The Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce hosted its 55th annual meeting and awards ceremony at the Newagen Seaside Inn in Southport on Thursday, June 8.

The event opened with a cocktail hour in the restaurant area where chamber members mingled for an hour before finding their seats in the dining hall. “Can we get this party started,” asked the Chamber’s president Michael Maxim, initiating the opening remarks.

Maxim, who has traveled the world and lived off and away from the Boothbay peninsula, said when it comes to Boothbay Harbor, he can think of only one word: Home. “Economic development makes me wonder,” said Maxim, “what ‘home’ will look like. Well, home is what you make of it.”

After noting some of the staff changes, Maxim revealed that over 100,000 copies of the Boothbay Harbor guide had been distributed all over the country in states like Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan, as well as parts of Canada.

Maxim then gave the stage to Executive Director Patricia Innes Royall. “This event is really about the community and awarding those who have gone above and beyond,” she said. “We want to honor them.”

Among her praises were two men Royall said she must honor especially. The first was her father, who was celebrating his 92nd birthday. Attributing much of her success to her upbringing, Royall recounted a specific moment. “He would wake up extra early, drag out the snowblower, and clear a path to my car so that I wouldn’t be late for work.”

The second man Royall honored was Maxim. The two had come into their positions at the same time and, according to Royall, have become a great team offering the checks and balances both professional and friendly relationships require.

Following Maxim and Royall’s speeches and a short banquet was the Staff and Board Appreciation, presented by Maxim, and then the members’ awards presentation. The six categories of awards were business improvement, community service, customer service, environmental leadership, community improvement and special volunteer.

Receiving the Business Improvement Award was The Thistle Inn; the Community Service Award, The Community Center; the Customer Service Award, Eventide Epicurean Specialties, the Environmental Leader Award, Boothbay Region Land Trust; and the Community Improvement Award, The Community Center. Finally, Jane Good of the Community Center was presented the Volunteer Award.

All winners received impressive rounds of applause. Good received a full room, standing ovation as she made her way to the lectern.

“What makes someone volunteer? What is the purpose,” asked Good. “For me, it’s being able to lay my head on my pillow at night and know that everyone is taken care of.” Good explained that when she was a girl, her mother, who was a teacher, would often come outside during recess on a cold day and take her mittens away to give to another child in need. “The blackboards need washing and I’ll knit you another pair of mittens tonight,” Good said her mother would tell her. “My father once told me that if I ever find a place I call home, I have to give back.”

The evening’s guest speaker, Jess Knox, was last, but his speech— titled “Grabbing the Future”— seemed to leave an effect on his audience.

“One thing that is important to understand is that the future has always showed up,” said Knox before citing his four rules to grabbing the future:

1. Aggressively engage the new

“One attitude in Maine— anywhere in the U.S., really— that endures is ‘the nail that sticks up gets hammered.’”

2. Celebrate Uncomfortableness

“We cater to a ‘male and pale’ market, but the biggest markets are African-American, Asian, and Hispanic.”

3. Don’t ignore traditions, but don’t write them on stone tablets
4. Embrace the pursuit of high perfection

“No one cares what someone in Augusta or Washington, D.C. says, but when your neighbor says ‘you can’t do that here,’ it carries more weight.”

Another word of advice from Knox was that one must learn to embrace failure. “Lessons learned from a life of failure. I was in the lower 40 percent of my college entry exams. I was lower than that on my law school admission test, and I was rejected from seven law schools. I failed the bar twice and I was fired from the company I founded.”

Among his inspiring one-liners— such as “talent is the future of community” and “aspirations have to start somewhere”— was a warning about Maine’s attitude toward innovation. “We choke the hope out of our traditions,” said Knox. “We love it so much we smother it.”

Knox likened economic growth to farming, explaining there are two approaches to growth: Planting specific crops in fields in columns which gives us certainty or by growing organically, a “rainforest approach.”

“Of course, with a rainforest approach, it’s a mess, but you get cancer-curing plants growing just a foot off of the ground. We need to cultivate opportunities for any good idea.”

After Knox received a round of applause, Maxim thanked Knox and said Knox had touched on some of the philosophy of the chamber. “We have the three C’s at the chamber,” said Maxim. “Community, collaboration, and communication.”

Maxim then closed the meeting inviting everyone back into the restaurant area to enjoy dessert before departing. People left slowly, mingling before exiting another successful meeting and awards ceremony.