"Building Strong Communities" on JUNE 18

AN EVENING OF ENTERTAINMENT and EDUCATION!
Only a week remains for you to submit a proposal to present your community building idea on stage and possibly win the $500 people's choice award. Sign up today for a SPOTLIGHT presentation if you have  a community project, a success story or an innovative idea that you want to share with others. Proposals are due June 1 and open to ALL GREAT IDEAS in MAINE.
Early bird rates are still available to attend or host a booth! Register to ATTEND, PRESENT a SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION or HOST a SHOWCASE TABLE at the "Building Strong Communities" annual event on June 18 at the Rockport Opera House in downtown Rockport. Once again we will be holding our annual meeting and event with Community Showcase booths and the ever popular Community Spotlight, featuring TEN five-minute pecha-kucha-like presentations and a $500 prize to the People's Choice Award for the strongest Community Building Project.
Delicious hearty appetizers, cash bar. Educational, entertaining and audience participation.
Event Packet with On-line or Mail-In Option
Register to attend, sponsor, or present here! 
 
Early sponsors include The Town of Rockport and The Orton Family Foundation. Your business can be a sponsor too.
 
This event SOLD OUT in 2014.  Don't miss out in 2015!  Register today. 
The Community Institute Session #3 - Final report available
Downtown Belfast was the site of TCI #3 on Downtowns and Locally Owned Businesses.
Beautiful downtown Belfast
Over fifty people attended the 1 1/2 day session and special evening presentation with national assistance from John Massengale, co-author of "Street Design-The Secret to Great Cities and Towns".
Special appreciation is extended to John Massengale and all the state and local faculty members including Bettina Doulton of the Cellar Door Winery, Nancy Smith of GrowSmart Maine, Lorain Francis of The Maine Downtown Center, Bre Bebb of Our Town Belfast, Patrick Wright of the Gardiner Maine Street Program, Meg Carlson of The Gardiner Duct Tape Council, Mary Kate Reny of the Twin Villages Alliance and Renys stores, Jenny Mayher of Lincoln Academy and many more participating and assisting.
This session of The Community Institute was sponsored by the Camden National Bank, The City of Belfast and the Maine Association of Planners.
Read the final reports here....
  

FMM Executive Director Receives Award from Maine Association of Planners
FMM Executive Director Jane Lafleur received the Maine Association of Planners Professional Planner of the Year award at the MAP Annual Meeting in Lewiston last week. The award recognizes a career of excellence in planning, and Jane's nominators noted many of the ways she has demonstrated this, including her commitment to making planning accessible to a broad range of community members and FMM's recently initiated Community Institute. We at FMM would like to dedicate this award to all the people who work to make our communities economically and socially stronger, and who work to build better places for people.

In accepting this award, Jane Lafleur noted that she got her start in planning in Lewiston Maine, as an intern in the planning department in the 1970's and how fitting it was to receive this award in the shadow of the Bates Mills and in the town she grew up in. While at Lewiston, she learned to look at problems as opportunities for change and improvement. She urged planners to work to find ways to attract and retain young people in Maine, to inspire community members to make their communities even better, to find ways to say yes to good development, and to put people first.

Other awards include
Judy East and Crystal Hitchings of Washington County, Kevin Bunker and Matthew Teare of Developers Collaborative, and Jane Lafleur.
  • the Developers Collaborative's River Landing Development as Project of the Year; and
  • the Washington County Council of Governments' Bold Coast Scenic Byway Plan as Plan of the Year. 
     
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Sincerely,
Jane Lafleur, Executive Director
Friends of Midcoast Maine and The Community Institute