Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I N O. I JA N UA R Y 1 1 , 2 0 2 1 10 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E of Eastbrook and Osborn, which each cover about 40 square miles but together number fewer than 500 resi- dents. Plans for a similar project had failed twice in recent years. N O T E W O R T H Y M I D C O A S T & D O W N E A S T Maine Maritime Academy in Castine announced that it exceeded its tar- get of $20 million in its three-year Opening Doors, Changing Lives: The Scholarship Campaign for Maine Maritime Academy 18 months ahead of schedule. The effort will conclude with nearly $20.5 million raised. Midcoast Youth Center in Bath received a $10,000 grant from the Avangrid Foundation to support home- less students through its Merrymeeting Homeless Youth Project. EMCC joins national workforce development initiative Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor was selected as a member of national Building Rural Innovation, Designing Educational Strategies. e ini- tiative, created by the national nonprofit Education Design Lab and supported by a $1.9 million grant from Ascendium Education Group, will focus on the develop- ment of new pathways that meet the needs of regional employers and help learners in the region acquire skills needed for careers in fast-growing local industries. N O R T H E R N N O T E W O R T H Y Northern Light Health in Brewer made a $10,000 donation to the Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services, Maine in recognition of the collective voluntary service of the more than 160 board members within its system who have provided assis- tance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Versant Power in Bangor announced that it invested $440,000 in local communities in 2020, with funds sup- porting basic human needs as well as socially distant events and economic development initiatives. A S K AC E A n s w e r e d b y F r a n c i s E b e r l e o f P r i c e A s s o c i a t e s The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a non-profit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. Q: Our team has settled into a routine using video for meetings, although everyone seems to be either tired or a little irritable. They seem productive, but what can I do to get their creative energy back? ACE Advises: Video meetings may be more productive than face-to-face meetings, but productivity isn't everything. Creativity is just as important. Regular human interactions build human connections. Human connections help people relax. Relaxed people are more creative. Fortunately, creativity can be fostered in video meetings. Here are some things you can do to promote more creativ- ity on your team. Simplify the number of digital tools needed: Stay with one or two platforms to minimize technology glitches. Learn them well. Have a white board, and another direct messaging platform, (chat, Slack etc.) for informal information sharing. Individual and group brainstorming: Individuals can be more creative than groups. Have your team members brainstorm individually before a meeting and have them bring their ideas to the team. Brainstorm together from the combined list of ideas. Create opportunities for connection: For problem solving or ideation, design a variety of groupings of people and in different size groups for the meeting so they interact with different people. Adjust project timelines: Instead of having long brainstorming sessions, break them up over several days so the team members can think about the task between sessions. Diverge and converge: Zoom in and zoom out. Go broad for a couple of sessions. Ask, "What else?" at least three times. Then rank the ideas. Select the top few and focus on them to explore the issues in depth. You will need to plan agendas differently. Video meetings tend to be very task oriented and it's okay to have some fun! Francis Eberle of Price Associates is a leadership and organization advi- sor, with over 30 years' experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. He can be reached at francis@price-associates.com For more on this topic, see "Video Boredom: Hacks to Regain Creativity" at consultexpertise.com/blog/9428859 @ B R I E F S O U R C E : Small Business Administration data. LARGEST PPP LOANS IN MAINE, AS OF NOVEMBER 24, 2020 C o m p i l e d B y T i m o t h y D o y l e Business Description / Jobs reported Lender Loan amount 1 Intermed P.A. South Portland Healthcare / 500 People's United Bank $10,000,000 2 Penobscott Comunity Health Center Bangor Healthcare nonprofit / N/A Katahdin Trust Co. $8,600,000 3 Spectrum Healthcare Partners P.A. South Portland Healthcare / 462 KeyBank $8,286,822 4 BerryDunn Portland Accounting firm / 500 TD Bank $8,139,000 5 Saturn Associates Inc. Falmouth Food retail / 500 Androscoggin Savings Bank $7,669,700 6 Mount Desert Island Hospital Bar Harbor Healthcare nonprofit / 420 First National Bank $6,956,300 7 Woodland Pulp LLC Baileyville Paper manufacturing / 321 Machias Savings Bank $6,682,707 8 O'Hara Corp. Rockland Commercial fishing / 279 Camden National Bank $6,200,076 9 Diversified Holdings Co. Portland Publishing & communications / 310 Camden National Bank $6,108,530 10 Husson University Bangor Higher education / 492 Bangor Savings Bank $5,965,000 Last year, in the first round of Paycheck Protection Plan relief, 28,270 loans were written to Maine businesses for a total of $2.3 billion. Here is a list of the top recipients of those loans. N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N

• Cover