Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402190010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's the question the New Century Council, a group of about 100 business leaders, academics and politicians, posed to itself as it met in recent months to craft a "vision" for our region.
A rough draft of the council's answer, what it calls a "verbal picture" of a preferred future, is reprinted on today's Commentary page. You'll notice that the seven "vision statements" - describing what the region might achieve in the areas of education, quality of life, health and safety, infrastructure, economy, governance and leadership - are wonderfully optimistic.
You'll notice, too, that the proposed strategies attached to each of the seven goals also include fairly ambitious ideas. Some of the strategies will seem vaguely dreamy. It's a wish list, some will say.
But it is also something more. In the world of business management from which this type of "vision" comes (along with the practice of using "vision" as a verb), the idea isn't to describe what's achievable this year or next.
Whether composed for a corporation or a community, a vision statement is supposed to depict a lofty long-term goal that, over many years or even decades, can unite people and align their efforts in pursuit of a common purpose. It's supposed to be ambitious.
The New Century Council's vision may seem optimistic, but it is not utopian. On the contrary, much of it conveys a realistic assessment, in broad outline, of what the Roanoke and New River valleys will have to accomplish as a regional economy if we are to secure a niche in the global marketplace and assure rising living-standards for our children and grandchildren.
The council's vision recognizes, for example, the importance of education - calling for strategies to promote life-long learning, greater business support for schools, long-distance education via new communications technology, an emphasis on early childhood development, and so forth. Surely our region cannot thrive without doing all of this. We certainly can't pin our future on preserving low-skill employment.
The vision calls for "sustainable development" - guiding growth so as to preserve the region's natural beauty and sense of community that attract people and investment here in the first place. Surely growth is pointless if, in the long run, it merely degrades our quality of life.
The vision also says our region should export more goods than it imports, as if we were a country with a trade balance. But regions are, in fact, players in a competition that will affect our fate as a region, whether or not we choose to recognize and act on the fact. Surely we can't exempt ourselves from the global economy.
The region's governments, according to the council's vision, will act as "partners investing in tomorrow" - installing regional industrial parks, for instance, and sharing in the revenues. Surely residents of the New River and Roanoke valleys can't gain a greater measure of control over their economic destiny if governments don't start coordinating efforts and pooling resources to build a regional competitive advantage.
No, the council's vision isn't the seven pillars of wisdom. It's sort of a blob. Still, there is sense to be found in it. Keep in mind this is the product of a messy process: meetings during which suggestions from scores of participants were posted on flip charts, later to be consolidated into the draft version as it appears today.
Keep in mind, too, it's a work in progress. The statement still is being revised in response to suggestions from the public. (For example, the vision headline, "quality of life," will reportedly become "quality of life/environment.")
Now the New Century Council plans to form seven community-based task forces to develop "action plans" for realizing the visions. They'll need volunteers from across the region and all walks of life. For surely, without large numbers of people committed to making them happen, the council's visions can never become the region's.
by CNB