“The Maine Islands Coalition (MIC) organization is growing from the vision of the original founder Roger Berle, which is a brilliant and beautiful idea,” says current MIC co-leader Ellen Mahoney. “Everything that has come to this point has proven that the islanders, and island leadership, […] experience MIC as a really important, valuable and meaningful way to place ourselves sort of in the middle of the pack. You know, we’re not out here by ourselves. The challenges that we face are all unique, but the problems are pretty much all the same. So how can we move into that place of peer support? What are the things you guys are facing? What are the things we’re facing? How can we face these, address these things together? It’s not always one size fits all.”
Sentiments like that illustrate the value of a partnership like Maine Islands Coalition. Given the unique qualities of life that are common to all islanders, any opportunity to coalesce around shared concerns and resources strengthens the sense of shared community. The group, which meets quarterly, is a consistent voice for islands in Augusta, to the press, and to outside groups. Since islands are generally sparsely populated, this provides a group of citizens with common interests and problems a stronger voice at the state level.
“The challenges that we face are all unique, but the problems are pretty much all the same. So how can we move into that place of peer support?”
The concept of MIC emerged from a meeting hosted by Island Institute in 2002, and was formally organized in 2003. Responsible for setting its own agenda and schedule, MIC leadership has seen two transitions since Berle stepped down.
Kendra Chubbuck was an early leader. “I’ve been on the MIC since 2014 and became co-chair in 2022. Roger asked me to come on—honestly, I think it’s only because I never missed a meeting!” With characteristic island spirit, she adds, “I’m more of a behind-the-scenes person, but I’ll do anything I’m asked.” For proof of her commitment, look no further than the hoops she has to jump through to attend the meetings from her home on Isle au Haut; “I have a 45-minute boat ride and a two-and-a-half hour drive, plus I have to go off the day before because I can’t make the 10 am meeting otherwise.”
Kendra says, “Rachel Bishop stepped in to help the last couple of months, and since you can’t have three co-chairs, and I’d been on longest, I stepped down. I’ll stay on as a representative because I love MIC, I love being on the committee.” Maine Islands Coalition representatives are selected by town officials in order to make sure that the representatives are accountable to the people they represent. A term of appointment lasts three years, and there are no term limits.
Ellen is enthusiastic about the direction MIC is headed in. “I feel like it’s important that we build a structure and a strategy so that the sort of processes and the practices can outlive any of us. It’s a valuable endeavor if the island leadership feels like it’s important and helpful to get together and talk to other leaders, and then also have the support of [Island] Institute in doing that, while having the audience of the federal, state, and local delegations. It feels pretty powerful.” Kendra is emphatic, too, about the significance of having political leaders like Angus King, Susan Collins, and Chellie Pingree show up for MIC.
“It’s important and helpful to get together and talk to other leaders […] while having the audience of the federal, state, and local delegations.”
New co-chair Rachel Bishop concurs, saying, “Moving forward, what’s important is continuing the personal relations with the delegates and their representatives and senators and their staff, keeping those communication lines open, keeping relationships with the other islands open, and just keeping information flowing back and forth. What I try to do for my select board, if I have something come up at a meeting that I think is going to be helpful, I try to make sure that that gets to our administrator so that he can get word out and get the information out there, and try to make sure it’s on Facebook and on posters and that sort of stuff.”
The love and devotion that islanders have to place and stewardship fuels the passion of MIC and its mission. “I think the MIC is important for me because it plays into the kind of ideas of legacy communities and the learned experience of year-round communities,” says Rachel. “It’s hard to continue those knowledge bases if you don’t have a structure for that. And I know we’ve struggled with that here on Frenchboro in the past. Long-term town officials step back or leave the island, and then there’s a gap in the knowledge base. And people have a tendency to come up with ideas, and people like myself, who’ve been here for 30 years, can look back and say, ‘All right, well, we already tried that, and these were the pitfalls, and maybe we don’t need to do that again, or maybe we need to try it again but a little bit differently.’ [If] you don’t have that continuity, you just kind of keep going in circles and reinventing the wheel, and that’s not helping anyone.”
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If somebody else is doing it and doing it well, let’s take their good advice and their good counsel and their experience and put it to work.”
Innovation and resilience are baked into islander DNA, and the desire to find ways to row together in the same direction is the connective tissue of MIC. As Ellen puts it so eloquently, “It’s talking about difference, and accepting that people are on a continuum, and communities are on a continuum. And the important thing is, what do we need to do? Does it make sense? Let’s see if we can address it together. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If somebody else is doing it and doing it well, let’s take their good advice and their good counsel and their experience and put it to work, tailored to our own needs.” MIC is, at its core, heads and hearts of islanders coming together to enrich life in special places, with a little help from their friends.
