The meeting was held via teleconference.

Advisory Board members present:

Barbara Moore, Dept. of Commerce
Doug Mutter, Dept. of Interior
Capt. Buzz Rome, Dept. of Transportation
Claudia Slater, Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game
Carol Fries, Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources (although Carol had telephone difficulties, she was able to participate in parts of the meeting)
Larry Dietrick, Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Grant Vidrine, Oil and gas industry representative
Kevin Meyers, Oil and gas industry representative
Virginia Adams, Fishing industry representative
R.J. Kopchak, Fishing industry representative
John Goering, non-voting representative, Institute of Marine Science, Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks

Advisory Board members absent:

Glenn Ujioka, Native representative
Gail Evanoff, Native representative
Mead Treadwell, non-voting representative, Prince William Sound Science Center

Staff present:

Nancy Bird

Advisory Board Chair Barbara Moore called the meeting to order about 12:10 p.m. and asked if all members had received the meeting packet with biographical information on the nominees.

Nominating Committee Report

Kopchak stated that the Nominating Committee (Kopchak, Evanoff, and Thomas) met Sept. 5 and unanimously recommend appointment of Governor Steve Cowper to one of the two at-large representative seats. He said the committee would prefer to delay appointment of the second representative until a later date because they are pursuing possible additional candidates who might offer stronger educational expertise.

Election of two at-large representatives

Motion Motion by Kopchak, seconded by Adams to appoint Governor Steve Cowper to the OSRI Advisory Board and to delay appointment of the second at-large seat until a later date. Mutter requested that the motion be split into two questions.

Friendly amendment: With the consent of his second, Kopchak agreed to a friendly amendment to split the motion into two issues:
(1) appointment of Governor Steve Cowper; and,
(2) delay of second appointment to a later date.

Discussion: There was brief discussion regarding the purposes of the Northern Forum, the organization Steve Cowper is serving as Executive Director.

Vote on first part of the motion A roll call vote was taken. The motion to appoint Governor Steve Cowper passed uannimously.

Motion Motion by Mutter, seconded by Kopchak to appoint Marilyn Leland to serve as an at-large representative. Mutter cited Leland's links to the Regional Citizens Advisory Council and the opportunities for RCAC and the OSRI to do joint funding of projects.

In discussion, Kopchak stated that the Nominating Committee had found Leland to be a very strong candidate. He said all committee members were supportive of Leland and explained that their recommendation to delay the second appointment was based on the idea that the Board's composition might be strengthened by having a professional educator. Kopchak personally spoke in favor of the motion. Rome described Leland's work with the Coast Guard and said she is an extremely hard worker, does good background research and comes well-prepared to meetings. Dietrick commented on the need to have representation from the (oil spill) response community and asked if solicitations for candidates had been sent to those organizations. Mutter suggested that additional opportunities exist for involving others, such as the response community, in the OSRI through committee appointments (to the Scientific and Technical Committee). Slater expressed interest in seeing educational expertise also added through committee appointments.

Vote on the motionRoll call vote was taken. The motion to appoint Marilyn Leland as an at-large representative was approved unanimously.

Action Item:Staff agreed to draft letters of appointment to be reviewed and signed by the Chair.

Next meeting date

Board members were reminded that the fall meeting date is scheduled for Wednesday-Thursday, October 29-30, 1997, in Cordova.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn by Mutter, seconded by Kopchak. Motion passed.

These minutes were reviewed and approved at a meeting of the OSRI Advisory
Board on October 29, 1997.

                                                            
Capt. Buzz Rome, Secretary









Prepared by N. Bird

Posted November 1, 1997

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