Future of Hampton Roads, Inc.

Board of Directors Meeting

Minutes

Date: July 27, 2004

Time: 10:00 AM

Place: BB&T Board Room, Virginia Beach

Present: Chairman Vince Thomas, President David Clark, Jim Babcock, Ed Brickell, Art Collins, Durwood Curling, Midge Eason, Doyle Hull, Bill Hearring, Clyde Hoey, John Keeling, Will King, Ted Minor, Jeanne Reporter, Roseann Runte, Dan Sykes, Rich Werber, Ray White and Joe Widoff.

Chairman Thomas opened the meeting at 10:00. The minutes of the meeting of May 25, 2004 were approved.

David Clark provided the rationale for rotating the Board Meetings among various locations other than the Town Point Club. The September 28 meeting will be at Langley Federal Credit Union in Hampton. The site of the November 23 meeting will be determined later. The Annual Meeting in January will be at the Town Point Club in Norfolk. Dr. Runte offered the use of the ODU facilities at Norfolk, Virginia Beach and on the Peninsula. Vince Thomas queried the acceptability of the BB&T Board Room. The consensus as that it was OK.

Jim Babcock reported on the results of the morning meeting on The Economic Competitiveness Steering Committee and Committee recruitment. We have identified 27 organizations as prospects. Thirteen have received the presentation and agreed to provide a representative. The first Steering Committee meeting will be on September 18 at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission office in Chesapeake. He described the format of the meeting. He emphasized that FHR does not want to come out of the box with a canned solution. Follow on meetings will focus on process. We want to involve legislators. David Clark emphasized that every organization to which we have given a presentation have said “Yes”.

David Clark reported that our letter to legislators did not accomplish much. (Secretary’s comment: thus preserving a perfect 21 year track record.) He asked what we can do to address items that are really important. He has approached Bill Putnam and asked him to be the Legislative Team Leader. Jim Chapman has agreed to be the Southside Political Team leader and Anna McNider has agreed to be the Peninsula Team leader.. Went over the memorandum. Assigned FHR Teams of at least two to relate to each legislator. Art Collins as a source of advice suggested Kay Kemper. Vince Thomas observed that in looking at the contributions reported on financial reports from legislators, most big contributions were from PACs. Clyde Hoey asked if we were going to try to control the content of the meetings and set up a report back system. David Clark said our leadership will determine “legislative agenda” for the year. This will be related to our contacts. Clyde said we cannot wait until fall. We should already be making the calls. We need to find out from them what they will support. Jim Babcock commented that we need to do our homework first. Jim suggested putting together an “Issues Committee”. Board members did not warm up to this suggestion. The consensus was that the FHR officers should be the issues committee. We need to look at what the Chambers are doing. Art Collins reiterated that we need to get together with Kay Kemper. A motion to approve was made by Roseann Runte and seconded by Art Collins. The motion was carried.

Will King suggested that the Future of Hampton Roads, Inc. send a thank you note to Jimmie Eason for the contribution he has made to the Region in the course of his stewardship with the Hampton Roads Partnership.

It was suggested that Future of Hampton begin circulating an e-mail newsletter periodically. Harry Train volunteered Jake Tobin’s and his services to execute this initiative.

The meeting adjourned at 11:10 AM.