The Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence elected its first officers this morning, led by the man who has facilitated all of VOICE’s sessions, Henderson City Manager Eric Williams.
On a voice vote that drew no opposition, the biggest VOICE crowd in two months approved Williams as chairman, Joel Rice of the Vance-Granville-Franklin-Warren Mental Health Authority as vice chairman, Donna Stearns of the youth services section of the Henderson-Vance Recreation Department as secretary, and Loree Adams of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence and juvenile court counselor Cynthia Yancey as co-treasurers.
Adams and Yancey decided to share the treasurer’s job even though, as Williams pointed out, VOICE has no money. Adams said: “That’s why we want to be right in there.”
A five-person nominating committee — Adams, Yancey, Assistant District Attorney Quon Bridges, Henderson-Vance Recreation Director Alan Gill and Ben Foti of the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments — picked the slate. VOICE, which first met in February and chose its name last month, created the nominating group two weeks ago.
“We’re still searching for where we want to go with this group,” Foti said. “Just because they may have that particular title doesn’t mean that they’re strictly dealing with secretarial needs or simply facilitating the group. Our group saw these folks as those that we would like to lead us in whatever direction we go, regardless of what our focus is. … We just wanted to get a good leadership group.”
Other than Rice, who has missed a few meetings, the officers are among the most active members of VOICE. Stearns has filled the role of recording secretary and prepared minutes of the group’s meetings. Yancey was heavily involved in the group’s focus on juvenile crime at its first two meetings. Adams has served as the official representative of the Coalition Against Violence and has pursued information on the federal Weed and Seed program. And Williams has run the meetings, served as the e-mail information hub, kept meetings close to a goal of one hour per session, arranged for guests such as Magistrate Ron Roberts to attend VOICE meetings and cajoled the participation by people with full schedules.
Williams has succeeded at bringing a powerful assortment of community leaders and service agencies together around one table at the Aycock Recreation Complex every two weeks. Today’s group included Henderson Police Chief Glen Allen, Vance Sheriff R. Thomas Breedlove, District Attorney Sam Currin III, Vance Schools Superintendent Norm Shearin, Henderson City Council members Mary Emma Evans and Lonnie Davis, and the Weldon district office director for Congressman G.K. Butterfield, Dollie Burwell.
Shearin made the motion to approve the slate of officers, and Davis provided the second.
Williams acknowledged that he won’t have much time for the next six weeks or so as Henderson hammers out its budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. In terms of time and energy right now, “I’m pretty strung out,” Williams said.
“You can’t do it without everybody coming to the table and working,” he said. “I would not even consider this unless there was this ongoing commitment.”
Electing officers will allow VOICE to move ahead with other organizational tasks, Williams said, such as drafting bylaws and deciding whether to from a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
“I don’t know where we’re going either,” Williams said.