Life is a course, a series of waypoints, choices made, adventures unfolding. This is the sense that came over me as I walked onto the stage at Islesboro Central School on an all-too-rare sun-soaked Sunday in June. I felt at home.
As Islesboro’s commencement speaker, I came to honor ten students at the end of one journey and the beginning of another. Three hundred family, friends, and community members came to cheer them on. A 30 to one ratio: imagine how public education might change if 200 graduating seniors at any other school drew a crowd of 6,000.
Clearly, we all have much to learn from this, but let’s not allow thoughts on education reform to distract. What most impressed me was that every person in the gymnasium, and most clearly the ten graduates, recognized that their success was also their community’s success.
The silver-robed valedictorian Davis Boardman said, “I would not be here today if it weren’t for the love and support of my family and this amazing community.” Each person who spoke noted the town’s role in his or her success. It was an indelible experience, a true honor to be a part of the Islesboro community, encouraging each other, reminiscing, tearing up, and celebrating our greatest pride, our children.
The Island Institute is also in transition, and it is with tremendous gratitude that I chart the next waypoint on my journey when I become president on July 1. The founders, Philip Conkling and Peter Ralston, have been mentors, friends, and extended family for the past 11 years. During that time, I’ve seen their leadership and vision, dedication, and passion for the coast and islands of Maine. Thanks to their leadership, the organization I’ll lead has never had stronger relationships with island and coastal leaders, relationships that are the foundations upon which our successes have been and always will be built.
Our work has always been locally focused, geared toward practical, meaningful impacts in island and remote coastal communities, and it always will be. At the same time, we are increasingly recognized nationally. After all, the solutions that island and coastal leaders are developing to sustain their communities contain lessons for us all, about how to live with a degree of dependence on each other and within environmental limits. The organization is financially strong and our staff has tremendous depth. With all of this to build upon, our horizon is set to expand.
One of the opportunities that this transition affords is a chance to share my thoughts and impressions as the future unfolds. Any attempt to replicate the Long View column that held this space for the past 20 years would be folly; Philip’s voice is his own, truly remarkable in its own way, and one that has many admirers for the style with which he conveyed his views of current events and the future.
I won’t try to imitate Philip’s mastery of the form. Instead, I want to show you the world as I see it, from the field. Each month, in these Field Notes, I will share my experiences and interactions with the remarkable friends that I am making during my travels along this coast and around the nation’s working waterfronts. I will reflect on the numerous opportunities I am afforded to learn from others the ideas that can contribute to local solutions for community sustainability.
Long-term results are the true measure of a leader. I hope to look back, 30 years from now, and see an organization that is even stronger and more resilient than the one I’ve been asked to lead. But I also hope to read these field notes and see the beginnings of another leg in a long journey, led by islanders, toward a bright future for the islands and coast of Maine, and for the communities that share in our mutual goal of sustainability, here and elsewhere.
Rob Snyder is president of the Island Institute. Follow Rob on Twitter: @ProOutsider