Maine’s economy faces large systematic challenges as our demographics and available resources change. This presents an excellent opportunity to look at some of our fundamental challenges and develop meaningful and innovative approaches to address them. The purpose of the Leadership Project is to learn about a critical issue affecting the Maine economy and to understand the key elements of leadership that influenced (and continue to influence) its resolution. Each project team will work together over the course of the program to address one important topic. The project extends the learning opportunities offered by the Leadership Maine sessions to subjects beyond the core program and gives class members the opportunity to organize, analyze, and present their own lessons learned from the topic area.

To engage current participants in projects that also reignite the passion Leadership Maine alumni have had for their own projects, this year’s class will include legacy projects. Legacy projects will be chosen from alumni proposals that include next steps in the development of a past team project representing a continued challenge in Maine. This is intended to:

1) Engage current participants with alumni and organizations; and

2) Allow the effort invested in projects to accumulate in order to create a larger impact over numerous years.

To increase the impact of the learning process and outcomes from the team’s efforts, it is preferred that each project be aligned with an organization or existing effort that is currently addressing a challenge related to the project problem statement. Solutions identified and enacted by the Leadership Maine teams will add value to the organization’s goals to address significant challenges in Maine. Additionally, organizations and groups contending with issues that span over a number of years are encouraged to submit proposals for continued, multi-year involvement with future Leadership Maine project teams to allow the opportunity to accumulate solutions successively through the years.

Key questions that will be considered in the review of project proposals include:

• Does the problem statement align with an issue identified in the Measures of Growth report prepared by MDF for the Maine Economic Growth Council? (Current and past versions of the Measures of Growth report may be found on MDF’s website at www.mdf.org.)
• Does the project build upon a previous Leadership Maine project?
• Is there an opportunity for current class participants to engage with Leadership Maine alums?
• Are any Leadership Maine alumni still engaged in efforts to address a portion of the project challenge?
• Is the project being proposed in association with a sustainable sponsor organization or defined effort?
• Does the project proposal align with the sponsor organization’s broader goals?
• Is the proposed project of a scale that will allow the Leadership Maine team to identify solutions that will have some impact on the larger issue being addressed?
• Does the sponsor organization have an appointed liaison either within or without the Leadership Maine alumni network to interface with the assigned Leadership Maine project team?

Please email Jan Kearce with any questions.

Albert Einstein

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes