 Welcome to the Portland Regional Chamber's first edition of our new video newsletter, Portland Region's Community News. This segment will give insight into what's happening in our communities and how you can get involved. Details will be coming soon for Falmouth and Cumberland businesses regarding the Route 1 development project, which includes such improvements as burying utility lines and making infrastructure improvements to the street, sidewalks and intersections between the intersection of Route 88 and the Main Turnpike Interchange. The Falmouth Cumberland Community Chamber is planning their legislative forum for the fall, so stay tuned to the Portland Regional Chamber website for details. On Wednesday, September 25th, the Falmouth Cumberland Community Chamber will host a business after five at Portside Real Estate from five to seven p.m. Join them for great networking, food and prizes. And finally, a warm welcome to the newest members of the Falmouth Cumberland Community Chamber, the Elizabeth Moss Galleries. On Friday, October 4th, the Portland Community Chamber will welcome Suzanne McCormick of the United Way of Greater Portland to exit issues at the Holiday Inn by the Bay from seven to nine a.m. Portland is one step closer to a ban on polystyrene containers. A proposed ban was presented to the City Council for a hearing and a vote on Monday, September 16th. While the Portland Community Chamber has acknowledged that polystyrene can be a solid waste problem, they've cautioned against making Portland an outlier. The City conducted a cursory business survey to gauge the impacts of the ban. Businesses affected by the ban are encouraged to contact counsellors or chrysonial of the Portland Community Chamber. Portland's creative economy is growing. A recent study reported that Portland's population of creative professionals, including CEOs, IT and marketing professionals, lawyers, scientists, professionals and people who work in media and the arts, increased 10.9% between 2002 and 2011. You can see the results of the study and how Portland compares to Boston, Burlington, Vermont, Port Smith, New Hampshire and Providence on the City of Portland's website. The Portland Scorecard, the Portland Community Chamber's third annual publication about the Portland economy, informs elected officials in City Hall, Augusta and Washington. The Scorecard allows us to measure what matters, what's trending and how we can act in response to the data. A huge welcome to our new members for the month of August. By word of mouth resources, Think Tank, Vitalius Real Estate Group, Main Standard Biofuels, Provoke LLC, Inner Circle of Maine and Safe Light Autoglass. The Westbrook Gorm Community Chamber would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who came to the network with us at Portland Pie Company for our August 30th Business After 5 event and to those who supported Bands on the Boardwalk again this year. With many great musicians and lots of community support, we consider this event a huge success and we're looking forward to next year. Before you know it, Halloween will be here. You can celebrate with the Westbrook Gorm Community Chamber on Friday, October 25th with their great celebration Halloween on Main Street. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details. Welcome to the new members joining the Westbrook Gorm Community Chamber, CM Siminoe. The Scarborough Community Chamber and the Westbrook Gorm Community Chamber's membership meeting will take place on October 16th from 7.30 to 9.30 a.m. Join the Scarborough and Westbrook Gorm Community Chambers of Commerce at Havens Candy's Factory Store in Westbrook for a fun and informative membership meeting. Join them for juice, coffee, and of course chocolate. There will be hands-on demonstrations of how some of Maine's finest candies are made and you'll have the opportunity to make some too. Take some back to the office, home or not, we won't tell. Taste testing is a requirement. For more information, please contact Art Dillon of Havens Candy's at 772-1557. The Scarborough Community Chamber and SEDCO will show off their new office during an open house celebration on October 1st from 4 to 6 p.m. Whether permitting, they'll have a picnic-style spread downstairs in the parking lot and they provide tours of the new office. All the offices in the building are invited to join in the open house and the public is welcome. This Scarborough Community Chamber will start working on our 2014 map to help drive more businesses to Scarborough. It's been three years since their last map was published in 2011 and they work locally with board members and partner with Village Profile to produce their maps. Their 2011 map was so successful that with distribution points in Kittery, Yarmouth, and throughout Scarborough that they purchased 2,000 additional maps as an extra return on advisors' marketing dollars. If anyone is interested in more information, please contact Michelle Raeber of State Farm at 888-301-11. Congratulations to the town of Scarborough, which has been given the Google E-City Award for 2013. The award recognizes the strongest online business community in each state. Google and independent research firm Ipsos-Mori analyzed the online strength of local small businesses in cities in all 50 states. The city with the highest scores in each state was designated a 2013 Google E-City. Nice work, Scarborough. A very warm welcome to the new members of the Scarborough Community Chamber for the month of August, Nirvana Skin Wellness Center, and without a trace, Mobile Streading. The South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Community Chamber would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was involved with making movies in Buglight Park such a success this year. The South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Community Chamber will host their annual retreat on September 19th from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Perpetup Club. Join them for a night of networking and fun. Here's another opportunity for networking. On Thursday, October 3rd, the South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Community Chamber will co-host a Business After 5 event with the Scarborough Community Chamber at home again by Hancock Lumber in Westbrook from 5 to 7 p.m. Chamber members' Learning Works will present their first annual Team Trivia Challenge on Thursday, October 10th from 2 to 4 p.m. Join Learning Works as they celebrate the 40th anniversary of Literacy Volunteer's Greater Portland, a program of Learning Works. Form a team of 2 to 6 players and join them for a fun-filled afternoon that will include prizes and refreshments. Welcome to the news, South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Community Chamber members, Bonton and Portland Pipeline Corporation. Propel is the Portland Regional Chamber's networking organization of dedicated, talented young professionals. Their goal is to enrich Portland by connecting and developing Portland's young professionals. They bring together people like you who live and work in the Portland area, who feel it important to make friends, learn, and establish themselves as vital components of Southern Maine's successful future. Propel events provide you with a great way to connect with a lively mix of people, from rising professionals to the region's influential leaders. Propel offers you an extraordinary doorway into Portland's vibrant business community. Propel board meetings are open to the public, so please come and join us at our next board meeting on October 1st from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Portland Regional Chamber offices. Stay tuned to the Propel website for upcoming information about networking events and lunch and learns. Now let's turn to Portland Regional Chamber's CEO, Chris Hall, for a view from the Chamber. So Chris, thanks for being here today. Abby, thanks for having me. Can you tell us a little bit about the changes that are happening at the Portland Regional Chamber? Absolutely. You know, there's lots of exciting stuff going on. So first of all, we're having an annual meeting on September 24th, it's going to be like no other annual meeting we've ever had. At the State Theater, the art community being a part of it, we're really looking forward to it. We hope everyone will join us. Great. So first of all, our membership is growing by leaps and bounds. Marsha Hart's leading our effort. We're working on a new project called Capitalize on Connections. We've already added almost 100 members to the Chamber's roles. So that's really growing fast. We have a brand new communication strategy that this is a part of. And as we head into the new year, our regional board is going to be restructuring its work so that instead of just overseeing the operations of the organization, they're going to become directly involved in growing prosperity in the region. There's a lot going on. We're very excited. Thanks a lot for being here today, Chris. Thank you, Abby. We'll stay tuned to the website for more details. To visit the Portland Regional Chamber's webpage, you can go to portlandregion.com and check out our member happenings. Thank you for watching today. We hope to see you again next month.