Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 11, 1993 TAG: 9310110051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When leaders from the Roanoke and New River Valleys gather at Mountain Lake Hotel on Tuesday to begin their quest for regional consensus on economic development, a gray-haired Floridian named Henry Luke will be in the thick of it.
But Luke says whatever comes of the meeting will be much more others' handiwork than his own.
"I'm a facilitator," he said in a recent interview in Roanoke. "I'm not someone who comes in and tells people what to do."
Instead, his role is to stimulate participation and to give the proceedings shape Luke and direction.
Luke has been helping clients develop strategic plans - actually, he calls them "visions" - for years. And people say he's good at it.
"He was very, very effective," said William H. Wallace, dean of the college of business at Old Dominion University. Wallace worked with Luke recently on a plan for Hampton Roads.
"We didn't know ourselves how to structure this thing," Wallace said. "He really helped us define what we're trying to do."
Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce President John Hornbeck agreed.
"He understands economic development," Hornbeck said. "He understands community development and the issues that will impact the future of communities. And he has an ability to get diverse groups of people together and get them to talk and make decisions."
Getting people to talk and make decisions is a large part of what facilitating is. Luke also provides the framework for organizing and setting forth the statements of vision.
Mississippi-born Luke is 56. He has a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University and a master's from the University of Tennessee. Both degrees are in civil engineering.
He lives in Jacksonville, where he made his name as an economic planning facilitator in 1983 by helping local chambers of commerce draft a regional blueprint called "Jacksonville 2005." Since then he has conducted similar enterprises for clients in Atlanta; Orlando, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Richmond and Hampton Roads, among other places.
Luke developed a specialty in strategic planning during his 28 years with the Jacksonville architecture and engineering firm of Reynolds, Smith & Hills. He left the firm in February to launch his own business, Luke Planning Inc., though he remains a stockholder, director and consultant to the architecture company.
Luke's client this time around is the New Century Council, a group of business, civic and education leaders that is spearheading the move to craft a strategic economic plan for the Roanoke and New River valleys. It is headed by Thomas Robertson, president of Carilion Health System and chairman of the Roanoke Valley Business Council.
The New Century Council has invited dozens of business, government, political and civic leaders to meet at Mountain Lake on Tuesday to begin formulating the economic plan for the region.
Between 80 and 100 people are expected to take part. They are meant to represent a wide variety of public and private constituencies, including minorities and neighborhood organizations, in what Luke refers to as "the New Century region."
The aim, he said, is to assemble "a knowledgeable and diverse group of people who know the community and know the world." It has been his experience, Luke said, that such groups "will consistently develop a knowledgeable plan for the future of the community."
Tuesday's meeting, he said, is intended "to get some facts on the table" and to begin assessing the region's economic "opportunities and threats."
The "visioning" process will continue with meetings on Oct. 27 at Radford University, Nov. 4 and 11 at the Roanoke Airport Marriott, and Nov. 18 back at Radford University. Invitees to Tuesday's meeting have been asked to clear their calendars for participation in all the sessions.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., executive director of the New Century Council and retiring Roanoke City Council member, said the meeting sites were selected with an eye toward dispelling any notion that either valley has the upper hand in what is meant to be a cooperative enterprise. Mountain Lake, in Giles County, is seen as a neutral launch site.
As facilitated by Luke, statements of vision customarily encompass six broad categories. He calls them the "building blocks of community competitive advantage." They are education, quality of life, infrastructure, economic development, governance and leadership.
Goals are set in each category, along with "action steps" for achieving the goals and meeting pertinent expenses.
Luke declined to speculate on what objectives might be set forth in each category of the New Century plan, reminding a reporter that specific content is the responsibility of the client, but cited metropolitan Richmond's 1991 strategic plan for examples of what can be included in such a document.
The economic development section of Richmond's statement calls for development of a "regional marketing mentality." It asserts that Richmond will become "the community that dares to make itself the most livable in the country," "the community known for the most vibrant downtown" and "the Pharmaceutical/Biomed Capital of the U.S."
Richmond's infrastructure vision calls for expanded air service and high-speed rail connections with Washington and Hampton Roads. In education, the statement calls for "strong business support and involvement in educational and vocational training." It also pledges to "support and facilitate the establishment of a fully accredited engineering school" at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Once the statement of vision is in place - which should come around the end of the year, Fitzpatrick said - emphasis will shift to achieving whatever goals are set. This operational or implementation phase will involve both task forces established by the New Century Council and, on a sort of parallel track, other organizations including chambers of commerce, neighborhood and civic groups and even local governments.
There will be lots of interplay between the two tracks, Luke said, and hundreds if not thousands of people eventually will take part.
by CNB