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HomeNewsArchivesHOW ABOUT A PROBLEM-SOLVING SUMMIT?

HOW ABOUT A PROBLEM-SOLVING SUMMIT?

The Virgin Islands Economic Development Summit is scheduled for July 24 on St. Thomas and July 25 on St. Croix. We now have almost as many "summits" as we do "divas," but that is another subject.
There was a time when the term "summit" was limited to meetings between American presidents and Soviet premiers to try to keep the two countries from blowing up the world with thermonuclear weapons. Now we have lots of summits, many of them economic. Every year, the world's business and finance leaders get together in Davos, Switzerland, for an "economic summit."
Until the recent economic downturn and the demonstrations against any meetings related to "globalization," these session were usually devoted to self-congratulations and reassurances that these leaders were the smartest people in the history of the world and deserved every nickel of their untold wealth. Nowadays, some time is given over to the fact that the vast majority of the world continues to be desperately poor, and that the demonstrators may actually have some valid points.
The upcoming Virgin Islands "summit" appears to be a work in progress, and it isn't clear what will come of it — or even what is supposed to come of it. Like most politically driven events in the Virgin Islands, it is cloaked in grandiosity and marked by undefined goals. Its agenda includes some good items and others that could be considered a joke if the stakes for the territory were not so high. For example, it is unclear what, if anything, global manufacturing standards will have to do with the territory's economic realities at any time in the near future.
More telling than what is on the agenda (and in Sen. Adelbert Bryan's economic "plan") is what is not on it. What is missing are links to many of the real problems facing the V.I. economy, especially the tourist-based economy on which, for better or worse, the territory will depend for the foreseeable future.
With these omissions in mind, I would like to propose a counter-summit, the title of which would be "Here are the Problems. Now What Do We Do?" The agenda would include the following seminars/workshops:
Education: Providing every child in the territory with the education needed to function as a citizen and to succeed in the modern economy, either in the Virgin Islands or elsewhere. What will it cost? How will we do it? What has to change?
Customer service: For both internal (Virgin Islanders) and external (visitors) customers, overcoming the image and the reality of indifference, rudeness, hostility and lack of basic competencies that are making the Virgin Islands an increasingly unpleasant place to live and to visit and eroding its reputation.
Environment / Infrastructure: Developing a set of basic policies that support the infrastructure needed to protect the Virgin Islands environment. Moving beyond cliches to develop a comprehensive approach that demonstrates a willingness to forgo certain short-term benefits to attain a secure and beautiful long-term environment. Taking a crack at developing an approach to dealing with the consequences of global warming.
Public safety: Making both residents and visitors secure by dramatically reducing the incidence of violence and increasing the effectiveness of all parts of the criminal justice system. This is prerequisite to long-term economic health and to retaining as residents those people who can choose where they live.
Facing up to and eliminating government's anti-business bias: Identifying and eliminating the public policies and practices that make the Virgin Islands a lousy place to do business. Inevitably, this session will begin with making it possible for businesses to fire those who are primarily responsible for the rudeness, hostility, indifference and incompetence noted above under Customer service. In this workshop, business people would be asked to make a list of their needs from government and to rank those needs in order of importance. The top items, assuming that they are reasonable and ethical, would become a planning agenda and a basis for a new relationship between business and government.
Implementation: The Virgin Islands has recently become a world leader in big talk and no action. Rather than developing plans that are suitable for three small communities in a highly competitive regional environment, politicians fantasize about being a world high-tech leader at a time when large numbers of youngsters leaving school are functionally illiterate. Disbelief and pessimism are increasingly cultural norms in the territory. Does anyone believe that the coming "economic summit" will produce substantive change?
For these reasons, each of the panels at the counter-summit would be expected to define a single, clear one-year goal or objective and the way in which they propose to achieve it. At the end of the meeting, someone would take responsibility for the implementation of each goal and assemble a team to assist in its achievement. One of these goals will be to establish a new norm: an ethic of action.

Editor's note: Management consultant Frank Schneiger has worked with V.I. agencies since 1975, most recently as consultant to United Way of St. Thomas/St. John. He is one of the founders of the St. Thomas/St. John Youth Multiservice Center. Readers are invited to send comments on this article to source@viaccess.net.

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