Islands coalition fosters two-way communication

Since its establishment by islanders and the Island Institute in 2002, the Maine Islands Coalition (MIC) has emerged as a tool for islanders to amplify and concentrate their voices, successfully gaining the attention of the coastal and island legislators, policy regulators and concerned citizens as the coalition discusses the challenges facing the year-round islands of Maine and advocate for solutions.  

"The key to the Maine Islands Coalition is that it is a place for two-way communication between state leadership and the islands of Maine," says Bill McGuinness, the Island Institute's policy specialist who provides staff support for the MIC.

Initiated when a group of islanders gathered in 2002 to discuss affordable housing, the MIC formally organized in 2003 as a quarterly forum for elected representatives from each of the year-round islands, in addition to a representative from the active summer community on Little Diamond Island which became a full member in 2004, to gather and share information.

Participants soon realized that many issues, especially issues concerning state policy, required answers that only experts could provide. In 2004, the MIC began inviting experts and the policy-makers associated with these issues (for example, members of the legislature's transportation committee to discuss ferry subsidies) to educate islanders about what could be done to implement change. It also ensures that legislators hear islanders' concerns.

According to Roger Berle, Cliff Island representative and chair of the MIC, "having access to the legislators has been a fortuitous surprise... by getting key people and experts within the state to exchange critical information, we could learn and they could listen."

McGuinness agrees. "The forum becomes an opportunity for legislators and policy-makers to hear directly from islanders about island issues and problems that they could provide a legislative solution to, as well as an opportunity for legislators to communicate to island representatives upcoming legislation that could impact the islands."

The coalition was established as a body independent of the Island Institute. "We carry out the Island Institute's core mission of addressing the issues that affect the sustainability of the year-round island communities, but the Island Institute is a facilitator," says Berle.

In addition to directly provoking action from legislators, the MIC has inspired policy initiatives targeting state and federal agencies and coalescing support from regional, state and national constituents.

For example, the Working Waterfront Coalition (WWFC) was formed as a result of a MIC meeting examining working-waterfront access.  In 2006, the WWFC successfully advocated passage of bills rewriting the state constitution to allow current-use taxation for working-waterfront properties and a $5 million bond to fund the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Project.

Most recently, the coalition has discussed comprehensive planning with representatives of the State Planning Office, Friends of Midcoast Maine and island comprehensive plan committees; island health care services with Maine Seacoast Mission, Maine EMS, and Penobscot Bay Medical Center; and - in a well-attended and passionate discussion -  representatives from island school boards, administration districts and the Maine Municipal Association discussed Governor Baldacci's proposed plan to consolidate school administration districts.

The MIC's next policy steps focus on an "affordable coast." The Institute invited the Islands Coalition and other constituents to an October policy retreat to devise legislative goals and an agenda for the Maine Legislature's 2009 long session, and the priorities devised at that retreat - affordable healthcare, housing and utility prices, for example - have become topics at subsequent MIC meetings. 

The MIC is interested in soliciting further input on how to most effectively advocate for the islands, concerned that islanders are unaware of the coalition's ability to directly encourage positive change.

"Each time we hold these meetings, we are involving people who are key to our communities. But  we want to have more participation from concerned citizens, more input to our collective brainstorming of problems and solutions, a better exchange of information and a broader constituency to make sure that we're going in the right direction," says Berle.