and warm through the holiday season. Thanks for reading, keep in touch, and let us know if you have any questions.
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Get it on the Calendar: SWAMC Conference March 5-7, 2014!
The last SWAMC Conference was a great success as we celebrated the organization's 25th Anniversary. The event brought together economic development ideas and helpful information for the region, all highlighted by great people joining to discuss policy issues, new opportunities, and the challenges facing Southwest Alaska. Well save the date, because the 2014 Conference will take place in Anchorage, March 5-7.
The agenda will include an entire day focused on energy planning and development, some new enhancements in Alaska education, sustainable fishing practices and other fisheries policy discussions, a new business council, and much, much more. And of course, with 2014 being an election year, there will be some political debating at the Conference Banquet. We are hoping to craft an agenda that will appeal to community and economic development interests alike, so stay tuned for more information!
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Update on Energy Planning in Southwest Sub-regions 
As we've reported before, SWAMC has contracts with the Alaska Energy Authority to develop regional energy plans for each of the three sub-regions in Southwest Alaska: the Aleutians/Pribilofs, Bristol Bay, and Kodiak. Along with our partners and sub-contractors, we're steadily marching towards those goals. For the Aleutian region, the Draft Resource Inventory Report is complete and available for public review. At 300+ pages and over 14MB, we realize this isn't a small document. But it is organized into "chunks" and segmented by each community, so if you are interested in a particular town or village, you can easily find it. Each section comes with loads of energy statistics and profiles, identified data gaps, resource analysis, and a few recommended energy activities for a community to pursue. The Executive Summary also contains a lot of broad regional analysis that gives comparative snapshots of the energy situation across the Aleutian/Pribilof region. The next step of this process is to gather regional feedback on the report to help make this resource inventory a true "plan." The Bristol Bay Draft Resource Inventory is also complete and available for regional feedback. The link will take you to the report page, where it can be downloaded in full or by chapter and community sub-region. The Bristol Bay report also contains comprehensive energy data and information regarding community profiles, available resources, financing models, data gaps, and more. We are currently in Phase II of this project and gathering stakeholder feedback. Finally, SWAMC is also contracting with AEA to pursue the Kodiak Regional Energy Plan. We are still in the infancy stages of that report with preliminary data collection and community analysis taking place this month. We will have more to report early next year. Along with AEA and our stable of partners, SWAMC is seeking recommendations for activities and actions to help reduce the long-term cost of power and energy, and improve the current energy systems in the SW region. That is the goal with all of these plans.
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SWAMC Executive Director Departing at End of 2013 
Andy Varner, SWAMC's Executive Director for the past four years, will be departing on December 31. "After eight great years of working for this organization and our Board, I felt it was time to move on to the next challenge," he said. "I've been really fortunate to have this opportunity in my career, and I want to thank all the great folks I've worked with over the years that helped make this such a fulfilling job. Southwest Alaska is truly a remarkable place, and SWAMC is a solid organization that I am proud to be a part of. I'm very grateful the Board took a chance on me!"
Although he'll be wrapping up his time with SWAMC soon, Andy will still be heavily involved in the development of the SW region. He's starting a new job as City Administrator of Sand Point in January. "I'm really excited to join the City of Sand Point; there's a lot going for the community," he said. "I won't be straying too far from SWAMC, as I'll still be very interested in all the good work the organization is doing." As he hunched back over a spreadsheet, Andy did make one last remark: "I'll also look forward to being in the audience for the future SWAMC Conferences...although a lot of fun, they're never a picnic to plan!"
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Newly Formed Southwest Business Council to Meet in Anchorage
Can a coordinated effort help to expand private sector activity in the SWAMC Region? 
Our new Southwest Business Council initiative aims to take a closer look at this important question. SWAMC has a successful record of working effectively with the public sector, and while we have a healthy relationship with the private sector we realize a more dedicated effort is required to leverage strengths and understand weakness that define our competitiveness. In response, our proposed Business Council, comprising business leaders from various sectors in the SWAMC region, will convene next week to identify preliminary strategies for promoting private sector opportunity. We have coordinated business leaders from 13 important sectors in our region, which include: Fisheries- CDQ; Fisheries- Large Processing; Fisheries- Harvesting; Natural Resources & Mining; Telecomm/Communications; Engineering & Construction; Fuel & Energy; Tourism; Marine Support; Shipping & Logistics; Banking/Finance; Retail; and Health Care.
The general consensus from the business community is that this effort is timely and important. The expected outcome from this event will be a short report detailing the dialogue from these important decision makers that will help encourage better business practices, and uncover synergies both within the private sector and between businesses, communities, and our public sector partners. We will share our short findings and recommendations report widely in hopes of identifying challenges and opportunities affecting private growth opportunities.
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SWAMC Business Member Spotlight: THE ALEUT CORPORATION
Monthly spotlights on a member business.  The Aleut Corporation (TAC) has been a member of SWAMC for well over a decade. The Regional Native Corporation for the Aleutian/Pribilof region is headquartered in Anchorage and is heavily involved in issues such as energy and responsible resource development for its regional shareholders.
After a region-wide Energy Workshop in 2010, TAC began working in earnest to bring energy efficiency and energy development opportunities to the Aleutian region. Three main issues were highlighted at the workshop; bulk fuel, conservation and renewable energy. During the next two years, energy projects were developed in each of the communities. In 2012, with funds from the Alaska Energy Authority, SWAMC and TAC partnered with other "A Team" members to develop a regional energy plan, as described in an article above.
The Aleut Corporation has seven subsidiary companies located in Alaska and throughout the Lower 48 that handle bulk fuel sales, real estate, government contracting, mechanical engineering, telecommunications and environmental remediation. TAC has 3,800 Shareholders. One third lives in the Aleutian region, another third lives in Anchorage/Matsu and the last third lives in the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast. For more information about the Aleut Corporation see www.aleutcorp.com.
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Southwest Alaska Economic Indicator: Fishing Vessels
There are over 10,000 vessels registered in Alaska's commercial fishing fleet. As the pie chart below shows, most of these, 64% to be exact, are smaller then 32 feet, while only 3% are larger than 100 feet. The vessel breakdown by gear type supports the small boat data, as gillnet skiffs, jig boats, drift gillnets and seine vessels represent the bulk of vessels by gear type. Large trawl vessels represent 252, or about 2% of all vessels.
 | | Vessel Count by Size |
 | | Fishing Vessel by Gear Type |
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Interested in Supporting Southwest Alaska's Economy?
BECOME A SWAMC MEMBER TODAY! 
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Our Special Thanks to SWAMC Members!
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Visit Southwest Alaska @
www.southwestalaska.com
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SWAMC Board of Directors
Louise Stutes, Pres.
Alice Ruby, Vice Pres.
Layton Lockett, Treas.Dan Clarion Dan O'Hara
Glen Gardner
Joe Sullivan Michelle Ravenmoon Paul Gronholdt
Shirley Marquardt Trevor Brown
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SWAMC Staff Andy Varner
Executive Director
Erik O'Brien Economist; Development Specialist |
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| Upcoming Events & Dates to Remember | |
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As always...
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Thanks for your support of SWAMC. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts, ideas, concerns and events. For previous newsletters, click the link below.
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