Dear Members and Friends of MFOA,
Thank you for your support, participation, and advocacy for Maine franchise owners. Your support helped advance the Maine Franchise Owners Association (MFOA) and its mission to protect, defend and enhance the equity for all franchise owners. Even though we lost LD 1458 in the senate, we did get our bill through the house and educated many legislators along the way to some of the issues that affect each of our businesses.
Our effort was a huge step forward. In a short period of time we have developed a constituency that equals or exceeds the strength and influence of many other trade associations that operate in Maine. The International Franchise Association and the franchisors it represents put a tremendous amount of resources into defeating the basic protections that LD 1458 would offer Maine franchise owners. We believe those protections would attract future investors to Maine and help protect them from large corporations that don’t always operate in the best interests of their franchise owners. Protections that are very similar to what the Maine legislature has already granted to auto, boat and equipment dealers in Maine and 20 other states have also enacted.
This was MFOA’s first attempt at filing a bill and working with Maine’s Legislature. We were fortunate to meet many legislators that supported us and seek to protect Maine franchise owners and greater business development. We learned a tremendous amount about how the legislature works and established some strong relationships. We will continue to build our membership and influence in the State. The upcoming elections are a good opportunity for us to do so. If you haven’t joined MFOA yet please do so at www.mainefranchiseowners.org
MFOA will continue to work on issues that protect your franchised businesses as well as attract future investment in Maine to help expand, grow and invest in Maine’s economy. Within the next week you will be receiving a survey to seek your opinion of past, present and future initiatives. We look forward to hearing from you through this survey.
Sincerely,
Ed Wolak
Chairman, Maine Franchise Owners Association