The fourth class of the Bangor Regional Leadership Institute graduated recently, sending another 20 or so freshly re-educated, highly motivated adults back into the community charged with making a difference. If you’ve never heard of BRLI, chances are very good you will benefit from its impact in the not too distant future.

Its premise is simple: Teach a group of people already leading within their organizations how to connect with leaders from other organizations. Educators. Social workers. Engineers. Innkeepers. Bankers. Leaders from any occupation are welcome at BRLI, which costs about $700 per person and is overseen by the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. Once connected through a series of daylong workshops and tours of area businesses, these leaders are charged with focusing their skills on the community at large.

This year’s class was asked to identify the Bangor area’s greatest strengths and weaknesses and form strategies for maximizing the former and minimizing the latter. The resulting strategies are bold, if not original: Respond to our lack of diversity and brain-drain by facilitating immigration from other nations; work to bring about both an east-west and improved north-south highway system; support rail links from Bangor to Ellsworth and Bangor to Portland; promote industries that add value to Maine’s natural resources – aquaculture and finished wood products are two prime examples; work to bring about genuine tax reform in part by reducing the number of tax-exempt entities; promote health awareness, in other words, stop smoking and slim down, thereby reducing health costs; support a new civic center/auditorium and environmentally friendly riverfront developments; and increase volunteerism.

If all of this reads like the expensive wish list of a group of people with their heads in the clouds, remember this: they are already leading many of the most successful businesses and organizations around. For more information on BRLI, call 947-0307.