Weekly(ish) Wrap Up

Well, shoot, I have found myself a bit behind on the blog. I found that I was helping it keep me on track, so I am going to try to jump start myself again this week with keeping posted on what I have been doing.

Here is what was on the agenda from my last post:

• Volunteer manual? This will be worked on throughout the week but may not be finished, as it is up for final review and input from Lynn when she returns.
• Still... working.. on.. it.. 
• Have a final draft of my interview questions. Really! 
• Yes! I have my interview questions ready! I worked a lot at getting input from lots of different people, and I finally have some questions with which I am happy. The UAA Institute for Social and Economic Research has a lot of articles available on their website from various studies and research projects done throughout the state, and I spent a good chunk of time reading those, which helped inform my own thinking around good interview questions.
• Get an event together for Alaska Book Week.This has been dependent on me hearing back from teachers and getting their input, but if I don't nail down a way to coordinate with the schools this week, then I will go ahead and create an event that will not be run during school hours. 
• Whaaamp waaaaah. This one didn't get done, and the time is now passed. I was not able to sufficient contact with people locally who would be interested in getting involved. I will put it onto the calendar for next year, and perhaps with more planning, it can be better achieved. 
• Attend POWCAC (Prince of Wales Community Advisory Council) meeting on Tuesday. This is where people from all the communities on the island come together to discuss matters that impact the people who live on the island.
• This was actually hugely informative in a lot of ways. There is a lot of confusion right now island-wide about the possibility of the communities of Prince of Wales Island forming a borough- which is the equivalent of a county/parish/etc. Currently, POW is unincorporated, which is important in that there is not an extra governing body, no tax mandates, and the like. POWCAC has been working over the last few years on creating a draft borough charter, with the idea that if and when there is a need for borough formation, the communities will already have a document upon which they can all agree. No one, including the members of POWCAC, wants to form a borough, mainly (I think) for reasons regarding property tax. However, as it currently stands, if an outside company wants to come in and log, export resources from the mines, etc., they have the ability to do that without paying anything back to the community. This means that jobs and resources go away without any possible recourse. The borough charter is just being created so that there is the possibility to pull it out in the future, but people in the community have been under the assumption that POWCAC is trying to form a borough without community input- which isn't true, since it has been addressed on a local level through city council meetings over the last few years when it has been in the works. There is good potential here for some educational opportunities about the role of POWCAC, the political process on the island, and the information that has been compiled as they have been researching pros and cons.

I have done a whooooole bunch of other stuff since  my last post, but for the sake of getting on track, I'm going to leave that to your imagination and get back to posting regularly on Fridays.