Getting started

Follow these steps

Should a community decide to pursue the goal of becoming a Main Street Maine or Maine Downtown Affiliate community, the following steps are offered as guidance:

Step 1: Initial inquiry

Schedule an initial conversation with the Maine Downtown Center staff and educate yourself in the Main Street Four-Point Approach®

Step 2: Program investigation

Call a town meeting to inform citizens about the program. Participants should include: downtown building and business owners, chamber, representatives from city and county government, historic society, betterment committees, CLG’s, economic development groups, bankers, hospital, schools, industry, media, seniors, youth, churches, residents, etc. Basically, the list should include all community players.

Invite a representative from a Main Street community to speak at the meeting and inform the group about their local program. Good attendance would be considered to be between 50 and 100 people. This should help you reach consensus on whether or not to continue program investigation.

Organize a core group who will commit to doing a thorough investigation of the program. Typically this group should visit at least one Main Street Maine or Downtown Affiliate Program town of similar size.

Following the community visits, hold a second meeting inviting all who attended the first meeting, to hear the results of the group findings. Build consensus on whether or not to proceed to the application stage. Staff or Advisory Council member of the Maine Downtown Center should be invited to speak at this meeting. Attendance of 50 or more is expected.

Step 3: Application

If an application is going to be submitted, the community will be assigned a mentor to coach the community during the process.  The application process may take months to prepare. During that time begin a media campaign to inform the community about Main Street.