Seventy-three greater Mankato community leaders, making up the Greater Mankato Leadership Delegation, left Mankato Sunday for Charlottesville, VA. The group of government officials, education leaders, CEO's and more hope what they see there will help them make things better here.
Jonathan Zierdt with Greater Mankato Growth says, "It really gives us an opportunity to look at a community that is doing things well, that possibly we can learn from."
Attorney David Naples says, "Our objective I think is to try to learn some best practices and how those sectors work together and what they are doing with some of the challenges our communities are facing today."
While there the group will look at programs, initiatives, and best practices that could be adapted to the Greater Mankato area.
Zierdt says, "They have continued to be a robust growing regional center, those are our aspirations as well."
The idea started about 6 years ago, and since local leaders have taken trips to Bellingham, WA and Ft Collins, CO.
Zierdt says, "If we look around the community we see things like the greater Mankato events–dot–com, the online calendar of information. That was an idea that came to us out of Ft. Collins CO on our trip there.
Naples says, "We've gotten some very unique ideas that we have seen implemented in town in the culture, the arts, the downtown revitalization."
The time delegates spend together on the trip also helps strengthen relationships across the public, private, and non–profit sectors in the area.
Naples says, "They get to learn more about each other personally but also about the challenges they face in their prospective jobs...and it helps them find creative solutions."
Zierdt says, "When they come back here they are not just focused on their business, but they are really involved in how do they make this community a better place."
I great place to visit, or stay for awhile.
If you want to keep up on what the delegation is doing, they will be using the twitter hashtag #GMLD during their trip.
