MTA 50th anniversary meeting a success

PALMER -- More than 1,000 people rallied together Wednesday night at the annual Matanuska Telephone Association meeting in Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer. The hall was filled to the brim with people taking part in the pre-meeting activities available for hours before the meeting: Children panned for gold, adults checked out the new digital television service and both young and old enjoyed the free cake, ice cream bars, sandwiches and kettle corn. The wheel-of-fortune-like game drew the largest lines. Participants spun for the chance to win a number of different prizes, from Frisbees to modems.

"I won a thermos," yelled one young boy after trying his hand at the wheel. The celebration seemed to mimic a miniature version of the fair, except the games and food were free.

Once the meeting started, the mood calmed some, but most were still in an upbeat mood. In between new and old business, the Anchorage Scottish Pipe Band performed its magical music for the crowd.

"I love it, it's just so beautiful," said Fern Larimer, an 85-year-old woman who says she and her husband stayed up past their usual bed time to attend the meeting. "I've never heard anything better in my entire life."

Eventually, the meeting took a professional turn, and the issues important to the MTA Board of Directors were brought forward.

"Competition is real; we're not the sleepy little town we once were," said the board's chief governance officer, Al Strawn. "We have to be ready for the competition."

Some of the older MTA members were disappointed when the board announced that, after reviewing last year's request to award additional capital credits, the board has voted to continue awarding the same amount of credits to all members.

"We spent several meetings researching this change and came to the conclusion that we do not believe it is in the best interest of the members to have additional capital credits paid out to any certain group," said Strawn. He also informed members that doing so would have imposed legal and tax ramifications on the association.

A motion to have the board review the opt-out procedure was passed during the meeting. Members asked the board to look into changing the opt-out procedure to an opt-in procedure, which would require a member to actively request service enhancement instead of requesting not to have it, which is what happens now.

The meeting ended with the much-anticipated documentary "Connecting Our Community," a 30-minute look at the last 50 years of MTA. The film, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Russell Weston, portrayed a number of interviews by past employees and board members and described the history of MTA, beginning with party lines and above-ground wiring, to today's MTA and the plan to deliver DTV to members this fall.