News of The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine
June 15, 2021
No Zoom This Friday — We're Meeting Outside
 
This Friday’s program will be an outdoor picnic gathering in the Picnic Shelter at Fort Williams Park (1000 Shore Road) in Cape Elizabeth. 
 

Plan to gather as early as 11 am for conversation and greetings, and the meeting will start at 11:30. At 1pm, we will start in on the grubbing out of invasive plants, an opportunity for community service. You will need to sign a waiver form, dress appropriately, and watch your email for tools that will be needed.  
 
Lunch must be pre-ordered. If you have not registered and would like lunch, please contact Elise Hodgkin or Ellen Niewoehner ASAP. 
 
Allan Monga Awarded Scholarship
by Erik Jorgensen
 
Allan Monga, a nursing student at the University of Southern Maine, received Rotary’s New Mainer Youth Scholarship from Roxane Cole on June 11, 2021. Roxane introduced Corey Hascall, vice president of development of the University of Southern Maine, who talked about Roxanne’s long and faithful commitment to USM as a member of its Board of Visitors before introducing Allan and sharing his remarkable story.
 
 A graduate of Deering High School, Allan is studying nursing at USM with the aim of a career providing medical services for the elderly. Having come to Maine at 17 as an asylum-seeker from Zambia, Allan gained local notoriety and acclaim when he won the state-wide Poetry Out Loud recitation contest for high school students after being in the United States for just a year. Only then did he learn that due to his status as an asylum seeker, he was barred by Federal regulations from competing at the national level. With the help of various community groups, Allan sued the National Endowment for the Arts, and though he ultimately did not win the national poetry championship, he did compete in it, and his actions precipitated a rule change that opened the contest to others in his situation. In addition to his nursing studies and completing several certification programs, Monga continues to write poetry.
 
Bits and Pieces | by Erik Jorgensen
 
The calendar may claim it’s still spring, but at Portland Rotary, the talk before the meeting began was squarely in summer, with a lively conversation on Zoom about Maine Lobster.  Surprisingly scarce and expensive this year, members told stories of where they’d seen it on menus outside of Maine -- in Georgia, Florida, everywhere. 
 
Celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey has died, marking the end of a career that spanned decades and included defenses of everyone from OJ Simpson, to Sam Sheppard to Patty Hearst. He was remembered for his visit to Portland Rotary on April 29, 2011.
 
David Small described our literal place in the universe in his invocation, noting that due to Earth’s position in its orbit around the Sun (and the tilt of the North Pole) our days this time of year are at their longest. He recited a Robert Louis Stevenson Poem, “Bed in Summer” describing the universal childhood torment of having to go to bed during daylight. 
 
Kirk Duffy is back in our midst following a winter in Savannah, joining 37 Rotarians and visitors at our June 11, 2021 meeting.
 
Our picnic program is gearing up for next Friday. Word on the street is that the invasive species are quaking in their boots.  $20 bucks buys lunch and fellowship out at Fort Williams. 
 
MITC's Back on Track
By Tom Talbott
 
What’s going on in international trade for Maine businesses? According to Wade Merritt, it’s like talking about the moon, there are so many things to discuss. Indeed, it’s been a very strange year.
 
Merritt started as a glorified intern at the Maine International Trade Center in 1996, but moved steadily up the ranks. He was named President in 2017. As the first native Mainer to hold this position, he says he loves his job – despite this last year. He gets to talk to a global audience, promoting our communities, our people, our work force, all while living here and traveling abroad. Lots of frequent flyer miles! 
 
Shortly after taking the reins, he faced the most challenging international trade environment in the last quarter century. Trade wars, tariffs, and then the pandemic, all created hurdles.
 
MITC has a simple goal to help exporters and importers in all 16 Maine counties navigate changing global markets through the tool of international engagement. It can be export development, investment attraction, knowledge transfer of ideas; whatever a business needs to grow. This is a key component to Maine’s economic development strategy, and has broad bi-partisan support. Over 300 companies in 94 communities are currently members of the Center, with hundreds more accessing services without becoming full members. A staff of 10 people, now all back in the office, handles the work load. 
 
