ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701200044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
THE NEW CENTURY COUNCIL plans to focus on fewer projects, give up taxpayer money and do a better job of getting out its message.
The New Century Council has announced an overhaul intended to improve its focus and assure the Roanoke Valley it won't compete for local tax dollars.
The organization, which wrote a plan for Western Virginia's long-term future, this weekend issued a progress report and acknowledged some faults.
The plan also will involve changes for the organization's executive director, Beverly Fitzpatrick, who will leave within several months as the council's founding executive director. Fitzpatrick, 50, is likely to become a paid consultant working on an array of council projects designed to make clear the organization's regional mission, said Tom Brock, a member of the New Century Council's board of directors and its immediate past chairman.
"Yes, Bev Fitzpatrick is leaving, but Bev Fitzpatrick isn't disappearing," Fitzpatrick said.
Between fall 1993 and summer 1995, business and community leaders from the Roanoke and New River valleys wrote a strategic vision for the region in reaction to economic forces that eliminated jobs and shrank the area's corporate payrolls. The process involved about 1,000 residents.
The state has paid $200,000 a year for three years for the council's administration to convey the vision to residents and to launch volunteer groups to pursue the vision, which looked ahead to 2015. A volunteer board supervised Fitzpatrick, who acted as advocate and facilitator and drew his salary from private donations. A secretary who ran the council's Roanoke office and one or two researchers made up the council's paid staff.
Now, 18 months into implementation of the council's work, three problems appear to be bogging it down.
* ``We had too many things going on," said Brock, noting that last year's list of actions runs two pages and includes 27 "accomplishments."
According to that list, people on about 35 committees working toward the vision's objectives supported small-business programs, staged meetings and set to work planning a new industrial park. They improved rural Internet access, helped with a new industrial marketing campaign and had a hand in efforts to improve training, early childhood education and civic pride.
To improve its focus, the council's board last week set just six priorities for this year, and Brock said all offer areawide benefits.
* The council last month found itself being criticized by some government and organization leaders for a short-lived and now-shelved proposal to become a permanent body dependent on taxpayer support. While council officials called it a misunderstanding, Brock said the organization has grown tired of people being concerned about where it will get funding after its state subsidy runs out this year. The council did not ask this year's General Assembly for more money.
In response to the concern, a foundation will be set up to receive public donations and any grants the council is able to win, with all money to be spent on specific projects that further the 20-year vision.
"We're not going to fund a group. We're going to fund projects," Brock said. Projects will move forward or lie fallow depending on funding and support. "Every organization ought to operate that way," he said.
Moreover, the foundation's leaders - not yet identified - will take the fund-raising task away from the council's board, leaving the board to press forward the year's six priorities, Brock said.
The stream of private funds from which Fitzpatrick has been paid $88,000 a year will be channeled to the foundation. Brock expects some of the money will cover consulting fees for Fitzpatrick, who is becoming a partner in the Roanoke consulting and public relations firm of Robert Glenn Jr., The Issues Management Group. Glenn is immediate past chairman of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and worked for Roanoke Gas Co. before forming his company.
The New Century Council office in Crestar Plaza in downtown Roanoke may close to reduce overhead, Brock said. The council's board has not decided whether to continue employing a full-time secretary.
* The third issue, Brock said, is, "we've got this enormous communication problem. It's very difficult for everybody to see all that is going on."
One strategy calls for the New Century Council to post frequent reports on its own site on the World Wide Web.
What hasn't changed is that the council still sees itself as a public group that intends to work through existing organizations to boost economic growth and the quality of life, a council statement said.
In the reorganization, the council's board of directors will be headed by two co-chairmen: Jim Rakes, president of the National Bank of Blacksburg; and John Williamson, vice president of Roanoke Gas Co. They replace Brock, who remains on the 21-person board.
Fitzpatrick said New Century Council volunteers should understand that "nothing like this can ever be accomplished from a small office with just a couple of people - that this is literally momentum that they created and they maintain. It's important for them to not in any way think they are dependent or be dependent on a staff. They have written the vision and they must be the ones ... to make it come true."
The New Century Council's priorities for 1997:
* "Facilitate the establishment of the first of six regional commerce parks, to be located in Pulaski, utilizing the concept of revenue sharing among local governments within the region and assembling large tracts in the 1,000- to 2,000-acre range."
* "Establish specific, measurable objectives to improve work force readiness and lifelong learning by addressing the mutual needs of business and education within the region."
* "Facilitate the selection of a regional slogan to increase tourism, while facilitating cooperative efforts among the various tourism marketing organizations within the New Century Region and the Virginia Tourism Corp."
* "Promote the New Century Region as 'Virginia's Technology Corridor' to begin to compete with other nationally known technology centers such as Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle Park."
* "Partner with the Blacksburg Electronic Village to interconnect the region and maximize the use of the Internet for education and commerce and information among the citizens and businesses of the New Century Region."
* "Provide ongoing administrative support for the citizen volunteers working to implement specific projects from the New Century vision."
The New Century Region consists of the Roanoke and New River valleys, Alleghany Highlands and Bland and Wythe counties.
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: The New Century Council's priorities for 1997. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB