Jeff Barnes had whipped up the crowd with his best Elvis - and it's good.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver joked that he never thought he'd grow up to someday introduce James Brown - or follow Elvis' act.

But when the chips were down at the Las Vegas-themed United Way of the CSRA kickoff luncheon Monday, campaign chairman Mark Maund wasn't showing his cards:

There will be no stated fund-raising goal this year.

It's an unsual tack - but an intriguing one. Let's not shoot for a particular amount, Maund figures. Let's just get everyone to give what they can.

"We couldn't set a goal high enough to meet all the needs in this community, so why try?" Maund told the crowd at Bell Auditorium.

Of course, everyone will have $4.4 million in mind, since it was last year's total. But we like Maund's out-of-the-box approach.

And he makes a very compelling case for giving.

This United Way has clean audits, with no recommended changes five years running. "That's unheard of," Maund says.

The local United Way also runs on half the national average for nonprofit administration costs.

And anyone who's ever been involved knows the United Way is all about accountability - requiring annual assessments not just of recipient agencies' finances, but of their effectiveness in finding and meeting needs in the community.

It's convenient, too, allowing you to support 19 area human needs organizations with one gift, including through payroll deductions. There are campaigns at over 700 work sites in the area.

This may have been the best United Way of the CSRA kickoff. And the campaign itself needs to be as good.

Of course, that will be up to us.

Mayor Copenhaver was good to come read a proclamation in support of the United Way. But the government can't make the kind of community we want.

That, too, is up to us.