newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race is seeking a new executive director for Alaska as Tania Simpson has chosen to leave the post she held for two years.

“I’m heading out the East Coast to join my other half, who lives in Connecticut,” Simpson said recently from her office in the new log cabin headquarters in downtown Fairbanks.

Simpson, 36, of Vancouver, British Columbia, was a volunteer consultant for the 2007 Yukon Quest before succeeding Julie Estey as executive director in 2008 and 2009.

“I certainly feel that I’ve accomplished several of the organization’s goals in the past couple of years, and it’s absolutely been a rewarding experience,” said Simpson, who began discussing her departure with the Alaska board of directors in April and will stay on until July 31.

Simpson said she doubled the Quest’s sponsorship dollars in her first six months on the job and helped increase awareness for the 1,000-mile race that travels between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon.

One disappointment in her tenure was that the Quest fell short of a planned $200,000 purse in 2009, Simpson said.

Simpson also was in charge when the Quest failed to apply on time last fall for the city’s Bed Tax grant funding, which in recent years has brought about $20,000 to the race. The Bed Tax Committee would not grant an exception but the Fairbanks City Council ultimately dedicated $10,000 to the Quest.

Simpson is unsure what work she will pursue in Hartford, Conn., mentioning staying in fundraising for a nonprofit company, entering the corporate world or getting certified to teach French as possibilities.

The Quest hopes to have a new executive director hired by July 1, Alaska board of directors president Andy Anger said.

“That would allow ... a full month of transition before that individual would take over,” Simpson said.

When Anger was asked whether he was concerned that the executive director position was again turning over, he responded “It is always a concern because the executive director is of course a key personnel. ... It takes a person a year before they’re fully into a new job.”

The Quest posted the vacancy on its Web site last week and said the application review will begin June 1.

“The Yukon Quest International, Ltd. (Alaska) is seeking an individual responsible for overall management in the Fairbanks office. Duties include revenue generation, office oversight, financial management, community relations, etc.,” the job announcement stated.

A similar situation unfolded recently in Whitehorse, when after seven years as the executive director in the Quest’s Canadian office, Stephen Reynolds stepped down this spring. He was replaced by Wendy Morrison, the Whitehorse office manager, on April 1.

Board of Directors changes

The Alaska Board of Directors has a different look, as a new board was seated at its meeting May 13.

Anger was re-elected for another two-year term, and will be the president again in 2009-10. Also back for at least another year are Estey (now the vice president), Heike Fiedler-Phelps (treasurer), Alex Olesen (secretary) and Gwen Holdmann.

New board members include June Ryan, who used to be president, Doug Grilliot (the 2008 and 2009 race marshal) and Becky Alexander.

Also, Kelley Griffin replaced 2005-08 champion Lance Mackey for a one-year term as the musher’s representative as voted by the Quest’s Finishers Club.

Departing the board were Travis Stagg, Wendy Ehnert and Donna Olesen, who served four terms and was board president in 2004 and 2007.

“I have so many things going on in my life that I just really didn’t think I could give the time to it,” Donna Olesen said.

Olesen is elated that the Quest has moved into the former Fairbanks Convention & Visitors Bureau log cabin on First Avenue.

“The move into the cabin, I’ve been shepherding that since 2000,” Olesen said. “People just say, ‘Oh, it’s perfect, it’s a natural’ which is what I thought from the beginning.”