Message to Shareholders
Dear Shareholders,
October is here and we are quickly moving into winter. I hope you had an enjoyable and fruitful summer. I want to start my message to you with a couple of important reminders.
First, on November 16, 2018, at 8:30 a.m., Doyon will hold a special meeting at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel for our shareholders to vote to create the Doyon Settlement Trust. On September 25, Doyon mailed to eligible voting shareholders a packet of information including a proxy statement, proxy card and frequently asked questions about the meeting and the purpose of creating a settlement trust. I am asking you to vote YES to create the Doyon Settlement Trust. Voting yes means you will not, in most cases, be taxed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for distributions made from the Doyon Settlement Trust. Currently, Doyon dividends are taxable by the IRS. In addition, Doyon will be able to take a tax deduction for its contributions to the settlement trust. Over time, these deductions could result in millions of dollars of savings for the corporation. More information about the special meeting and the proposed Doyon Settlement Trust can be found in a subsequent article in this newsletter or at www.doyon.com/specialmeeting. Again, please vote YES to create the Doyon Settlement Trust.
Secondly, I want to highlight our Shareholder of the Year Awards. We recently renamed the Citizen of the Year Award to the Poldine Carlo Citizen of the Year Award to honor the memory of the late Poldine Carlo. Poldine did so much for the community, the corporation and Alaska Native people as a whole, and we felt it was fitting to remember her in this way. You can read more about Poldine and the awards in the article on page 7 of this newsletter.
I also wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you to nominate a deserving shareholder for a Shareholder of the Year Award. At the time of printing of this newsletter, we have not received a single award nomination. I know that there are many incredible shareholders doing remarkable things, and these awards are a way to acknowledge those people and inspire our younger generation. Please read about the awards and consider who you could nominate. We look forward to recognizing these shareholders at our annual meeting in March.
Finally, I want to close with some great news for Doyon. On September 6, we enrolled our 20,000th shareholder. James Cantu, born May 2018, is now a Doyon shareholder. In 1972, Doyon enrolled 9,061 shareholders and today, we’ve more than doubled that number. Welcome to Doyon, James!
Thank you for your continued support of Doyon.
Sincerely,
Aaron M. Schutt
President & CEO