MEETING RECAP: August 05, 2022

 President Jay opened the meeting promptly at noon. Jason Baer greeted us as we arrived, and PP Angie Rush led us in the Pledge.  Rick Goodfellow offered the Thought-for-the-day from the prolific author Anonymous.  “Life is what you make it.”  Becky Erickson acknowledged visiting Rotarians, which included regular guest Paul Paisley from Anchorage East.  At Becky’s suggestion we re-activated our tradition of greetingmake-ups with a hearty “Hi Paul.”  

In another nice return to normalcy we had a nearly full room which was acknowledged with a $10 happy buck by Rick Goodfellow.  Just shy of 40 in attendance plus a unknown number on Zoom.  It was a pleasure to see a much reduced (weight wise) Tim Trueblood in person or as his brother Ted put on the correct side of a zoom lens.  Penny May announced a special edition of the Ghost  Tour for August 17 with a bargain price of $15 for members and friends.  There are limited spaces on the tour so advise Penny your intentions. Penny also, as an afterthought, introduced her son Patrick.  Jonathan Tarrant gave credit to Leverette Hoover for making available a special tour during the JBER open house.  

In more happy buck activity Mark Cosby had $5 for a for a get acquainted coffee visit with newer member Denise Runge.  Denise offered $5 in gratitude to Mark for reaching out.  Joe Zimmerman introduced his guest Terry Nelson, Associate Dean of the School of Business and Public Policy at UAA.  Last week’s speaker Linda Dunegan introduced 4 guests, including her pastor. She suggested paying attention to children you meet as someday one could become your spiritual advisor!  Our speaker and Hillside Rotary PP Teri Lindseth introduced a guest, her bother Ryan.   Jason Baer offered $5 as thanks for Linda’s inspirational talk last week.  Someone proffered $20 for the pleasure of seeing the always popular Bill Sharrow in attendance.  Jenette Wakefield had $20 for having survived her granddaughter’s wedding.  Jennette and Greg’s wedding gift to the newlywed’s was arranging and paying for their honeymoon.  The only hitch was the young couple were in the dark as to the destination until their departure.  PP Tryg paid $2. $1 for no Rotary pin and $1 for pride in being in the same club as Joe Zimmerman who penned a well-reasoned commentary which appeared in last Sunday’s Anchorage Daily News.  Art Clark gave $5 for being 70 years old and President Jay Tung gave the same amount for failing to display a Rotary pin.

Ms. Teri Lindseth, TSAIA Deputy Director responsible for airport development is this week's speaker!  Introduced by Steve Strait he mentioned that in addition to her airport duties she is an accomplished artist and a ten-year member and past president of Hillside Rotary. 
 
TSAIA is operated by the State through the International Airport fund, which consists of Anchorage and Fairbanks airports.  The airport is the second largest cargo airport in the US based on tonnage and the fourth busiest in the world.   We follow Chicago but lead Memphis and Louisville. It posted a 13% increase in tonnage from 2020 to 2021.  They calculate that the airport generates 1.84 billion dollars in economic impact.  Among their items of pride is that the facility has never been officially closed because of snow.  TSAIA is 9.5 hours of flying time to 90% of the industrial world.  As a response to COVID they can monitor indoor air quality throughout the facility in real time.  The air exchange system provides a near outdoor quality air purity and exchange. It processed 5.5 million passengers last year which ranks it 57th. The cargo largest operators are Atlas with 19% of the tonnage followed by Federal Express with 12%.  The airport is currently in negotiation for three large land leases to expand cargo handling facilities. 
 
Ric Schmidt asked if the Ukrainian war would possibly bring trans-continental passenger traffic back.  Teri answered probably not.  Rick Goodfellow asked if there was any progress at getting new passenger service to Europe and Asia.  Eurowings, Condor and Icelandic are or will be serving Anchorage.  There are no other carriers showing interest but TSAIA keeps trying to lure them.  Tryg asked how many passenger gates there are in the south terminal.  There are 18 total with 9 of those belonging to Alaska Airlines.

Interesting fact, at least to this editor, is that the project engineer/construction manager for original construction of the airport  in 1951 and the airports first general manager was Virgil Knight.  Mr. Knight was the Anchorage Rotary (downtown) sponsor in the formation of our club.  Spenard Rotary  we changed our name in 1983) was the second Rotary club in Anchorage.