Mike McClellan, executive director of the Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, recently completed the one-year Maine Development Foundation Leadership Maine Program.

The program is designed to bring Maine leaders together to learn from each other, from visiting best practices sites in Maine and by teaming program members into small groups that study problems currently occurring in Maine. It is hoped that these leaders will return to their communities to share their work and remain in Maine to lead.

The 2006-07 class was named the Xi class. The monthly trips the group took included a multi-day bus trip through northern Maine; a visit to a working waterfront; a look at Bath Iron Works and a day running a mock Maine Senate in Augusta.

McClellan said he had the opportunity to learn and grow through the program and the peer group developed in the year-long program. His small group final project was to solve the Maine taxation Issue. While the group was not able to quite accomplish this goal, they did learn much about group process.

To learn more about the Maine Development Foundation and the Leadership Maine Program, go to www.mdf.org.