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Sealaska, Southeast's regional Native corporation, has drawn disapproval from some local shareholders for scheduling its annual meeting in San Francisco instead of an Alaska city.

Charlie Williams, a Juneau resident, Sealaska shareholder and a council member of the Douglas Indian Association, said he felt it was an insult to his ancestors to hold the meeting elsewhere.

"My grandmothers and my great-grandparents lay in Mother Earth up here, in the state of Alaska - not in California," said Williams, who does not plan to attend the meeting.

The board of directors chooses where the annual shareholder meeting will be two years ahead of time. The last few years, Sealaska has gone to Anchorage; Bellevue, Wash.; Ketchikan; Sitka and Juneau. The next two meetings are scheduled for Sitka and Prince of Wales Island. Sealaska also holds community meetings in various parts of the country throughout the year.

But the annual meeting is the big one, in which Sealaska executives and the board of directors present the corporation's business activity from the last year and its strategies for the future.

Sealaska has more than 19,000 shareholders. A little more than half live in Alaska. Another 4,000 live in the Seattle area, while 700 live in Oregon and 900 in California, according to Sealaska spokesman Todd Antioquia.

"We just feel like it's a good thing to take the annual meeting to different parts of the country where we have shareholders, and make them feel like we come to them," said board member Clarence Jackson, of Kake.

Jackson said it was worth holding the meeting outside the region despite the disadvantage to Southeast residents. He said he might be the only person in his hometown of Kake who goes to the meeting, because the cost of travel is prohibitive.

In Angoon, shareholder Richard George said having the meeting in San Francisco would make it difficult for people to talk about Southeast issues, such as which land Sealaska will choose to fulfill the acres it is still owed under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Despite his concerns, he said he hoped there would be a good turnout in the Lower 48.

"The response is what will make it worth it," he said.

Shareholders in the Lower 48 welcomed the meeting.

"I think it's only fair," said Jackie Clark, a Sealaska shareholder who was born in Ketchikan and raised in Saxman village, but now lives in Rohnert Park, Calif. She intends to attend the meeting, as do all the Sealaska shareholders she knows in her area.

"It's important so we can get firsthand news of what is going on in our Sealaska corporation," she said.

Seattle-based shareholder Tim Leask, a former board member, said it was right to rotate the meetings - and it might be easier to webcast from heavily wired areas such as San Francisco or Seattle than from villages in Southeast.

He wasn't planning to go this year, though he does when he can.

"I just keep up with it online," he said.

Some local shareholders, such as Williams and Doug Chilton of Juneau, wondered whether the San Francisco meeting would end up costing the company more than Southeast meetings.

"I don't foresee it being any more or less expensive than holding it in Seattle or Anchorage or Sitka," including presentations, webcasts, travel and accommodations, Antioquia said.

"We need to honor equally the needs of shareholders in California as we do those in Alaska," Antioquia said. "It's always going to be a challenge."

Internet participation has been "steadily increasing," according to Antioquia. Last year, 450 people attended the meeting in Anchorage, and 278 households watched the webcast. Because more than one person often watches in each household, he said, last year was probably the first year that Internet participation outpaced physical attendance.

So Sealaska is trying to put everything it can on the Web.

Shareholders will be able to log into the Sealaska site to watch video of the meeting. A live e-mail address will be monitored for comments during the meeting. Those with slow Internet connections can listen to audio alone. And the structure of the meeting will be devised with Web watchers or listeners in mind, Antioquia said.

"(With) all of the amenities," Antioquia said. "Except for maybe the meal."

Last year's meeting included controversial votes on shareholder eligibility. This year, shareholders will vote to fill several board seats: those of Sid Edenshaw, Byron Mallott, Ed Thomas and Rosita Worl. The slate of candidates will be announced in April.

• Contact reporter Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.