Thank you to the nearly 300 shareholders and their family members who turned out for the 2017 Annual Meeting of CIRI Shareholders!
The event was held Saturday, June 3 at Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka Learning and Wellness Center in Anchorage. The 2018 Annual Meeting will be in Kenai. To best accommodate its geographically diverse shareholder population, CIRI rotates its Annual Meeting between Anchorage, Kenai and the Pacific Northwest — the regions with the highest concentrations of CIRI shareholders. While some shareholders have expressed their preference for holding all Annual Meetings in one location, a 2014 CIRI Shareholder Survey showed that 71 percent of respondents wanted CIRI to keep rotating the location of its Annual Meeting.
This year’s event featured a report from CIRI President and CEO Sophie Minich and the election of five shareholders to serve on CIRI’s 15-person Board of Directors. Door prizes and a delicious catered breakfast and lunch were also on offer.
The CIRI family of nonprofit organizations provides a suite of important services to CIRI shareholders and other Alaska Native people in the Cook Inlet region. After lunch, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the services of four of these Anchorage-based nonprofits: The CIRI Foundation, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Cook Inlet Housing Authority and Southcentral Foundation.
Again this year, CIRI offered to donate $1 to the Brother Francis Shelter for every shareholder with a valid, active proxy (for any proxyholder or candidate) on file by the proxy deadline. Brother Francis Shelter provides temporary, emergency shelter to Anchorage’s homeless population, serving 3,668 homeless men and women and providing 96,498 nights of stay in 2016. CIRI’s planned donation to Brother Francis is estimated to be $7,500.
CIRI shareholders will once again have an opportunity to gather in the fall, when CIRI and The CIRI Foundation host their annual Friendship Potlatches. Details will be made available on ciri.com and in future editions of the Raven’s Circle newsletter.
