By Ryan Riesinger, Executive Director, Grand Forks Regional Airport Authority President, Airport Association of North Dakota

The 2022 FLY-ND Conference was held March 6-8, 2022, at the Fargo Delta Marriott hotel. It was awesome to be back in person and the event was a great success. I would like to provide a recap of the conference news and actions relative to the Airport Association of North Dakota (AAND).

Every year at our annual AAND Business Meeting, we elect Officers (President, Vice-President, and Secretary/Treasurer) and five District Directors who, along with the Past President, serve as the Board of AAND. This year, we made a conscious effort to bring balance to the Board with more representation from our General Aviation (GA) airports. I am happy to report we have two new members on our Board and both of them are from GA airports – we welcome Mike Nehring of Mohall and Andy Tibert of Grafton. Our new Board members are as follows:

Ryan Riesinger, President, Grand Forks (I)

Anthony Dudas, Vice-President, Williston (I)

Jordan Dahl, Secretary/Treasurer, Fargo (I)

Matthew Remynse, Past President, Bismarck (I)

Mike Nehring, District 1, Mohall

Maria Romanick, District 2, Minot (I)

Andy Tibert, District 3, Grafton

Ron Lundquist, District 4, Kindred (I)

Kelly Braun, District 5, Dickinson (I)

It was also discussed how important it is for airports of all sizes to join AAND, engage, attend the conference and activities, participate in legislative action items, and be a part of the discussion. We had separate Roundtable discussion meetings for Commercial Service and GA airports – this worked well and will be continued at future conferences, to foster conversation and sharing of best practices. Together, we have had many successes legislatively and in advancing important projects and promoting aviation. If you have not already paid your 2022 AAND dues, invoices will be going out soon. Please consider joining, so we can make the Association even stronger.

AAND members voted to continue sponsoring the Gerald K. Olson Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $1,500. This scholarship is awarded to a current University of North Dakota Airport Management student and is a wonderful way to remember Jerry.

We also awarded $1,000 for an educational Airport Lighting Maintenance Seminar, to be held in Grand Forks in September 2022. We know sending personnel to far-away training seminars can be expensive, so AAND has been supporting in-state training classes, like this one, for several years. I encourage you to have a member who performs maintenance at your airport attend this seminar. 

Thank you to the 2022 Fly-ND Conference Site Selection Committee, the ND Aviation Association, and all sponsors and attendees who made the Conference a great success! 

Keep ‘em  flying!