Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 5, 1993 TAG: 9311050164
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The second "visioning session" of The New Century Council was supposed to be getting under way, but some participants were in the hall stirring cream into their coffee. Others were seated, but not yet on track.
"Good morning," Luke said loudly into the microphone clipped to his tie.
"Good morning," the participants responded.
"Y'all aren't awake yet," Luke said. "Let's see if we can repeat that."
Luke is a Florida-based consultant who has coordinated vision sessions in Richmond; Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and dozens of other American cities. Officially, he's known as a "facilitator," a Total Quality Management term for the person in charge of preventing a meeting from getting out of control.
Watching Luke in action, it's apparent he's part cheerleader, part coach and part cajoler.
Over the course of two hours at Thursday's session at the Roanoke Marriott - the second of four sessions involving the whole group - Luke moved the group from its thoughts on the regional economy, to its thoughts on education, to a closing statement on quality of life.
These are the sessions that will count. Over the course of the morning at least 100 ideas bubbled up from the council members, and a few of those thoughts will be the pegs on which the council members try to hang the region's future.
The council - formed this summer when the Roanoke Valley Business Council and Virginia Tech joined forces with chambers of commerce in the Roanoke and New River valleys - hopes to have a strategic plan for the region by early 1995.
On Thursday, Luke keeps walking among the layers of tables set up in a conference room. He asked for more ideas, holding his arm out as he walks past people - "Any thoughts from this table?" If nothing was said, he moved on.
At times, Luke goaded the group into raising its ambition; other times, he told the group it might be overreaching.
At one point Thursday morning, he thought it was overreaching. Someone had suggested that any area high school graduate who wanted to should be able to attend two years of technical or college education.
"Are we really saying we're going to provide two years of free education after high school?" Luke asked. "Is that realistic?"
"California does it," said one council member.
"California's bankrupt, too," Luke responded. Council members broke up in laughter.
At least in these sessions, Luke doesn't let the suggestions get too specific. After two more gatherings, after all the ideas are written on big pieces of paper and taped to the wall, the group will form task forces to deal with the various areas: the economy, quality of life, education, government.
Thursday the group began to bog down in its discussion of the region's kindergarten-to-12th-grade educational system. Luke cut it short.
"This whole exercise is based on what we want to be 20 years from now - not on how to get there," he said.
Luke grew up in Mississippi, and his down-home approach seems to go over well with most of the New Century Council members. His blunt humor appears to keep them loose and willing to be just as direct as he is.
Some participants have said they think Luke asks a question, then waits until he hears the answer he wants before moving to the next subject. But Luke denies he's pushing the group in a particular direction, just as he denies he has developed a routine for helping a community develop a vision.
"My role is to keep the discussion moving in the direction the group wants it to be," Luke said after the meeting.
"I'm not sure what I do; I just get out there and do it."
by CNB