Anchorage Women’s Commission moves January meeting to Jan. 8, plans outreach and NACW presentation

The Anchorage Women’s Commission voted to move its regularly scheduled January meeting from the first Thursday to the second Thursday — Jan. 8 at 4:30 p.m. — and discussed recruitment and outreach plans during a virtual meeting called to order at 4:42 p.m.

Chair (speaker 2) moved the schedule change, saying, “I will make a motion that we move January's regularly scheduled first Thursday of the month meeting until the second Thursday being January eighth at 04:30PM.” The commission approved the motion, with the Chair recording four votes in favor and one abstention (Leslie, speaker 7).

The vote follows a discussion about turnover and the need to recruit a ninth commissioner after the group lost two members and recently gained one. Ariana (speaker 1), who leads the infrastructure committee, said the commission should do more outreach to solicit applications and suggested using local channels such as the muni.works social account to post a simple graphic advertising the open seat. “Maybe if we were to make up, like, a little graphic that says, like, 'women's commission seeks ninth member,' would maybe the mayor's office… put it out on their socials,” Ariana said.

Katie (speaker 5), who identified herself as a public health division manager, encouraged training and support for newer commissioners and recommended arranging a city-hall presentation on Robert’s Rules of Order to help onboard members: “We can reach out to there's a person at city hall that can give you all a presentation on Robert's rules of order.” The commission agreed to pursue that training.

The commission also reviewed an outreach request from the National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW). The Chair said NACW reached out and identified a contact named Nancy (surname uncertain from the email) who is a board member; commissioners agreed it would be useful to invite her to present at the January meeting and to try to place the presentation earlier in the agenda to accommodate time-zone differences.

Separately, commissioners discussed a League of Women Voters civic fair scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the short application deadline. Ariana offered to send the application link to staff so the group can confirm who will submit the form and which commissioners can staff a table if approved. Leslie (speaker 7) began working through the form during the call.

The meeting also handled routine business: the commission amended the agenda to add discussion of the next meeting date and approved the minutes from October with a typographical correction. The Chair adjourned the meeting and reminded members the next meeting would be Jan. 8; some commissioners planned follow-up committee work before then.

Next steps identified on the call included staff outreach to the mayor’s office about appointments, creating a recruitment graphic for social channels, scheduling NACW’s introductory presentation for January (earlier in the agenda if needed), and completing the civic-fair application pending approval.