Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406210051
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To this point, the council's seven goals for what it wants Western Virginia to be 20 years from now would fit any city in America. The council says, for instance, it wants to create a "diverse and globally competitive economy."
That vision-by-numbers goal sounds familiar. In fact, it is strikingly similar to an item on this year's National Business Agenda put together by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: "Create a Highly Skilled, Globally Competitive Work Force."
The council's six other goals are equally universal. What community wouldn't agree that it wanted to be "a world leader in public and private education?" Which locale wouldn't want to be "among the most desirable places in the world to live and work?"
The council also wants Western Virginia to be "a model for America in leadership, regional identity and creation of 21st Century opportunities." With a goal that broad, how would anyone know 20 years from now if the region had achieved it?
The council was formed to create a "vision" for the region's future, and its first half dozen meetings created a lot of excitement in Western Virginia. Those meetings each drew more than 100 people from the region stretching from Botetourt to Radford.
The council has tried to be inclusive, but part of its problem might be what happens when more than 100 fill a room and try to agree on a strategy. One participant in the early meetings didn't go to Blacksburg last week when more than 700 people gathered to divide into task forces to work on the vision.
"They had 782 people there," he said, "and I've never been able to get much done in a crowd of 700 people."
After sitting through half a dozen of the council's brainstorming sessions, it became apparent that one of the hangups of this '90s-style leadership by consensus is that ideas become more vague as the group tries to come up with a goal agreeable to everyone. Sometimes the common denominator is, well, too common.
Though the recent addition of the Alleghany Highlands to the council should in the long run prove to be a good idea, it might make it more difficult now for the three regions to come up with a common strategy.
When the council was formed, some New River Valley people quietly complained that the effort was being driven by Roanoke Valley leaders interested only in milking Virginia Tech's resources. What would the New River Valley get out of the council, some wondered?
But somewhere along the line, the weight of the council seems to have shifted. The council has named education as the region's largest "industry," and the focus has clearly been on higher education. Radford University's new College of Global Studies will lend some weight to the discussion, and the engine of the education push will undoubtedly be Virginia Tech.
So some people might begin asking: other than the Hotel Roanoke project, what's in it for Roanoke?
The seven goals of the council came out of the 100-plus person meetings held late last year. Since then, it seemed the council wasn't doing much and some of its early leaders were getting impatient. But the public is apparently ready to work, if the turnout in Blacksburg last week is any indication.
Council Director Beverly Fitzpatrick says the council should work for this region "to be the best we can be." The task force volunteers need to tell Fitzpatrick and other leaders what they want this region to be. A long-term strategy has yet to emerge.
The region had no vision, so it formed the council, which is putting the communities through this process.
But processes don't come up with ideas; people do. Does anybody have a good one?
by CNB