The Alaska Miner - Winter 2024

www.AlaskaMiners.org 41 AMA Award Winners Presented by Jerad Anderson AMA’s Volunteer of the Year honors an individual who embodies the true strength of a membership-based organization. This award recognizes someone who has gone above and beyond to provide significant efforts to strengthen AMA and is a classic example of why members are the lifeblood of AMA. This individual has been a tireless advocate over the years through her work as a volunteer on the conference committee and involvement in assisting with the administrative and logistical tasks needed to keep our organization on the right course. We all know too well that working in the mining and exploration industry in Alaska requires a large degree of personal sacrifice and time. Despite this she has always been able to volunteer her personal time, which is always at a premium, to assist with the smooth operations of our organization. She has worked to bring new members into the conference committee, so a fresh perspective can be brought to AMA. As her nominator said, “Without her encouragement I would likely have never found myself being involved with the conference committee.” She is a perfect example of everything an AMA volunteer embodies. She has completely undertaken the banquet on herself, from décor, securing a band and arranging details between the music and A/V needs with the band and our A/V provider. She decorates the entire event Thursday afternoon versus attending the technical sessions, and solicits sponsorships for flowers, centerpieces, etc. She arranged the photo booth, cocktail reception, and worked with the Marriott and ARE on layouts. Somehow she still had the time and completely took on our new App this year. She researched and found the right one, then negotiated a contract, eliminated a two-year commitment, negotiated the price down, and built the graphics. She then populated every single Convention event, speaker bio, and dozens of other fields and content within the App. Then, she created the communications schedule that kept you informed in the app and on social media throughout the week. I am so proud to announce our 2023 Volunteer of the Year is Traci Hartz. Traci Hartz, Volunteer of the Year Award

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