February 2026 - Cvsg - list.chattanooga.digital

Agenda and background for 3/3/26 regular Study Group meeting
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. March 2, 2026

March 2, 2026

The preliminary agenda for our next regular meeting, this Tuesday, March 3 at noon, is to: Review the Study Group’s purpose and goals/intended outcomes (listed below) Share your personal/organizational learning objectives Please come with some ideas about, if not fully defined, objectives for what you would like to accomplish or be able to do as a result of participating in the CVSG. Generally, learning objectives should start with an action verb, have measurable or observable results, and include conditions or criteria for those results. Have preliminary breakout “working group” discussions about: Planning and logistics for dialogues and other large group learning activities (see notes, etc., below) Expanding and focusing outreach efforts to increase participation and support Configuring, seeding, and utilizing our online platform Now for some background: The purpose of the Chattanooga Venturing Study Group is to learn from Chattanooga Venture and similar initiatives about how (and why) to engage and mobilize community members for inclusive, positive, sustainable change. The regular first Tuesday meetings of Study Group will function primarily as a learning forum, drawing on lessons from Chattanooga Venture and applying those insights to real projects and civic challenges represented by participants. The Study Group is not a decision-making body, but rather a space for reflection, shared learning, and informed dialogue. At the end of each regular meeting, attendees should leave with (1) practical, relevant insights how the Group’s purpose relates to their own goals and learning objectives, (2) greater understanding of how their goals fit with others’ goals and objectives, and (3) their role and tasks for achieving our shared goals, or intended outcomes, for the Study Group, which are: Capacity, Design, Structure: create durable capacity and build an “engine” to sustain the work. Inclusive Civic Participation: get citizen input on a comprehensive set of regional issues via dialogue among representatives of a broad range of local groups. Collaboration & Network-Building: interconnect people across complementary interests and common values as the basis for creating a unified vision to guide collaboration. Local Learning/Our Narrative: understand and steward Chattanooga Venture’s story, its legacy and lessons learned; clarify what’s special about Chattanooga (what attracts people, keeps them here, or pushes them away); and become advocates of our city’s narrative. Strategy: map community assets to surface untapped energy, leverage existing strengths and opportunities, and organize around priority focus areas to direct effort and resources effectively. Please share your thoughts about any of these items. I’ll send a final agenda on Monday. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521 Dialogue Planning and Logistics: The dialogues should start with an issue that was addressed by Venture with someone with direct experience with how and why Venture addressed it as anchor, and, ideally, an exec of the relevant legacy organization as a key participant. Dialogues we have planned so far are: “Environmental Conservation and Education: The Bend and the River” on March 23rd, anchored by Sally Robinson with Andy Wood, Tennessee Aquarium President & CEO (tentative), and Tricia King Mims, National Park Partners Executive Director, as key participants “Housing Quality, Affordability, and Generational Wealth” (or something like that) on April 27th, with Chris Thompson, CNE President & CEO, as key participant and co-producer. Anchor discussant prospect in Maria Noel with Betsy McCright from Chattanooga Public Housing Authority and someone from CALEB as other key participants. Other dialogues should address education (PEF), local arts & culture (AVA and Bessie Smith Cultural Center), urban design and development (River City Company), violence and trauma (Children’s Advocacy Center and Family Justice Center). Develop a checklist (see below for a starting point) for all/each dialogue and assign tasks to individuals. Dialogue check list: Topic Date/time, location Registration Participants Anchor (individual who worked on the topic with Venture) Bio-sketch Key participants Information & promotions Receptionist Attendee check-in Nametags Room setup and breakdown Agenda/handouts Optional Content/media Sponsor

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Can you help out this evening?
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 23, 2026

Feb. 23, 2026

We have OVER 90 PEOPLE registered for our first dialogue tonight! This is without NO ADVERTISING and minimal promotions! Folks, I’m not sure what’s going on but I think we have tapped into something HUGE. I need your help! If you could arrive at about 4:00 to help get the room set up or plan to stay after to help put it back in order, I would greatly appreciate it. Zac will handle checkin/reception but I’m sure he would appreciate some help with that. Unfortunately, our “connecting activities” will be minimal, basically just opportunities for people to share their top why’s and how’s for community engagement. Melody, can you bring your bag a pens and stuff? I’ve made some simple input forms and will bring my pens but we’ll need more. I hope that we can have some discussion around each table as well as capture some basic input, so I’m looking for folks to act as table facilitators/spokespeople. Bigger picture, I’d greatly appreciate folks stepping up to help organize the dialogue sessions, specifically connecting activities. The goal is to facilitate connections around ideas & initiatives to promote collaboration. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Prep for Monday and beyond
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 20, 2026

