Last week, I had the good fortune of attending the Maine State Chamber of Commerce’s 20th Annual Leadership Summit at Sunday River. As well as being the Executive Director of our Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber, I’m also the President of the Maine Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (MACCE) which is a collective group of all regional chamber directors in the state. Because I hold both of those positions, I have a seat on the Maine State Chamber Board of Directors, and with that access to events like the Leadership Summit.
The Leadership Summit is a day-and-a-half retreat where Maine State Chamber board members (which are representatives of many of the leading businesses in the state) meet with nearly three dozen state legislators in Newry. The sessions are not televised and seldom reported on, and that is with intent, so that these business and legislative leaders can speak frankly about the challenges our state is facing and about possible solutions. I would betray my colleagues if I quoted specific points made by specific people at the summit, however there were several overriding takeaways that I think would be important to any business leader or citizen.
To understand the format, the event begins in the afternoon with a cocktail reception and dinner so business leaders and legislators can share ideas freely. This is followed by a keynote address during dinner, this year by Governor Mills, then a Q & A with the leadership of the Maine Senate and the House of Representatives. The next day is breakfast and four hours of breakout sessions where the business leaders and legislators rotate through different specific topics throughout the day. The topics are the key issues facing Mainers such as: healthcare, education, opioid addiction, workforce needs, infrastructure, energy, broadband and more.
First off, the most obvious takeaway was the collective tone that the summit has. Some say there are bitter partisan divides among legislators and the business community, in general. Though this event welcomes a wide-range of political views from passionate people, at no point did this summit devolve into partisan disputes. Frequently, in our daily news cycle, we see partisan commentators fighting bitterly and attacking each other negatively, and that simply is not the case at this event. Instead attendees focus on the particular issue being discussed and the differing thoughts on how to solve it. Repeatedly the question was asked, ‘How can we do this better’ which is the best way to get a collaborative answer. The Maine State Chamber should be commended for having an event that breeds that level of collaboration and the legislators should be commended for coming in and being open to suggestions. It cannot be understated how valuable it is to get away from partisan talking points and dig into the true outcomes of a proposal and what the real world effects are of potential legislation.
Another takeaway, which is admittedly a supporting takeaway to the first one but nevertheless important to state, is that everyone involved in the summit is trying to do what they feel is best. That may sound like a common observation, but it’s very important. On Facebook in particular, you often hear partisan accusations from both sides that the opposing political party doesn’t care about the military, or family values, or the Constitution, or immigrants, or the environment, or education, etc. This could not be further from the truth. Everyone there is trying to do what they think is right, and though others may disagree on how to accomplish a goal effectively, their want to accomplish it well should not be diminished. Routinely people used phrases at the summit like ‘in my experience’ to share how they viewed an issue, rather than saying ‘everyone knows’, or ‘you’re wrong when you say’ because those phrases are divisive. It may sound like semantics, but the way you express your thoughts in these type of forums, often determines their success, and how we communicate is as important as what we are communicating. Overall though, we all have the same goal- we’re trying to do what is best for all Mainers.
The final takeaway is a bit negative. Well, it’s only negative if we leave it where it is. If we work on it, then this becomes a great opportunity.
There were so many worthwhile issues brought up, that the sheer quantity of work is overwhelming. The size of the task can become paralyzing. There is so much to do, that it’s hard to determine what the first step should be or who should be tasked with the work- so instead of solving the issues, we remain static.
Unfortunately, many of the issues identified at the summit, were not new problems. They were many of the same issues that were identified 5 years ago, and 5 years before that. Healthcare costs. Affordable housing. Finding quality employees. Childcare. Clean energy. Substance abuse. Education funding. These aren’t new issues- but each year the need to solve them gets more critical.
This is where the opportunity lies.
We cannot rely on legislators to solve these on their own. They don’t have the bandwidth to solve these gigantic issues alone while also creating, producing and evaluating 2,000 bills per session. They simply don’t have the hours in the day to do it.
We cannot rely solely on annul summits like this to solve the problems. The infrequency of these conversations stalls any potential momentum.
It becomes incumbent on communities to come together to help identify these problems and explore solutions. It becomes necessary for some embedded organization to be the facilitator of these conversations. In my mind, that regional community convener should be your chamber of commerce. This is the role we should play in each of our communities throughout the State, and we should use our networks to bring the legislators, businesses, schools and citizens together to have the important conversations about our future.
And so we will.