If I understand correctly, Airbnb automatically collects Anchorage muni 12% tax from the guest (see article here) and I don't need to worry about it.

I quickly searched recent news, but have only found articles a few weeks old, and even those state that the threshold was raised to $10k.

I've started my investment education journey about six months ago and have been soaking up a lot of physical information via books/videos/articles/forums and I'm looking to start going to meetups and events that can expand my network and hopefully get me in the same room with other investors interested in JV's or rental ventures in general.

Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books for this or you can learn by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum.

Welcome to the CommunityRead articles, listen to podcasts, attend meetups to network looking for deals, buyers, private money lenders etcStart forming capital at the household budget level to apply into your portfolioFocus, avoid paralysis by analysis thinking you need just a little bit more info (its lifelong learning for all). 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

From Brandon Turner’s article “Flipping Face-Off: Is It Really Better Than Renting Out Properties?”

You might want to follow the "Deep Dive" series we're doing on our BiggerPockets blog about Metro Detroit cities, City of Detroit Neighborhoods and comparing Metro Detroit to other hotspots investors usually consider:https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

There have also been may posts, podcasts and blogs that have talked about it here. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.