Feb. 20, 2026

We have over 80 people registered for Monday! 🤯 That’s amazing in part because we have done almost no outreach and promotions. I think there’s huge interest out there, especially among younger folks, that is untapped. We could easily grow this if we put just a bit of effort into it. It also would be great to include connecting activities in every dialogue but that's really a team sport. What are your thoughts on how to build a team to lead engagement activities like facilitating small group discussions and doing community outreach? The other thing is that I really need to refocus on other things. It has been very gratifying to run the study group and I personally have learned a lot of interesting and useful stuff, but it has also cost me substantial amount of money and time, which I can’t really afford. I’m committed to support the dialogue sessions through April but really need others to take over. Kate and Pat are helping but Kate is taking a full time job so we need others involved. I’m also committed to providing an online platform for our purposes but that’s going to require substantial investment of money and time to develop and maintain. We need a team to help with this. Our next regular meeting on the 3rd will focus on these issues. Please reach out in the meantime. Any help or suggestions would be greatly… and are needed to sustain the group beyond April. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Seeking volunteers for Monday evening
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 19, 2026

Feb. 19, 2026

Is anyone willing to act as table facilitators on Monday evening for the dialogue with Ron Littlefield? This would involve capturing your neighbors' ideas for how, where, and why to engage community members. Thanks! -- Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. *Executive Officer and Principal* Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Plans for Chattanooga Venturing Dialogue sessions... help needed!
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 9, 2026

Feb. 9, 2026

The first Chattanooga Venturing Dialogue is scheduled for Monday, February 23rd. Who might be willing to help? Most importantly, we need to promote the event and invite others, particularly younger persons with more diverse identities to attend. The purpose of the dialogues are to learn about how Venture addressed issues, with what results, and how Venture’s approach might be applied today, building on its results. The first dialogue will focus on the practice of community engagement — the practice and process of involving diverse, representative residents/stakeholders of an area in deciding how resources should be acquired, identified, and mobilized for goal-attainment and improvement — rather than a specific issue. Here are the general questions for the dialogue: How was community engagement identified and adopted as an approach to planning? How was it developed as a practice of Venture? What was the legacy of Venture’s efforts? How has community engagement been used in recent planning efforts? How are we engaging community members today? What are current goals and purposes for community engagement? What other issues might benefit from community engagement? Should we have more and, if so, how might it be done? What do you want to do with or get out of community engagement? Who will lead and support the effort? Ron Littlefield, former mayor, first executive director of Venture, and key leader in establishing Venture will be our primary discussant. We will involve folks with the City and RPA for the second question and representatives of All in Chattanooga and National Park City for the third. All attendees will be asked to answer the fourth question and share feedback on responses to earlier questions. What you can do: Promote the event to your associates, friends, and neighbors! The registration link is https://luma.com/cz0hwuhv. What else do you need for this? Assist with logistics, preparation, and clean up. Come early to help with set up. Help folks sign in, make name tags, find seats, etc. Stay afterward to put everything back. Facilitate table discussion around the last set of questions and read out results. Help plan future sessions. I’m leading the effort for the first two or three sessions but plan to hand this off to others. Two key challenges are to find financial support to cover costs and select topics that were addressed by Venture but also relevant today. Another challenge for the whole group is how to apply knowledge from Venture to issues of today that were not issues in the past such as caring for the aging, disabled, and children, mobility and transportation, and needs for deferred maintenance and mitigating negative impacts of growth. You may reply directly to this email but remember emails to cvsg(a)list.chattanooga.digital go to all fifty some people who have expressed interest in participating in the Study Group. Please make sure your response is relevant to everyone. You may also reply directly to me and/or Kate Rudder who is helping with logistics and programming. Thanks! — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Update on Chattanooga Venturing Study Group
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 4, 2026