In 2019, international trade contributed $3 billion annually to Maine’s economy, roughly 5% of the gross state product, and about 30% of what we manufacture. Approximately 181,000 jobs are affected directly or indirectly, and over 2000 businesses in Maine reported some sort of export sale in the last 12 months. These numbers are exclusively the export of manufactured goods, and do not include services, tourism, or tuition-paying international students. 
 
Merritt said our exports of $3 billion dropped by 14.5% in 2020 from 2019, to levels not seen since 2005. This was a bit higher than the U.S. average of 13% drop. Every industry sector in the state felt a decline, except for life sciences, which was on the front line of COVID response, exporting to anyone who was buying.
 
The big hurdle facing us now are serious logistic issues. “You can’t get there from here” takes on a new meaning! Many products shipped from Maine go out in the belly of a passenger jet, and flights have been certainly curtailed in the last 15 months. Even though it is loosening, there remain issues with capacity and air freight costs.
 
The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicts an 8% rebound in 2021, and a 4% increase in 2022, as we get back to the benchmark of 2019. However, those numbers are fragile. Affecting those numbers, one need only look at the difference between the vaccination and recovery rates between U.S. and Canada. Even the closest of neighbors are approaching issues in very different ways and timelines.
 
Given the current climate, one of the predominant questions MITC receives from clients is, how do you develop a new market rather than just maintaining relationships with an old one? If there are no trade shows, and you are not knocking on doors, how can we grow? The difficulty is managing these very real supply chain issues, including the high costs of transportation. MITC has shifted focus from the basics of introducing market players to each other, to assisting them with their capacity to manage situations, shifting to e-commerce solutions, online partnerships, and finding alternative suppliers. 
 
International carbon neutrality mandates will require all partners in the supply chain to have a sustainability plan. Companies aspiring to sell internationally need to be thinking about their environmental impact. Merritt noted an interesting new wrinkle involving off-shore wind and renewables. While these projects are really domestic in nature, many of the players are international. A business in Maine may be working with a company in the U.K to supply programs in the Gulf of Maine. It’s both importing and exporting at the same time. 
 
Bowen Depke offered the first question – What are the three top export opportunities for Maine? Merritt noted that despite the fact that lobster is number one, there is a lot of opportunity in other seafoods and specialty foods. Second, forest products, and the development of products outside of paper. Third, life sciences. Though relatively small, this sector continues to grow, with strong potential. 
 
Kirk Duffy noted that national politicians are debating an infrastructure packages of different sizes and content and asked if money comes to Maine, how could it be spent for the benefit of the MITC mission? Merritt’s response was both as leader of MITC, but also as a board member of the Maine Port Authority, acknowledging the importance of the relationship between these two entities. The investments at the Marine terminal are key to shipping ocean freight. However, much of what is shipped in and out of Maine is either by truck or airplane, which has proven to be expensive. Consequently, Merritt would promote freight railways. This would greatly benefit companies who need a more efficient and lower cost method to ship products west and south. 
Moment of Reflection
 
What Is June Anyway?
 
By David Budbill
 
After three weeks of hot weather and drought,
           we've had a week of cold and rain,
just the way it ought to be here in the north,
            in June, a fire going in the woodstove
all day long, so you can go outside in the cold
            and rain anytime and smell
the wood smoke in the air.
 
This is the way I love it. This is why
           I came here almost
fifty years ago. What is June anyway
          without cold and rain
and a fire going in the stove all day?
 
David Budbill, "What Is June Anyway?" from Tumbling toward the End. Copyright © 2017 by David Budbill.  
 
Speaker Schedule
 
June 18 | Picnic, Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth
June 25 | TBD
July 2 | NO MEETING
July 9 | Bob Martin, A New Year Begins
July 16 | TBD
July 23 | Jeff Sanders, CEO, Maine Medical Center
July 30 | Peter Vigue, Chairman, Cianbro
The Windjammer
is published online every week by
The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine.
 
Contributing Editors
Jake Bourdeau
Dick Hall
Erik Jorgensen
Julie L’Heureux
Ben Lowry
John Marr
Tom Talbott
 
Managing Editor
Bob Martin
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