The City of Eden Prairie sponsored a City-wide Open House event this past Saturday. I’ll write about the event itself in an upcoming entry. What I want to focus on today is the City’s new emphasis on partnerships.
I believe partnerships are important. I believe that we can accomplish more through partnering with others than we can accomplish alone. I have placed a new emphasis on partnerships, and my staff has really taken off with that.
Some partnerships are merely inter-departmental partnerships within City government. These should be easy, but sometimes history makes them tough. Some of our partnerships are with other governmental organizations like the Eden Prairie Schools or the City of Edina, or Hennepin County. Some are with local non-profits like the Chamber of Commerce or the Eden Prairie Historical Society. Some are with private industry, such as the private partnerships now under discussion with Flagship Athletic Club or Lifetime Fitness.
At our Open House this weekend, we featrued several of our partners.
Centerpoint Enegery was there, as a partner to the Fire Department, to advise people how to handle natural gas safely.
K-102 was there to promote itself, as well as our event. They promoted our event as a community service. We haven’t partnered with K-102 before, but we might do it again in the future.
The Eden Prairie Community Band entertained at the Street Maintenance Facility. People toured the facility, but could also sit and enjoy the band for awhile as well. We partner with them all the time through our Park & Recreation Department.
General Casualty employees were there selling Fire Department t-shirts and taking donations for the new Heart Safe Community Program. General Casualty got the program off and running with a $10,000 donation to the City. The program is a joint effort between the City and the Eden Prairie School District to place AEDs (see my October 13, 2003 blog entry for more info) into Eden Prairie public buildings.
We had a bit of rain on the Open House, but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm for partnerships. We’ll have more in the future.
