By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — With the New Year comes new representation for tourism in The County, as the Aroostook County Tourism Board was voted into existence on Dec. 13 by members of the Northern Maine Development Committee Executive Board.
The ACTB replaces the former Aroostook County Tourism Committee, and Executive Director of NMCD Robert Clark explained to his board members that the change would bring more autonomy for the organization, as it would involve less people.
“We’ll have 12 [members] plus a chair,” Clark explained during the December meeting. “Right now we have 26 and it’s getting unruly, but that’s why we’re going to have the ACT Network, to draw from the expertise and talent from the larger tourism community.”
While the organization directly overseeing Aroostook’s tourism development efforts has decreased in size, the new ACTB includes the ACT Network which, according to the resolution, “will provide the opportunity for people within the tourism industry to maintain ongoing communications and will be regularly informed of tourism promotional efforts of ACT, the Maine Office of Tourism and other organizations performing tourism related efforts.”
The document also states that ACT Network individuals will consist of people within the tourism industry who would like to offer expertise and assistance to the ACT Board.
With the number of parties involved on the ACTB halved from it’s previously committee status, board members are slated to represent the diverse facets of tourism in The County; regions and categories represented include the St. John Valley Region, central Aroostook Region, southern Aroostook region, north Maine woods region, outdoor/guiding, lodging, dining, events, museums/arts/cultural/historical, retail, non-motorized outdoor recreation, motorized outdoor recreation and an NMDC executive board member who will serve as the chairperson and will be appointed by the executive board for that purpose.
Though resolution adopted by the board stipulated that the new ATCB would meet within 30 days of approval, the new board will not be formed until a last meeting of the Aroostook County Tourism Committee on Thursday, Jan. 24.
The mission of the new ACTB is to develop and implement a tourism marketing program for Aroostook County, and the board will meet a minimum of four times a year to accomplish this goal. Each member of the ACTB must come from a member community of NMDC.
Those wishing to be considered for the new board should contact Regional Tourism Developer for NMDC Leslie Jackson by e-mailing LJackson@nmdc.org.
