Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In thick white packets distributed on the way out, they found a volunteer form along with a copy of the 20-year strategic plan completed last month for the New River and Roanoke valleys and Alleghany Highlands area.
``We are out of the blocks and we are 30 percent of the way done in this 100-yard dash,'' Tom Robertson, co-chairman of the council's steering committee, told 185 people at the Conference Center of Roanoke.
The hard work of implementation lies ahead, Robertson said, and ``we are going to get that done in the same fine style.''
Last month, the all-volunteer New Century Council released a wide-ranging report designed to inspire community and government leaders and maximize quality of life in a region consisting of nine counties and five independent cities, which more than 400,000 people call home.
Monday's event was a celebration after council members logged more than 300 committee meetings.
Guests spent two hours talking, snacking on Goldfish crackers, peanuts and turkey sandwiches and listening to speeches, including one by a futurist who gave the group a verbal pat on the back.
The reception drew less than 20 percent of the 1,000 people who provided input on improving schools, government, health care and more in the New Century Council ``visioning" process that began in October 1993.
But if Western Virginians are inclined to sit back and let others implement the plan, project leaders think otherwise.
They hope to blanket the region with the New Century Council's vision and images. Monday, they gave volunteers a memento of sorts to keep on the desk at the office or a shelf at home. It consists of a 4-by-4-inch green, blue and white cardboard box that read: ``ThinK OutsidE tHe BOX.''
The message it is intended to carry is that open-minded thinking created the region's new strategic plan - with its calls for revamping schools, building a coliseum and putting Internet computer hookup in every classroom - and it will take more open-mindedness to see the plan through, according to Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., council executive director.
The box affixes atop a cardboard pedestal that asks, ``What have you done today to make the New Century region better?''
The boxes were made possible through the combined donations by Corrugated Container Corp., Progress Printing and John Lambert Associates, all Roanoke businesses.
In about a week, Kroger stores throughout the region will place a New Century Council flier in grocery sacks. Trigon Blue Cross-Blue Shield printed 700 copies of the report. And soon, the council leadership will announce its implementation plan.
The meetings and report raise six main points, Robertson said:
The New Century Council region needs a name by which it can be known around the world, if only to compete as a regional economy. ``In economic development, you have to be on a list to make the cut,'' he said.
Higher education will be the engine of growth.
Governments and businesses across the region must cooperate to manage growth.
The region must speak with one voice in Richmond and Washington, D.C.
The region must identify the types of jobs that will be ideal for the future.
Technology and communication resources in place now give the region an edge to compete globally.
Speaker Rick Smyre tried to set the stage for council members to tackle their recommendation by describing a world in which citizens' groups like that started by the New Century Council make 80 percent of the decisions now made by government.
Smyre, president of a think tank called the Center for Communities for the Future associated with Western Kentucky University, applauded such New Century Council ideas as plans to electronically link society, stress higher education and reinvent government.
``It's a civilization of change. It's not a pendulum swinging back and forth,'' he said. ``The old institutions, I suggest to you, will not work.''
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