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Women in agriculture

BANGOR – On Dec. 8, 9 and 10, the Ramada Inn will be the site of “Women Connecting 2006: Field, Forest and Self,” a conference to celebrate 10 years of the Maine Women’s Agricultural Network, the Women And The Woods program and women’s networks.

The conference will focus on expanding the success of women in agriculture by building marketing and business skills, and teaching about risk management, woodland management, food science and safety, and accessing money and land.

The program will explore what participants have learned over 10 years about the need for women’s agricultural networks and the power and possibilities of working together.

Workshops and speakers will examine emerging trends and opportunities for continued success. Tour choices include a visit to the University of Maine’s food science pilot plant to explore resources available to value-added food businesses.

Other tours will include visits to two small diversified farms and a tree farm. An outdoor training on using global positioning system technology to find woodlot and farm boundaries will be conducted.

Workshop topics include forest and land management, business planning, value-added food businesses, financial record keeping, insurance, property tax, grant writing and resources, nontimber forest products, farmland protection, local food distribution, cooperative marketing, wildlife habitat and Maine’s animal identification system.

The Maine Women’s Agricultural Network was founded in 1997 through a collaboration of farm women and agricultural agency women. The program assists nearly 1,000 women farmers and woodland owners. Vivianne Holmes, network director and University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator, continually hears from women who are leaving careers to pursue a life in agriculture.

Women and the Woods Program is a collaboration of UM Cooperative Extension and the Maine Forest Service. The program has trained more than 200 women, who manage more than 20,000 acres, in woodland stewardship, communicating with resource professionals, timber harvesting, maple sugaring, estate planning and forest-related tax laws, as well as chainsaw use, draft-horse logging, property boundary definition and stand inventories.

For a brochure and registration form, call 353-5550 or visit www.umaine.edu/umext/wagn/anniversaryconf.htm.

Credit union opening

OLD TOWN – The board of directors and staff of Penobscot County Federal Credit Union announced the grand opening of its new main office building at 205 Main St.

The two-story, 6,400-square-foot building, formerly Brookings and Smith, has been renovated by Payton ME Corp. and many local subcontractors. Doors will open for the first time 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, as Penobscot County Federal Credit Union.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. and tours of the facility will be given. Special guest Gov. John Baldacci plans to attend the ceremony, organizers said.

The new location features a multiple-lane drive-through, more space and enhanced technology.

Scientific instruments

ORONO – Stillwater Scientific Instruments, a developer and manufacturer of advanced analytical instrumentation, announced that David A. Ferris has been named executive chairman of the board of directors.

Ferris brings a combination of engineering, business development, operational and entrepreneurial experience to Stillwater that will help the company capitalize on its recent successes, officials said. Those include its first commercial sale of its mass spectrometry instrument.

Ferris is a Maine native who has pursued his educational and professional career in state. He brings a wealth of financial, management and engineering experience to Stillwater from his career at Maine technology firms, including positions as design manager at Fairchild Semiconductor; as founder and president of Quadic Systems, an integrated circuit design service firm that Ferris managed from a five-person start-up to a 40-person firm; as vice president and general manager of the U.S. R&D division of Tundra Semiconductor, a Canadian telecommunications integrated-circuit company, and later as vice president of strategy and business development for Tundra.

He received a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maine and in 1992 was named Maine Entrepreneur of the Year by the Maine Society of Entrepreneurs.

Based in Orono, Stillwater Scientific Instrument’s patented Time-Of-Flight method can be used for analytical instruments, such as mass spectrometers. The company developed the technology at the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology at the University of Maine, and was initially funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

It received additional funding from the Maine Technology Institute, the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Target Technology Center in Orono, and the Small Business Technology Development Center.

For more information, call 866-6540 or visit www.stillwaterscientific.com.

Financial services

BANGOR – Daniel J. Desjardins of MetLife of Greater Maine, an office of MetLife Financial Services, recently celebrated 25 years of service with the company.

Desjardins started his career at MetLife in 1981. For the past 25 years, he has devoted his career to helping clients in the St. John Valley area build financial freedom.

Desjardins, who serves clients from an office in Madawaska, is a graduate of the University of Maine at Fort Kent. He is a registered representative and a member of MetLife’s Veterans Association.

MetLife of Greater Maine offers a broad array of financial products and services including life, disability income, long-term care insurance and annuities, mutual funds and investment products. The main office is located in Portland.