40 people from New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine gathered for our March 11 meeting, bringing great energy and enthusiasm to move this work forward.  Outcomes from the day included numerous new connections amongst participants, greater shared awareness of the purpose and value of this regional network, and a clear set of priority action areas, each supported with an action plan and a point person to help carry the work forward.  For those of you who were not able to attend, please know that it is by no means too late to get involved! There are three key things you can do to increase your involvement and contribute to our shared progress toward better tourism outcomes in the Northern Forest Region:

1) Review the priority areas action plans that came out of the March 11 meeting, and pick one that you would like to help with.  You can let Kate Williams or the point person for your priority area know that you are interested.  The priority areas and their respective leaders are:

Training / Workforce Development:  Gloria Bruce

Northern Forest Tourism Research:  Lisa Chase

Tourism Product Development:  Roger Merchant or Mary Jean Packer

Network Coordination:  Chris Thayer or Samantha Kenney Maltais

2) Make note that we will be meeting again in November 2010, dates and location TBD.  We identified a planning group for this meeting – if you are interested in helping out, please contact Kate Williams.  The existing planning group includes:  Marc Edwards, Katie Curnyn, Mike Wilson, and Chris Thayer.  I’m sure they would welcome additional planners.

3) Submit a short piece for inclusion in our newsletter.  Doesn’t need to be anything fancy – the goal is to share information with each other that helps all of us to better understand our region and to learn effective strategies from each other.  If you have an idea, feel free to share it with Kate Williams!

Thank you for your participation.

- Kate