4 vie for 2 open seats on MTA board

PALMER – The Matanuska Telephone Association’s Annual Membership Meeting is at 7 p.m., June 10, at the Alaska State Fairgrounds, where the election of two board directors is the major item of importance.

Two seats — held by Larry Wiget and Al Strawn currently — are open on MTA’s board. Wiget is seeking re-election, but Strawn is ineligible due to term-limits. Three other candidates also have applied: Joseph Davis, Lauren Driscoll and Adelane Kelly.

The cooperative’s more than 30,000 members vote to pick directors. The candidate with the most votes receives a three-year term, and the person with the second highest vote total receives a two-year term.

Davis previously lived in rural Alaska for 20 years, and now calls Glacier View home. He is the owner and president of Watermark Consulting, a company that specializes in information technology and its application in business. His former work experience includes information technology and entrepreneurial roles in Alaskan libraries and schools. Davis is the president of the Glacier View community council, and additionally volunteers by teaching classes on information technology and business, and through work with Rotary.

He said he believes that MTA must stay flexible in the coming years, maintaining an excellent standard of service, while adjusting to the demands and competition of the future.

Driscoll moved to the state nine years ago, currently residing in Palmer. She is publicly known for her different roles as a planner in the Mat-Su Borough, working up to her present position as chief of planning.

Driscoll claims that planning involves realizing how important communications are to growing communities. She would see MTA focus on staying cost competitive and innovative if elected to the board.

Kelly is a 15-year Wasilla resident, and worked as the divisional finance director for the Salvation Army for seven years, before assuming her current position as controller for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Her expertise is primarily in finance, audits and compliance, and her work has included experience with various hospitals and health care organizations.

She identifies quality customer service and interaction with the community as MTA’s strengths. The company will depend on those traits as it works to provide the most modern technology available, Kelly wrote.

Wiget has lived in Alaska for the past 31 years, and has resided in Eagle River over the last five years. He runs an independent communications consulting firm called Baywind Strategic Communications, and previously worked in the Anchorage School District as an information technology supervisor. Wiget left the school district after ultimately serving as the director of government relations and legislative liaison, and as the executive director of public affairs.

Wiget’s main foci recently have been his positions on the boards of directors at MTA and for the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce. If reelected, Wiget said his two previous terms on the board will be key to MTA as technology undergoes a transitional phase. He lauded the current members on the board, and said he looks forward to the possibility of working with them again.

“The thing you learn from years of working and volunteering is that it’s not about you,” he said. “It’s about taking responsibility, and your service to others.”

There are no proposed bylaw amendments for this year, but in addition to voting, the meeting will feature a dinner, prizes and an appearance by four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser and his puppies.

For more information, visit mtasolutions.com.

Contact Kaden Weaver at 352-2270 or kaden.weaver@frontiersman.com.