Since the spring, GrowSmart Maine and Build Maine have been convening statewide partners to discuss and develop forward-thinking legislative proposals. The current effort builds on work that has been ongoing since 2019, involving hundreds of people across the state. We want to share the current slate of legislation and most importantly, we want your feedback to strengthen each proposal in time for the 2023 legislative session.
In spring 2022, we hosted three virtual brainstorming sessions to prioritize policy actions for the 2023 legslative session. The results of this effort can be found at our interactive Miro board, where participants posted ideas, and helped to sort and prioritize policy actions. https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOGiZJvQ=/?share_link_id=289269622616
From that work, we arrived at 8 key policy actions. Those were presented at the Build Maine conference in Skowhegan in June 2022, where we gathered additional feedback and direction. Since that time, 8 working groups have been meeting to advance the proposals. The results of this incredible collective work was presented at the GrowSmart Maine Summit in October 2022. Work continues to shape these proposals into legislation in time for the upcoming session. The 8 Policy Actions that we are moving forward can be found here:
The working groups are open to anyone interested in helping do the work and advance the legislation. Please sign up to join a working group by clicking the button below. It makes sense for you to join a working group if you are passionate about the topic and can make time to engage in the work, if you can help write technical policy language, help with logistics or promotion, or can bring other energy to the work. Time commitments will likely be weekly or bi-weekly zoom calls with your working group, with potential for production time in between meetings, depending on your role.
