Leadership Eden Prairie is a program of the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce.
The program is a leadership development program that strives to acquaint people who live in or work in Eden Prairie with the community’s institutions and leadership structure. The program includes days devoted to learning about the local school system, about the city government,and about the court system, among others. The participants must make a substantial time commitment to participate in the program, but it’s worth it. When you come out of it, you have networked yourself pretty well in the community.
I spent time with the group on their final day. I gave them a presentation involving a community issue that they had to analyze and solve for me. I told them about the City’s consideration of building a new outdoor water park. We discussed the issues from many different points of view and they offered me their solutions. There were two groups. One group suggested the City proceed with the project in a conventional manner: design it, ask the public to approve it in a referendum, and then build it and operate it. They said the City should pursue corporate sponsorships and advertising to help support the operations of the pool.
The other group recommended the City partner with a full service hotel to build a water park. The hotel would operate it, but the City would help subsidize its construction. The City needs a full service hotel and some hotels are getting into the water park business around the country. They suggested the hotel/water park be built in the Major Center Area- around the Eden Prairie Center. That’s an interesting idea that I haven’t heard until today. I’ll give it some thought.
I like to work with groups like Leadership EP because I always like the opportunity to give a civics lesson. More to the point, I like to put regular citizens in the shoes of what it’s like to be on the City Council. It’s not easy to empathize with elected officials until you’ve tried to do what they do.
It’s a great program and I hope the Chamber continues it in the future.
