Alaska CHARR - The Magazine September/October | Page 4

WELCOME
Letter from
the Chairman
SAYING ‘THANK YOU’
BY PAUL THOMAS | CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
The message for this edition’s Letter from the
Chairman is “Thank You.” It is always challenging
to meet my article deadline and select a topic
that will be relevant to you when the issue is released,
but at the rate things are changing for our industry
over these past six months, it is almost impossible. But my
message of gratitude for our stellar CHARR staff is relevant
now and always. Our CEO/President Sarah Oates and
each member of her amazing team have been doing an incredible
job during this COVID crisis. Putting in long hours,
attending and organizing all forms of meetings, and asking
important questions of our state and local government
officials, they have stayed current or more appropriately
ahead of the blistering changes in rules, current data, and
need for industry publications. Distributing that information
to the whole industry, and local and state government
on many occasions, at an incredible pace and through multiple
outlets has been amazing to behold.
Most of us never directly witness the hard work and long
hours that goes into what we get from CHARR. Sometimes,
if you are on one of the more active committees that
meet regularly you get an idea of some of the effort put in
by staff behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly.
But most often our view comes from Industry Email updates,
the Bi-weekly Industry ZOOM meetings, and seeing
or hearing Sarah in the news. And we sometimes miss recognizing
the immense effort that goes into providing us the
extensive list of information and tools we are given, which
in the period between March and July 2020 included:
• 34 Industry Email Updates, often with multiple
topics
• 15 Industry ZOOM Meetings, with Subject
Matter Experts and up to the minute updates
on current info and trends
ALASKA CHARR MAGAZINE | 2