Leadership Snohomish County, a program that trains people to be lifetime leaders in community and civic affairs, was in the spotlight at the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting Thursday at the Loft Restaurant.

Joe McIalwain, Edmonds Center for the Arts executive director, talked with chamber members about the benefits of having employees go through the program, with a mission to “develop leaders for a lifetime in service to the community.”

Established in 1998, the countywide program “brings something new to your own life and the life of your business,” McIalwain said. McIalwain himself went through a similiar program — Leadership Eastside — before he came to Edmonds from Kirkland, and has agreed to serve as president of the Leadership Snohomish County Board for the coming year.

Kevin McKay, vice-president of finance and operations at Edmonds Community College, just graduated from the eight-month Signature Program. He talked about how the program taught him many things about leadership,  team building and community connections that he didn’t know — despite being both established in his career and a long-time Snohomish County resident .

“I can’t stress enough the value of this program,” McKay said. “If you are looking for how to get plugged into Snohomish County, how to participate in stewardship, if you’ve got people in your organizations that you think would like the opportunity, it is so, so worth it.”

McIalwain noted that Leadership Snohomish County also offers a Leadership Challenge Program designed for young adults, age 21-29 — a shorter-format program that meets for an hour and half monthly for six months.

In the Signature Program, designed for more senior people, participants meet for one full day, for a total of six days, to learn about the critical issues facing the region. Participants will meet local experts and leaders who are experienced in working on challenges facing the community. Then the group of 30 participants is divided into teams of five, and apply their skills — including collaboration, effective decision making, consensus building, understanding the power of diversity and effective communications — to a specific project designed to address a community need. In McKay’s case, for example, it was building a new basketball court for an Everett-based Boys and Girls Club.

The projects that the teams work on are submitted by local non-profit organizations, so anyone belonging to a non-profit is invited to send their ideas to Leadership Snohomish County. The deadline for project submission is Aug. 19.

The program year for Leadership Snohomish County’s Signature Program begins in September, so now is the time to begin the application process, McIlawain said.

You can learn more about applying for either the Signature Program or the Leadership Challenge Program — and submitting a project — on the organization’s website.