LNC sessions are held from October through May. After graduating, participants help plan content for the next program year. Detailed below are the dates, locations, and schedule for Year 1; a summary of the structure for Year 2; and a recap of LNC’s attendance policy.
October 7-9, 2025: Orientation, Boone*
November 4-6, 2025: Government, Raleigh
December 9-11, 2025: Education, Greensboro
January 12-13 or 15-16, 2026: Inclusive Leadership Training, Durham Group Assignments*
January 22, 4-6 pm, 2026, 4:00 – 6:00 pm: Inclusive Leadership Training Full-Class Reflections (virtual)
February 10-12, 2026: Economic Development, New Bern
March 10-12, 2026: Health and Human Services, Charlotte
March date/time TBD: Coaching Opportunity Info Session (virtual, optional)
April 14-16, 2026: Environment, Asheville
May 12-13, 2025: Planning Meeting/Graduation, Raleigh
*Attendance at all components Orientation and of one Inclusive Leadership Training (two days) is mandatory. Assignments for Inclusive Leadership Training dates will be announced during Orientation. Attendance across the remaining sessions must meet the requirements outlined in the Program Protocols included in the application materials and summarized below.
Make sure you have all sessions blocked on your calendars.
Orientation (October)
Program Sessions (November, December, February, March, April)
All Wednesday and Thursday elements are required. The LNC attendance policy (see below) allows participants to miss a limited number of segments throughout the program year.
Inclusive Leadership Training (January)
The mandatory Inclusive Leadership Training for Class 32 will be conducted in two cohorts on January 12-13 and 15-16. Each training will run 8:00 am – 5:30 pm each day. Group Assignments
Planning Meeting and Graduation Ceremony (May)
Time Commitment Outside Sessions
Each participant will be assigned to a Learning Team for the program year. Learning Teams schedule 1-hour-long phone calls between each session (monthly from October through May). Calls are optional but encouraged. For some sessions, participants are asked to review materials in advance to enhance the session experience. There are no other requirements outside the scheduled session programming.
As outlined in the application materials, participation in Leadership North Carolina is a two-year commitment. The schedule for the first year is outlined above. Following graduation, each participant is required to serve on a planning committee for one of the five program sessions or play another role in preparing the program for the following class. There is one in-person meeting held the day of graduation. The remainder of the planning, research, and outreach to presenters is done by conference call (approximately one call per month) and email. Planning committee members are expected to attend the session they help plan.
Regular attendance at all required session elements is critical to success for LNC’s participants and LNC Core Program. Participants are expected to attend each session in its entirety, but we recognize that conflicts and emergencies arise.
Attendance at the October Orientation session and at the January Inclusive Leadership Training is mandatory. Failure to attend Orientation or the Inclusive Leadership Training in full requires withdrawal from the program.
The five remaining sessions are divided into segments. There are five required segments to each session and 25 required segments during the program year. Each morning or afternoon counts as one segment, as does the class dinner. Each participant is allowed to miss up to six segments of required content throughout the program year, and absences may be divided across multiple sessions. For each session, the Tuesday afternoon activity and the Tuesday evening reception are optional. Attendance is encouraged but does not count for nor against the attendance requirement.
There are no “excused absences.” The Board of Directors’ policy since LNC’s inception has been that missing more than the number of segments outlined here results in an unrecoverable loss of content and class interaction, even if due to work, illness, or emergency. If a participant misses more than six segments throughout the program year, they are automatically withdrawn from the program with no refund.
