Dear Community Members:

It is with great enthusiasm I begin my new role as executive director of the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce!

My connection to the Boothbay Harbor Region began when I was a young girl. I spent my summers growing up on Little River in East Boothbay. I attended the YMCA Day Camp when it was on Back Narrows Road and later became a camp counselor there. For several summers I worked alongside my Great Uncle, Robert Royall, behind the front desk at Fisherman’s Wharf. Under his strict but loving guidance, I learned the importance of providing excellent customer service in order to maintain the Inn’s 5-Star rating. I was also a hostess and waitress in the dining room and worked along-side Ruth Hutchins in the gift shop. As I moved into my late teens, I became a sales clerk for the House of Logan, and during the evenings joined Capt. Eliot Winslow aboard the ARGO serving chicken dinners and the best tasting chocolate cake ever — from The Green Shutters Inn. Since the late 1800s, when my great-grandfather purchased property on Ocean Point, my family has been very much a part of the rich heritage of the Boothbay Harbor Region.

As the Chamber’s new executive director, it is my personal goal to foster an inclusive, transparent and unified voice for the membership and business community we serve, as well as for the region. I am also committed to marketing the region as a year-round destination. Often with change comes opportunity, and with these recent changes, there is an opportunity for a fresh new vision. The Chamber has a dedicated new president, an energized and diverse board, and a professional and welcoming staff, all of who are eager to put the Chamber back into the hands of the community. In an effort to reach out to businesses and community members, the Chamber will soon begin a new program called “Chamber Chats.” We’ll be inviting and encouraging community members to drop by the Chamber, have a cup of coffee and share your thoughts and ideas with us in an open forum style. We at the Chamber want to hear you and your voice.

Through the Chamber’s Marketing & Membership Committees, we are developing a survey to solicit feedback, ideas and suggestions from our members and the community. The survey responses will then allow the Chamber to create a comprehensive and inclusive Strategic Marketing Plan to broadly promote the region with its many unique assets. The Chamber will be emailing the surveys out to members, but will also include a link in our weekly Chamber E-news. Copies will also be available at the Chamber office. We encourage everyone in the community to stop by to pick up a survey.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my background, I bring to the Chamber over 20 years of non-profit arts administration, having served as the executive director for both the Center for the Arts at the Chocolate Church in Bath, and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance in Portland. I also served as the marketing & development director for the Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick, as an associate administrator of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, and as public relations and advertising associate for WOODENBOAT Magazine. While executive director of the Chocolate Church, I created and produced the first “Concert in the Yard” at Bath Iron Works Corporation, bringing in a steel drum band to play for over 10,000 BIW employees. I have also owned and curated two art galleries in Brunswick and Richmond representing over 45 Maine artists. Just prior to coming to the Chamber, I served as the marketing & sales director for Tilbury House Publishers, marketing children’s picture books to the education sector. I’m looking forward to applying my previous experiences to my new role at the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce.

As we embark on this journey we will need the help and guidance from our membership but also from the community. As an organization we are ready for the challenge and look forward to the future with hope. As our new Board President Michael Maxim so eloquently said, “One community, one peninsula, one region. Together, we will continue to make the Boothbay Harbor Region a place worth visiting, a place of prosperity and a place to call home.”