| Donate Today! February 2018 |
MaineShare Board Updates
MaineShare is pleased to share the news of changes to our Board of Directors and Board leadership. Tracy Harkins of Harkins Consulting LLC succeeds Elizabeth Watson as Chair, while Elizabeth, former legislator will serve as Vice Chair. Timothy Malisa of Spinnaker Trust and Janene Kurta, attorney will continue as Treasurer and Secretary respectively. The following individuals will continue or begin serving three-year terms as Directors: Bailey Auspland,
IDEXX
, Carrie Bolduc,
Community Health Options
, Johanna Colpritt,
UMaine Law School
, Andrew Greeley,
Martin's Point Health Care
, Jodie Lapchick,
Lapchick Co
, Aaron Lee,
Bowdoin College
, Patric Santerre,
ARCADIA designworks LLC
, and William Sedlack,
UMaine Law School
.
Elizabeth Watson shares her thoughts as she passes the baton to her successor:
I have gained so much insight over these years as Chair of MaineShare's Board, and am delighted to continue to participate as we welcome new Board members. I am sure they will bring fresh ideas and valued experience to MaineShare. I've been involved in several of our member organizations in the last fifteen years and look forward to staying involved to help advance all their common goals.
"
Hello to the MaineShare Community!" -
Tracy Harkins,
MaineShare Board Chair:
As we begin 2019, I am honored to follow Elizabeth's capable leadership to support our staff and member organizations as we, together work to build a stronger future for Maine. I look forward to working closely with MaineShare staff and new board members as we continue promoting and raising funds for progressive Maine nonprofits. In the following months, the MaineShare Board will be looking at MaineShare's purpose and strategic plan, reflect on
what is working and what challenges MaineShare faces as we moves into this new phase.
I look forward to meeting more member group staff and boards, as well as our tremendous MaineShare donors and workplace partners who support the causes we care about in Maine.
Tracy, Elizabeth, and all the Board will be working with staff to
set an exciting course for the next 30 years!
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Join us for this annual giving day as we celebrate over 40 organizations
working every day for the people, animals
and environment of Maine!
- Member Group Registration opens February 18th!
- Business Sponsorships and Prize and
donor match welcome!
Beginning May 1st:
- Start an employee fundraiser!
- Host your own SpringShare event anywhere in the State!
- Volunteer and Event opportunities open for all!
Learn more
@thespringshare. Follow
@maineshare on Facebook and
#thespringshare on Instagram.
Contact
giving@maineshare.org to get involved!
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| Member Group News and Upcoming Events |
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Farming While Black Book Tour: Thursday Night
February 28th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM, Hannaford Hall, University of Southern Maine
SPEAKER BIO: Amani Olugbala, Professional Speaker & Facilitator at Soul Fire Farm, is a storyteller and food justice advocate with over 15 years of experience in youth education and community outreach. Amani combines artistic expression, project-based learning and outdoor education tools to facilitate social justice based workshops and discussions with individuals, groups and organizations. Amani seeks to push communities to challenge presumed differences and work together in uncovering interlocked paths towards self determination and community liberation. Amani's early work with the Natural Leaders, Brother Yusuf and the Youth Ed Venture Network, underscored the necessity of reintroduction to land as a source of healing and power for those of us who have been historically and systematically disconnected.
Amani awoke a personal connection to seed while directing YO!, a youth-centered urban garden program in Albany, NY. At Soul Fire Farm's Black and Latinx Farmer Immersion, Amani further cultivated the tools to sustain this connection and share it with others. Soul Fire Farm raises life-giving food to folks surviving food apartheid, trains farmer activists, advocates for systemic change and offers models for revolutionary thrival through love, ancestral wisdom and Earth reverence. Raptivist, spoken word artist, and abolitionist, Amani O+ is driven to uplift love, art & service as necessary expressions of rebellion against a sense of disconnection and hopelessness that threatens our collective peace and wellness.
We can all learn how to be a part of the movement for food sovereignty and help build a food system based on justice, dignity, and abundance for all members of our community.
Sponsored by Cooperative Development Institute, For Us, By Us Fund, Food Studies Program and Gloria S. Duclos Convocation at University of Southern Maine, Maine Initiatives, John Merck Fund and Cultivating Community
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Amanda Beal, MFT's President and CEO, was recently nominated for the position of Maine's Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and has accepted the governor's nomination.
