Portland At-Large School Committee, ME

Available to speak on the following subjects:
Education
Green Party organizing

Bio
Benjamin J. Meiklejohn is a Portland At-Large School Committee Member. He was appointed by the newly elected School Committee in December 2006, to be the Finance Committee Chairman for the year. Meiklejohn received a B.A. in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing at the University of Maine, where he served as President of the Student Government from 1995-1997. He currently attends the University of Southern Maine for Music Performance on oboe since 2002, and served as the University of Southern Maine's Student Representative to the University of Maine System Board of Trustees from 2002-2007.

Meiklejohn has been active in local Green Party politics since 1994. He founded both the University Green Party (University of Maine) in 1996 and the Portland Green Independent Committee in 1999. He has run for office three times with the party designation officially listed with his name on the ballot (UMaine Student Government President (1994), District 31 State House (1998) and District 120 State House (2006)). From 2000-2004 he served as the statewide chairman for the Maine Green Independent Party. He is also an important figure in the Cumberland County party, formerly its chairman and currently its treasurer.

During his tenure on the school committee, Meiklejohn has introduced several new proposals to the committee. These include a successful measure recognized by the National School Board Association, to limit military recruiters' access to city high schools. He also authored a policy to create student representatives to the Committee from each of the city's high schools, based upon the University of Maine System Board of Trustee's policy on the same. Meiklejohn is one of three School Committee members registered as a Green Independent. The Committee is technically nonpartisan, but from 12/05-1/07 it had four Green Independent members, and was at one point the second "Greenest" governing body in the United States.

Meiklejohn has played the oboe since age seven and founded the rock band Hoboe in 1997, featuring amplified oboe with various effects pedals as the lead instrument. He was on the Board of Directors for the Maine Songwriters Association from 2002-2004. He is currently the classical music columnist for the Portland Phoenix.

[bio from wikipedia] www.benmeiklejohn.com

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