Welcome to the Portland Regional Chamber's advocacy home page! Here you'll find all the information you need to learn about legislation and regional issues that affect your business - and also how to make your voice heard.

Policy Update -Our most popular section - New issue 3-8-10! Click to read the complete version of our latest Policy Update email (weekly on Mondays during legislative sessions, periodically in the summer and fall). Policy Updates are a great way to quickly stay current on the hot issues for our region.

From our most recent Update:

The end of every legislative session offers opportunities and presents risks.  The decisions that legislators make will be shaped by the voices they hear in the next 3 weeks.  At the Portland Regional Chamber we know our members are communicating with lawmakers on a regular basis, telling them what individual bills mean for their organization, their communities and themselves.

If you're one of our many members already doing that - keep it up!  And if you haven't yet, use our resources to get started - the next 3 weeks are the best time to make your voice heard.  Need help?  Just drop me an email.

Grassroots - A step by step "how-to" guide that lets you effectively contact lawmaker.

Bills Worth Watching - New 1-5-10:  40 new bills you need to know about!  Click for LD's printed during the session. This section gives you summaries of the most important bills in 2010, with links to related news items, voting records and legislative details.

Public Policy & Legislative Affairs - New 1-19-10:  Education budget shortfalls and reform options.  Guest Senator Peter Mills.  Follow the work of the Portland Regional Chamber's policy committee as it makes recommendations on policy issues to our Presidents' Council and Regional Board. See something that interests you? Get involved!

Comment and Opinion - What the new state budget means to local officials - more taxes, less service - or consolidation?

Polling - New 3-1-10:   Nory Jones and C. Matt Graham, faculty at the Maine Business School, are currently researching the role of e-learning in the workplace in terms of current trends, emerging technologies and the value they provide to organizations. Although this has been studied extensively in the past, their research looks at it from a Maine perspective. They'd like you to take a quick survey to help them understand how e-learning relates to your organization.

PRC Speaks Out - New 1-10-10  Testimony against manditory sick time - LD 1665.  Here's a list of all the Portland Regional Chamber's testimony and public comment on important policy issues impacting our community.

Lobbying Tips - Updated periodically, here you'll find easy tips for dealing with legislators, city officials and other folks in government.

Profiles - Get to know your elected officials, and others, a bit better.

Links - Useful links for legislative, municipal and policy information.

Contact Us About Advocacy - Do you have a problem with laws, rules or politics that you can't solve on your own? We might be able to help. Do you want to sound off on something that's got you pumped up, or upset? We want to hear from you!

Our public policy work is made possible by our Partners for Progress, employers who are providing extraordinary investments so that we can serve you better.