MFT staff and board are sad to see Amanda leave, but they know her thoughtful, collaborative leadership and deep familiarity with the agricultural landscape will serve Maine well in this role. Amanda has an acute awareness of the interconnectedness of agriculture, conservation, and forestry and a deep appreciation for how policy can bolster the good work that Maine's hardworking farmers, foresters and conservation organizations are doing on the ground throughout the state.
"I have loved working with MFT, which made this a tough decision," said Amanda, "MFT's work is truly impactful, but ultimately I feel that it's important to accept this call to serve Maine in this role, and to do all that I can to support a vibrant future for all of our farmers and farmland."
Under Amanda's leadership, MFT has made many improvements to the organization's programs and internal systems. Amanda took the helm at a time when the 20-year-old organization was going through major growth and transition and has worked collaboratively with staff to create stability and sustainability.
MFT has an active transition plan in place, and the board and staff will begin a search for their next President and CEO in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, MFT's work to protect farmland, support farmers, and advance the future for farming will continue as usual. As they enter their 20
th year, they feel excited and confident that the work they are doing to support a bright future for farming in Maine is on the right track and having a substantial impact now, and for future generations.
Read more about Amanda's nomination:
Maine Public: Mills Chooses Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Department.
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If you want help enrolling in MaineCare, go to
www.mymaineconnection or call the Consumer Assistance HelpLine at Consumers for Affordable Health Care - 1-800-965-7476.
They will explain ways you can apply and give you tips. If you have questions about the application process or you receive a denial letter, they are there to help you!
The caring people on the Consumer Assistance HelpLine are dedicated to helping Mainer's #GetCovered.
Need Help? Call 1-800-965-7476 in person appointments are limited but all phone messages will be returned.
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Augusta - A sweeping proposal by the Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) that would open up 1.3 million acres of Maine's North Woods for development and divert investments from existing communities has received overwhelming opposition from people across Maine, according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM).
NRCM found that 95% of the written comments submitted to the LUPC by residents raised major concerns about the
proposal to eliminate the "one-mile-by-road" adjacency policy, a tool that has been the most effective way to guide development to appropriate locations in the North Woods for decades. At the most recent (Jan. 10, 2019) public hearing held on the proposed changes, the vast majority of those who testified voiced opposition and questioned why the changes were needed.
In addition, the Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald editorial pages have both editorialized firmly against LUPC's proposal, which would open up development on more than 1.3 million acres of land and 20 percent of the lakes in the region-representing the most sweeping proposed change in development in Maine's unorganized townships in more than 40 years.
"It's clear that Maine people don't support the LUPC's proposed changes because they would allow commercial and residential sprawl to spread throughout Maine's forests, destroying one of the state's most spectacular natural assets," said Cathy Johnson, the NRCM's Forests and Wildlife Project Director. "It's time for the state to put a halt to this misguided proposal, go back to the drawing board, and work collaboratively with towns throughout the region and Maine people to come up with a more measured approach. There is no evidence of a strong constituency or base of support for what LUPC is proposing."
Those who submitted comments raising concern about the complex, complicated, confusing, and potentially harmful nature of the proposed rules included:
- Three former LUPC planning division staff, the assistant attorney general who was the head of the Natural Resources Division and served as LUPC's legal counsel for over 25 years, and at least one former LUPC Commissioner.
- Hancock County Commissioners Antonio Blasi and John Wombacher who testified and submitted a resolution asking the LUPC to "retain the current one-mile adjacency principle."
- More than 80 citizens of Argyle Township who "contend that any weakening of the current one-mile adjacency rule would be detrimental to the process of protection & improvement of our natural resources" and request their township's exemption from the proposed changes.
- John Willard, business owner in the Moosehead region, who notes that his customers "are impressed with the remote feeling of the region" and affirms that the current rule works well to maintain the character of the region: "There is no need for outfitters to have remote canoe and kayak rental shops and food trucks in remote regions of the North Maine Woods, as this rule change would allow."
- Barbara Hartford, the Chair of the Medway Board of Selectmen, who wrote, "I must submit my objections to having the one mile rule chang [sic] to a ten mile rule... Commercial, industry or housing built in the unorganized territory of Grindstone will not benefit Medway. It only lessens the municipalities potential for growth. We want people to come to Medway to build homes to add commercial or industrial growth, reduce our property taxes, to create jobs. We want people to come and visit, shop at our stores, eat in our restaurants or move to our nice little community."
