As one of eight siblings, Tim McNeill knows something about building consensus.

He grew up on a farm in western Harnett County, where McNeill's father thought it imperative that his children pull their weight and get along.

McNeill uses the same approach as chairman of the task force overseeing the region's effort to take advantage of military growth.

A big, unassuming man, McNeill deserves a large share of the credit in positioning the 11 counties surrounding Fort Bragg for the promises and challenges that base realignment - known as BRAC - will bring.

Although the region is not yet ready to meet some of those challenges, the task force is viewed nationwide as a model of how to do things right.

The task force has 22 board members, two from each county in the region. The group could easily have slipped into discord, with board members fighting to take home their own slices of BRAC's economic promises.

That's what once happened in Huntsville, Ala., where the military reversed itself on promised job shifts after a spate of community infighting in the early 1990s.

McNeill said that has not been the case here.

"Everybody checks their local hats at the door, and we become one organization," he said. "That's what I'm most proud of."

Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne, vice chairman of the task force, remembers the first time representatives of some counties met, before the task force even formed.

"The room was full of tension and distrust as there were turf issues between the big counties and smaller ones," Chavonne said. "Tim emerged as a leader that could bring people together for a common good.

"Through it all, Tim kept us focusing on the big picture and celebrating the successes the region enjoyed along the way."

McNeill was able to do that even though it was apparent early on that certain counties would benefit more from BRAC than others, with Cumberland, Harnett and Hoke leading the way.

"It's like dropping a rock in the pond. The closer you get to the center, the impact will be greater," he said.

At first glance, McNeill seems an unlikely candidate to lead such a daunting mission. His background is the family farm, and his career has been in manufacturing and sales. He has no military experience.

McNeill left the farm in the 1970s, learned about business at a couple of community colleges and got a job as a plant supervisor overseeing metal finishing of shopping carts. He parlayed that experience into a job as a metal finishing engineer in South Carolina before returning home to Harnett County in 1995, when his mother became ill.

That's when he began building his BRAC resume. Back in Harnett County, it didn't take long for McNeill to recognize that there was work to be done.

In 2000, McNeill won a seat on the county Board of Commissioners. He quickly went to work promoting organized growth in the western part of the county.

Within a year, plans were announced to build a business park next to the Anderson Creek golf community. Within three years, plans were announced to build more than 1,200 houses for the military off N.C. 87.

Today, new subdivisions line western Harnett's once-rural roads. The area is unincorporated, but if it were a town it would be Harnett County's largest.

Those and other successes didn't go unnoticed. When the time came to name a chairman over a five-member executive committee of the newly formed BRAC task force, McNeill's name quickly went to the top of the list. He was appointed in March 2006.

Today, McNeill said, the other 25 bases around the country affected by base realignment seek advice from the task force.

"We are the only ones who looked from A to Z when dealing with these issues," he said. "I think we have worked as quickly and effectively as we could."

The Association of Defense Communities thinks so, too. Last year, the association chose the task force as its defense community of the year. The award recognizes a community "whose efforts in building partnerships with a military installation have enhanced military value and the overall economic development of the community."

Some people join boards to gain a sense of power and prestige or to reap personal rewards. Developer Ralph Huff calls it "the cumulative effect" - the more people you know in high places, the more you stand to benefit.

McNeill doesn't appear to share that philosophy. He said he became a task force member, a county commissioner and a trustee at Central Carolina Community College for a single purpose - to make life better for his children and grandchildren.

"What I'm looking forward to is our region of the state will no longer be the forgotten region of the state," he said. "It will be the shining star of the state."

Chavonne, who is in line to become the next task force chairman, describes McNeill's style as "quiet, unassuming, inclusive and effective."

Although McNeill is proud of the task force's successes, he recognizes that the hardest work is yet to come.