The Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce held its first Chamber Chat luncheon Jan. 19 at the Boothbay Region YMCA. About 25 attendees represented the diversity of the region’s marine industry, from yachting services to the working waterfront and small boat builders to marinas. The chat served as a brainstorming session and encompassed broad viewpoints as well as an understanding of the economic need to connect with each other, the community, and the public at large.

Patricia Royall, the Chamber’s director, opened the chat by saying, “I wanted to get your feedback. I have ideas on how we might better represent the waterfront area and what kinds of issues are facing you. We aren't just about tourism. You're working on projects we don't know about, and we could help you promote them. This is what this whole session is about: to help you determine what it is that we, not just the chamber but the community, can do.”

Charles Barclay, club manager for the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club, said that as a new member of the community, he found it challenging to find out where to obtain items and services. “I had no idea, except for word of mouth, who to go to for sails, or fuel. Where to get your boat fixed — someone has an opinion on it, but we don't have a full guide where I can call up and get those things.”

Barclay also said the extended season brought new questions from sailors. “I got calls throughout the fall when we were shut down. ‘Where can I tie up?’ ‘Where can I get fuel this time of year?’ ‘Where can I get a mooring this time of year?’ September and October are not bad times to be here. November was good this year. That means maybe we could be open for six months a year instead of three. It makes this area more sustainable for families to be here,” he said.  

Boothbay Harbor resident George Friant, who works in the commercial marine industry, said, “It’s important to identify those properties and infrastructures critical to the commercial working waterfront, and to ... list them, and do what we can to help preserve them, be it public or private.”

Michael Maxim, president of the Chamber board and manager of Abacus in Boothbay Harbor, said, “One of the important items on Patricia’s brainstorming list was advocacy, about what the chamber can do about regulations and changes to them, and could the Chamber be involved with that more.”

Much of the talk focused on how the industry could best market itself and its products and services, connecting those efforts with one another; how to best use digital applications like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; and the importance of information being made available to phone search applications. Other ideas included a flea market for mariners; a service guide; sea bags containing harbor products and information; Facebook pages with links to other local marine merchant pages; working with young people who know how to tack their way through the digital marketplace; and recognizing that each person has a story that would be interesting to any number of print venues,

Matt Elder, general manager for Southport’s Hodgdon Yacht Services, said, “There are so many media outlets to advertise and publish in. What the Chamber could do is help us figure out why people end up in Boothbay Harbor. What resources did they tap? What websites did they go to? What publications do they read? Those are the things that, for me, would help make better use of the advertising dollars we have.”

Royall acknowledged the challenge of finding the best bang for the advertising buck. She said, “We've done a membership and community survey as a way for us to know where people are putting their advertising dollars. It’s a good tool for recommending what works. I have a background in the boating and marine industry in terms of advertising and I would be happy to help any of you with cooperative advertising,” she said. The Chamber is also working with the Boothbay Register to set up a series of marketing workshops.

As discussion wound down, Maxim thanked participants for coming. “We’re happy to sit down with you individually at any point. We want to keep conversations flowing throughout the off-season to continue to develop this. You’ve given us a lot of good feedback,” he said.