12 March 2020
Speaker of the Day: Maria Provec -The Future of Maine
12 March 2020
Buckets on the Table: Knox County Homeless Coalition
Speaker of the Day: Maria Provec -The Future of Maine
Senior Policy Analyst, Governors Policy Innovation and the Future. Maria grew up in Orono, went ‘away’ to school, came back after college but couldn’t find a job, then moved to Colorado for a job opportunity. Came back to Maine to raise a family, still had to find a challenging job. Eventually leading to a job with the state.
For 20 years Maine did not have an economic plan and now are looking at issues for the state, climate, children cabinet, opioid response and workforce. We have to bring skilled people into the state, the last big in migration was in the 1970’s. What is the next big in migration? How do we make Maine an enticing state? The Welcome Home Program encourages people to Maine.
Breakup into groups for a free flow thought session around these ideas. Speak about your own experiences, what could bring people back, cultural resistance within the state? The groups returned with the following ideas: housing, education incentives, transportation, jobs, broadband, discrimination of outsiders, tax incentives, childcare services that pay well, early childhood education, coordination of Maine life style images with vacationers. Homework: postcards to send to invite outside of the state folks to join us living in Maine!
Committee Reports:
Thank you note from the Watershed School!
Gwen Clemens inductions to Rotary! Hospitality Classification.
Sponsorship addition is Camden Law!
Community: Habitat for March 21, 8-12.
Deb’s report on Amazon Smile program: we totaled over $300! These dollars go into our endowment fund (which is now over $16000).
Next Week’s Speaker: Reade Brower, Civility in the Media – Doing Things Differently