- Gail Fanjoy, a resident of Millinocket and former President of the Katahdin Chamber of Commerce, who said, "...the most egregious result of development in the UT would be the loss of tax dollars to our struggling communities - communities with an abundance of housing stock, empty buildings for small businesses, and unoccupied industrial parks. Adding insult to injury would be the cost of emergency response services imposed upon these communities to serve the residents and businesses in the UT."
- Dr. Mac Hunter, a wildlife ecologist, who notes that the unfragmented landscape of the North Woods "has come to its current state under the existing adjacency rules, but it will be threatened under scenarios of future development that are easy to envisage under [LUPC's] proposed modifications that generate so many nodes of development."
In addition, the state's two largest newspapers have each editorialized strongly against the LUPC's proposal recently, saying:
- "Without a strong rationale for the proposed changes, and with so much public concern about the proposed changes and their consequences, the commission should set them aside." -Bangor Daily News editorial, January 24, 2019
- "Given all the opposition to the plan, perhaps instead the commission and other stakeholders in rural development should discuss a new vision for the unorganized territory...For the most rural parts of rural Maine, there is a delicate balance between economic activity and the desire to maintain what makes them special. The commission's plan doesn't yet achieve it." -Portland Press Herald editorial, February 1, 2019.
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DRM Announces Supported Decision-Making Workshops for people who receive Developmental Services, their family members, case managers, and providers
Disability Rights Maine is offering a statewide series of workshops on Supported Decision-Making and the recent changes to Maine's Probate Code.
Supported Decision-Making (SDM), an alternative to guardianship, allows people with disabilities to retain their decision-making capacity by choosing supports to help them make choices.
This training will provide information about SDM and how it and other less restrictive alternatives to adult guardianship are incorporated into the new Probate Code, which goes into effect in July 2019.
They look forward to seeing you!
Rockland
Friday, February 22, 2019, DHHS, 91 Camden Ave, Rockland
Bangor
Friday, March 8, 2019, DHHS, 396 Griffin Rd, Bangor
Lewiston
Friday, March 15, 2019, DHHS, 200 Main St, Lewiston
Portland
Monday, March 18, 2019, DHHS, 151 Jetport Blvd, Portland
Augusta
Friday, April 12, 2019, DHHS, 41 Anthony Ave, Augusta
Caribou
Friday, May 17, 2019, DHHS, 30 Skyway Dr, Caribou
Portland
Wednesday, May 22, 2019, DHHS, 151 Jetport Blvd, Portland
Bangor
Friday, June 14, 2019, DHHS, 396 Griffin Rd, Bangor
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ACLU Maine recommends
At Liberty - a weekly podcast from the ACLU that explores the biggest civil rights and civil liberties issues of the day.
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Friends of Casco Bay invites you to
Ocean Acidification, Climate Change, and You
A Casco Bay Matters Event
Climate change is affecting the health of Casco Bay faster than anyone could have predicted. Friends of Casco Bay invites you to attend
Ocean Acidification, Climate Change, and You,
a free event, open to all. Staff scientist Mike Doan will talk about the warning signs we see in our monitoring data. Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca will share some of the impacts to our marine species and how Mainers are working together to respond to these threats.
This is such an important issue that we are hosting this presentation at three locations around the Bay in the coming weeks. Come to the event nearest to you, or all three! Free and open to the public.
Ocean Acidification, Climate Change, and You
All events are free and open to the public. Invite your friends and neighbors!
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Resources for Organization and Social Change
builds and and supports a movement for nonviolent social change that will educate, activate, & empower all Maine people through grassroots community organizing.
Their goal is to
share resources, and support all Maine people who want to engage in social change work, particularly those who are the most affected by oppressive systems. ROSC strives to build infrastructure and strengthen cross-issue statewide movement building by increasing leadership development for grassroots organizers, promoting democratic practices within organizations, and supporting work that gets to root causes of injustice.
Visit their website to review and download a wealth of printable publications. These documents
are NOT copyrighted. You can copy any or all of these publications for personal or noncommercial use. Please credit ROSC for any use. You can also get paper copies of any of these publications on request for any donation.
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