ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130076
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
BUSINESSES HAVE THEIR expert advisers and lobbyists, so it's only right that the public has the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council as an ally, the council's president says.
Irene Leech wants to teach Virginians to be squeaky wheels.
``If something's wrong and we don't speak up in the appropriate manner, it's not going to change,'' she said.
Leech, who was elected last month as the new president of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, has been involved in consumer education for more than a decade. She knows how tough it can be for individual consumers to stand up to businesses who have powerful lobbyists and legal departments.
That's why her goal for the volunteer consumer organization, which has several hundred members, is to let the rest of the state know that help is available - and that consumers do have rights.
``Business and consumers - we need each other,'' said Leech. If the marketplace is to operate smoothly, both sides must be strong. ``But a lot of times, business interests are very well represented, while the process for consumers to get involved isn't so easy. VCCC does wonders in speaking up for consumers.''
Leech's new position with the VCCC complements perfectly her daytime job as an extension specialist in the College of Human Resources at Virginia Tech. Leech joined the Tech faculty a dozen years ago and was a member of the VCCC board for several years before succeeding Jean Ann Fox as president. She grew up on a farm in Buckingham County and earned her undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees at Virginia Tech.
For Leech, one of the biggest challenges is overcoming the misconception that consumer savvy is just common sense. ``What people think is that you just learn it automatically,'' she said.
And so most schools never teach - in any organized way - how to compare products, or how to buy insurance, or what a consumer's rights are in the marketplace.
``But you don't just wake up one day and know this,'' she said.
Even Leech still does her homework before making a purchase. Before she bought a new car recently, she consulted both Consumer Reports and Internet resources. ``I won't begin to say I did everything right, either,'' she said.
Helping consumers make such decisions is where organizations like cooperative extension and VCCC fit in, she said. 4-H teaches both kids and adults to be smart shoppers. Extension offices sponsor financial seminars. VCCC publishes consumer-help guides and studies marketplace problems.
And VCCC must be prepared to provide even more help for consumers, she said, because so many local consumer affairs offices have been cut back.
Fox, the previous VCCC president, said consumer issues are becoming more complex, and consumer needs more dire, every day. Leech faces a formidable task, Fox said, but one for which the new president is well-prepared.
``Trying to coordinate and encourage a group of volunteers scattered across a state as large as Virginia - that's really challenging,'' she said.
Fox, who has joined the Consumer Federation of America as director of consumer protection, hasn't given up her work with VCCC. She is now the group's vice president for regulation.
Leech said she has been taught since childhood that everyone must contribute to his or her community.
Her work with VCCC is her gift, she said.
``I don't see myself as doing things for people,'' she said, ``but helping them unleash the things that are within them to make their lives better.''
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM Staff. Irene Leech, an extension specialist inby CNBVirginia Tech's College of Human Resources, is the new president of
the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council.