Vol. 2, No. 15 • December 18, 2007
President's Message
Helvi Sandvik
NDC President
The winter holiday season is a time of year when we gather with family, friends, coworkers and business partners to celebrate the season, reflect on the year’s successes, and look with anticipation to the future. It is also an excellent opportunity to recognize the entire team for the work you do every day to help NANA fulfill its mission and commitments.
Generous Spirits
The generous spirit of NANA employees never ceases to amaze me! NANA employees coach basketball teams, serve breakfast at Beans Café, make care packages for soldiers serving overseas, serve on the boards of nonprofits and foundations, and make personal financial contributions to the United Way and other charitable organizations.
NANA Employees serving breakfast at Beans Café
Every year, as a company, we participate in the United Way fund campaign. This year we set a company goal to raise $175,000. Coordinated by Carolyn Smith, NANA’s employees pledged $211,000 this year, far surpassing our goal! These funds are used to support numerous charitable organizations across Alaska, including our own Aqqaluk Trust. The Aqqaluk Trust will receive $24,000 from this year’s fundraising event. Employees of Ki and Qivliq hosted golf tournaments in their respective communities that also support the Aqqaluk Trust. Together, these tournaments raised more than $35,000 to be used for scholarships for NANA shareholders.
TKCC Employees present $25,134 check to Aqqaluk Trust President Charlie Curtis.
Hats off to Teck Cominco and the Red Dog Mine operations family for their donation of $75,000 to support the Boys & Girls Clubs in the Northwest Arctic region. The donation allows every Clubhouse in the NANA region to hire the staff needed to keep Clubhouses open. In addition, these funds will be used to make much needed repairs on the Kiana Clubhouse, allowing it to re-open after an extended closure.
Red Dog Mine operations supports Boys & Girls Clubs
For the past three years, our Contract Services employees have contributed funds to purchase Christmas gifts for the children of the NANA Region. This year, $20,000 in contributions were made, to put smiles on the faces of children during the holidays.
Opening Doors for Shareholders
Welder Training program
This past year, we have continued to focus on new programs to help our shareholders prepare themselves for jobs. We are very excited about the Welder Training program that many of our shareholders are taking advantage of in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We are thankful for the hard work and commitment of Kristina Patrick, our Shareholder Development Program Manager, and Stan Fleming, our Senior Vice President of Strategic Development, and Chief Information Officer. When Stan heard about the huge demand for skilled welders, he quickly worked with Kristina to pull together a training program for our shareholders — this was a significant task!
Within a couple months, 14 men and women, ages 21 to 59, were winging to Baton Rouge for 15 weeks of intensive training that will be followed by a three-month paid internship. Through their efforts, our goal is to match the needs of a potential client who was looking for skilled welders to NANA’s mission of providing opportunities for its shareholders. We extend a special thank-you to Miles and Jane Cleveland for creating a home-away-from-home for shareholders in the welder-training program as well as those who were in last winter’s driller-training program.
In 2007, we continued to offer Internships to provide shareholders the chance to explore career paths, receive structured hands-on work experience, and gain new perspectives through traveling, working and networking with diverse groups of people. Several young shareholders participated in the internship programs at Akima, Ki and Qivliq again this year. We appreciate the hard work of those companies and their commitment to continue to provide meaningful, paid internships opportunities for shareholders.
Transportation often limits shareholders’ abilities to secure employment. Thanks to the creative employee recruiting tours by NANA Management Services (NMS), shareholders across the NANA region learned about job opportunities. NMS recruiters traveled from village to village by snowmachine to meet and interview potential employees. The innovation didn’t stop there. NMS worked with Frontier Flying Service and Alaska’s oil and gas producers to put in place direct flights between Kotzebue and the North Slope. As a result, we were able to provide 182 more shareholders from the region with jobs within NMS.
Cyber Connections
With more than 6,500 employees in 55 companies doing business around the globe, staying on the same page can be challenging, to say the least. This past year, a dedicated group of NANA employees focused on putting in place a new company-wide IT system. We appreciate the countless hours spent by the Deltek® Team converting to the new Deltek Costpoint® system. Costpoint is a software that will help us better manage our growing company. It tracks, manages and reports on every aspect of a business project, from budgets, schedules, expenses, purchasing, and cost allocation, to billing, profitability and regulatory compliance. This will allow us to control all aspects of operations, improving performance management, streamlining operations and allowing more time for new business development.
We also applaud Doll Garoutte and the Human Resources team for their implementation of Cyber Recruiter®, a web-based recruiting tool. This will give potential employees – and shareholders – a clear picture of career and job opportunities within the NANA family of businesses in Alaska and around the globe.
Learning From One Another
In 2007, we continued to expand our Village Business Partnerships. When NANA’s family of companies has an opportunity to partner with the communities in our region, it is a win-win for all concerned. The business becomes even more connected with NANA and its people, while the community benefits from the company’s knowledge and expertise. This may include brainstorming community business opportunities for shareholders to overcoming the barriers and challenges of an archaic computer system.
We are thankful for the efforts of TKC Tech, TKC Communications, Ki, and Akima for developing relationships with Kiana, Buckland, Selawik, and Noorvik. We look forward to continuing to link our villages to business opportunities, and to share the knowledge of our skilled employees with residents of the NANA region.
It has been a busy and productive year! We wish you a very happy holiday season and a very happy New Year. We look forward to 2008 and another wonderful year for all of NANA!