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Show Workshop was a first step Last Thursday and Friday, an historic event took place. More than 70 of Park City's community leaders gathered in one place to pool ideas and take the first ' steps toward setting a future course for Park City. The leadership workshop was sponsored by the Park City Chamber of CommerceConvention & Visitors Bureau and was designed to create a "Program of Work" basically a charting of future goals that can be achieved and whose progress can be measured. Planners have long said that pursuing short-term goals often leaves cities chasing their tails as strategies change according to political whims- Sticking with a program pro-gram over a period of years despite short-term setbacks set-backs is the most sensible path to take. The benefit of gathering most of the town's tqp opinion-makers in one room and having them sef the goals themselves, through a mostly democratic process, gives them a stake in the future plans and perhaps will foster a willingness to back those who work to make ' those goals a reality. The creation of a Program of Work authored largely by business and civic leaders was one of the first goals of the ChamberBureau's new executive director Bill CI-' inger and he wasted no time in organizing the conference. con-ference. , He invited four experts in the economic development , field to Park City to participate in the conference and they accepted donating their time to help the town plot, its future. "' j f Park City-should extend its most sincere thanks to "" them for the time and expertise they lent to the conference, con-ference, and also to the local participants who gave their time and talents. When the participants broke into smaller groups to develop a series of 15 major goals, the resource people often clarified points and helped those attending focus their thoughts to come up with specific, .... achievable recommendations rather than fuzzy, generalized statements. The participants worked hard and willingly and for i. Editorial that they should be commended. They brought their in- dividual expertise to the process, each slightly different in direction and need. They were encouraged to be selfish, if you will, so that the needs of their particular segment of the community would be represented. The process was an exhilarating experience, a melding of ideas from a diverse group of people who might never come together under any other circumstances. cir-cumstances. And it will touch everyone. The entire community is invited to offer comment either to a member of the ChamberBureau's Board of Directors or through a ' member of the ChamberBureau staff . A committee will compile a list of goals formulated at - the conference and distribute them to selected ChamberBureau members. That membership survey . also will be available to community members for the asking at the ChamberBureau offices. - The Park Record encourages everyone who wants to have his of her-vbice heard in this process to join in it now. These preliminary goals and objectives will be ? debated, refined and pared yet further before the Program Pro-gram of Work finally is adopted by the ChamberBureau's Board of Directors in April. It is not set in concrete and the conference was merely a first albeit important step in the process. The workshop was a constructive and creative encounter en-counter involving those people who have been most active ac-tive in making Park City what it is today. Ginger should be commended for organizing such a well-run conference and the Park Record hopes that the workshop's participants will continue to help the ChamberBureau hone and refine those goals into a workable blueprint for the town's future. |