This morning the Phi Sigma Pi chapter at Virginia Tech held their annual leadership conference. Several dozen students came out to learn ways to sustain their organizations for younger members.

Essentially we are creating a succession plan in trying to retain and attract our young people in the region. A recent statistic says in 2006 for every two people exiting the workforce, only one will be entering.

The one student we need to keep is T - a December graduate of the engineering school from Virginia Beach. She is entertaining offers from government entities outside her native Tidewater region. Until today, she never gave Roanoke a thought and it is probably too late for her, but perhaps there were other students who are now aware of Roanoke.