When we think about a city with a healthy community leadership, there are many thoughts that come to mind.

According to the Blandin Foundation, a community with healthy leadership is one in which “many people fill leadership roles.”

“The same people, or same group of people, do not hold all the elected offices or chair all the committees. Instead, many different people fill these positions and there is a regular turnover of those holding leadership positions.”

The same is true for volunteer activities.

According to the foundation, volunteer activities should not depend on a small group of people.

“Volunteers are numerous and they reflect the diversity, (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) of the community. There are opportunities for people to gain or improve the skills that will help them to be more effective in leadership roles.”

How does Albert Lea rate based on this criteria?

As we have said before, we encourage anyone and everyone to get involved in some way or another — be it through elected office, their business efforts or other volunteer work.

The more people who are involved, the better.

Being a leader does not mean you have to be on the City Council or run for school board. There are many other opportunities to lead — whether through church groups or nonprofit organizations.

Albert Lea has a lot of great volunteers who work behind the scenes, but it can always use more.