Details and registration materials are now available for the 27th Annual MYAN Peer Leadership Conference and Maine Anti-Tobacco Youth Summit! These events are back to back on November 11th & 12th at the Augusta Civic Center. The registration deadline is October 20th for both events. 

MYAN is excited to be a part of a great committee, led by the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education and sponosred by WABI-TV5, that is organizing a candidats debate on youth issues that will take place this fall. Check out this announcement for more info and how YOU can get involved!

Tired of campaign slogans that say "young people are our future?"

Want to make sure Maine's next Governor knows that you are here now?

Here's your chance!

As part of the Prepare Maine campaign, the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education, in partnership with WABI-TV5, is sponsoring a televised Gubernatorial Debate on the evening of October 27^th which will be broadcast live from Bangor High School – but not just any debate. This debate is being shaped and planned with the active engagement and leadership of young people. We need your help to plan what will be the most dynamic, most exciting, most talked about event of the 2010 campaign season.

Because….we're not just planning an event in one place, we're planning satellite site watch parties all over the state. Satellite sites won't just view the debate (on TV or via a live web feed) they will be part of the conversation via email, Twitter feeds, and Facebook.

How can you be part of it? YOU can:

• Join the leadership committee that will be working over the summer to help plan, structure, and execute the actual debate. As stated, this will involve some meetings and work over the summer and is a hefty level of commitment. But, come on…what were you going to do with your summer anyway? Why not change the course of democracy?　
  
  
• Get involved in one of the sub-committees that will help with the specifics of different aspects of the event (debate structure, site logistics, watch party logistics, or technology for instance.) Each subcommittee will have a different time commitment which may involve summer meetings depending on the work that needs to be done.
  
  
• Agree to take a lead role in organizing the "satellite site" in your community for October 27^th (While this may not require a summer commitment, it will be best to get some of the basics laid over the summer since back to school time gets busy. You will work with the planning team and organizing staff who will support your efforts and supply a "party in a box" kit for you which will help guide your organizing efforts.

   

• Join the team that organizes the "satellite site" in your community.

   

• Volunteer the day of the event either at the satellite site in your area or at the host site in Bangor.  

The votes are in! Members of MYAN's network voted on what quotation to choose to go with this year's Peer Leadership Conference theme, Seeds of Change. There were a record number of responses, and the verdict is:

"Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream. ~Debby Boone

Many thanks to everyone who voted! We're very excited to have this year's conference planning informed by our network of youth and adult members! Stay tuned for more opportunities to guide our conference planning in the coming months.

Please read below for a message from a committe working to plan a youth-driven Gubernatorial Debate in the fall.

Tired of campaign slogans that say "young people are our future?" Want to make sure whoever will be Maine's next Governor knows that you are here now? That you have a voice and opinions about issues that are important to our state AND that you know what those issues are? Here's your chance.

The Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education is sponsoring a Gubernatorial Debate in October – but not just any debate. This debate will be student driven and student led. We've got an exciting team of young leaders from all over the state already working to plan an interactive forum that will happen in one place but be accessible to "satellite sites" all over the state but we need you to make it stronger. We need your help to make it the most dynamic, exciting, most talked about event of the campaign season.

How will the debate be structured? What will the questions be? How will we use technology to make it as interactive as possible? How will people of all ages from your community know what was said?　

You can play a part by:

• Joining the leadership committee that will be working over the summer to help plan, structure, and execute the actual debate. As stated, this will involve some meetings and work over the summer and is a hefty level of commitment. But, come on…what were you going to do with your summer anyway? Why not change the course of democracy?　

   

• Getting involved in one of the sub-committees that will help with the specifics of different aspects of the event (debate structure, site logistics, watch party logistics, or technology for instance.) Each subcommittee will have a different time commitment which may involve summer meetings depending on the work that needs to be done.

   

• Agreeing to take a lead role in organizing the "satellite site" in your community for the day of the debate in October (While this may not require a summer commitment, it will be best to get some of the basics laid over the summer since back to school time gets busy. You will work with the planning team and organizing staff who will support your efforts and supply a "party in a box" kit for you which will help guide your organizing efforts.

   

• Joining the team that organizes the "satellite site" in your community.

   

• Volunteering the day of the event either at the satellite site in your area or at the host site in Bangor.

Want to know more about how you can make your voice heard by the candidate's for Governor this fall? Contact Aymie Walshe at aymiewalshe@gwi.net or 207-355-5236 to get involved.