SB 22 BOARD OF GAME QUALIFICATIONS  VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN announced SB 22 to be up for consideration. SENATOR SHARP , sponsor, said it amends the required qualifications for persons who may be appointed to the Board of Game by adding the requirements that the applicant must have held an Alaska hunting or trapping license or a permanent I.D. card of being over 60 years of age during each of the five years immediately preceding the appointment to the Board. This added requirement would provide improved assurance of interest fostered by past involvement in legal utilization of the game resource and understanding the dynamics of arctic game resource management. Several states have this license qualification requirement for appointment to their state wildlife boards. SB 22 has a $0 fiscal note from ADF&G. He thought there would still be a large pool of qualified applicants. SENATOR TAYLOR said part of the motivation for this is to make certain that that pool of Alaskans from which the Governor would select would at least have some peripheral contact with the resource they are regulating and would have some background to make certain that those uses that are protected in our constitution would be reflected in their previous life-style. Number 453 SENATOR LINCOLN said she supports the intent of the bill, but she is concerned with the five consecutive year standard . She asked what if someone were ill or missed getting their license one year, would they have to start out all over. Her second concern was that women might be precluded from being on the Board because they didn't actually have a license although they were involved in a hunt and they may be good members. SENATOR SHARP responded to her first concern saying that the five year period was selected because it's easier to document the records for the last five years. Beyond that the records are unreliable. He wanted it to be enough to where the nominee has demonstrated participation as a user of the resource. Number 512 MR. WAYNE REGELIN, Director, Division of Wildlife Conservation, said that he thought it was very appropriate for members of the Board of Game to be hunters and he thought most of them had been. Regarding the five year requirement, he said there are a lot of hunters who don't hunt every year, because they are sick or they are hunting in other states or countries once in a while. VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there were any regional requirements. MR. REGELIN answered that there were no requirements for geographic or any other reason. The statute says is that the Governor shall appoint members on the basis of interest in public affairs, good judgement, knowledge and ability, with a view to providing diversity of interests and points of view in membership. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if either of the Governor's recent appointees have met the qualifications if this law were in effect. MR. REGELIN replied he hadn't checked the records on those two people. Number 542 SENATOR TAYLOR moved to amend line 12 by deleting "each" and inserting "at least five" of the "previous seven years." SENATOR SHARP asked if records were available for seven years. MR. REGELIN answered that they are. SENATOR SHARP said he would accept that amendment. There were no objections and the amendment was adopted. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if he knew of the gender mix for licenses. MR. REGELIN said they had a figure of about 10,000 women, but he would check it out. SENATOR TAYLOR asked how many licenses they normally issue in a given year. MR. REGELIN replied 88,600 licenses were sold last year. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSB 22am(RES) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.