Feb. 4, 2026

You are receiving this message because I’ve added you expressed interest in the Chattanooga Venturing Study Group. Unfortunately, folks were not signing up for this list directly and it’s not practical for me to selectively email folks, so I massed subscribed everyone who has expressed interest. You can unsubscribe via the link below. The kickoff event on Monday went very well, with over 60 people in attendance. We got a lot of great input for our 2026 program, a summary of which is included below. We had a good meeting yesterday—our regular meetings are on the first Tuesday of the month at noon at Adelle’s, 400 E. Main St.—reflected on the kickoff meeting, reaffirmed our goals for 2026, and established committees for (a) events and (b) objectives. Reply to this email if you’d like to help or have any suggestions. Our first dialogue session will be on Monday, February 23, at Adelle’s, 400 East Main St. The topic will be “Community Engagement” with Ron Littlefield, former mayor of Chattanooga and a key leader of Venture, Kevin Roig, Mayor Kelly’s Chief of Staff, and others. Please help spread the word, invite others, and register to attend at https://luma.com/cz0hwuhv. Thanks! — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521 A Vision of a Better Chattanooga 1. Education - 34 votes / 13 ideas Thriving public education / Public ed as a priority / National role model for public ed / top-rated public school systems (19) Access to Free Early Education (4) Arts education in all schools K-12 (4) Established lifetime learning programs and facilities (3) Training for low income / low skills to build businesses in low income neighborhoods (2) Personal financial literacy in all K-12 schools (1) Being able to afford private schools without having to relocate (1) Better public education facilities Better pay for public school teachers = better quality teachers Higher ACT score in public schools 13->22 (measurable goal!) Community college focused on the humanities Reading proficiency for all African-American males (sound alarm early) 2. Walkability - 15 votes / 5 ideas Places dedicated to people without cars and ADA accessible (4) Mixed Super Blocks for pedestrians - plazas & promenade, eg. Barcelona (4) Inner-city loop of river walk, pedestrian-oriented transit (3) Improved connectivity & wayfinding to public spaces (2) Rails 2 Trails Greenway from river thru North Chatt (2) 3. Urban Design / Roads - 14 votes / 6 ideas Better landscaping in all commercial areas & trees on every street (5) Re-design downtown interstate (bypass?) (2) Reduce traffic, especially the interstate (1) Complete streets Flood-smart city w/resilient infrastructure & ecosystems (1) Improved waste management (sewer & trash) (5)3. 4. Public Transportation - 12 votes / 6 ideas Trolleys! (bring them back!) (6) Improved transportation & connectivity options (3) Fast expansive mass public transit (2) Transportation hub, inter-modal originating in Southside (1) Safe, fun, sustainable transport Transportation hub in the county to the city (maybe at the airport) 5. Governing Structures - 8 votes / 1 idea Metro government (8) 6. Natural Environment - 8 votes / 5 ideas Chattanooga Botanical Garden (5) Environmental protection: places off the table for development (2) Greenspace Investments (1) Reserve at Enterprise South Nature Park as intended Clean water: Room for the River, eg. The Netherlands 7. Housing - 7 votes / 4 ideas Everyone has a place to live. Real affordable housing (6) A review committee to stem the tide of cheap, ugly housing mushrooms all over town (1) An established community land trust. Goal > 1000 homes Zero homelessness. City has low-barrier shelter w/capacity for all amenities. 8. Jobs - 7 votes / 7 ideas Economic Opportunities for all Chattanoogans (3) Infrastructure to support single mothers (1) Narrowed the wealth gap - good jobs for all, higher minimum wage (1) Businesses recruited that care about people, planet, home. Benefit corporations, certified B Corps (1) Competitive salaries / higher minimum wage (1) Small Scale Loans Re-use Innovation Center: reclaimed materials 9. Health - 7 votes / 2 ideas Access to healthcare (4) Chattanooga as a National Center of Excellence in Healthcare (3) 10. Community Life / Neighborhoods - 5 votes / 5 ideas Increased usage of public spaces (1) More opportunities for creating & collaborating across cultures (through work, school, arts-events, neighborhood events, civic engagement, etc.) (1) Rossville Blvd Revitalized: grocery stores, ice cream, apartments (2) Local: neighborhood economic development An endowment for community projects (1) 11. Food - 4 votes / 2 ideas No food deserts: strengthened food/ag systems. Farm to Nooga. (2) Strong local food networks (2) 12. Citizen Involvement - 2 votes / 3 ideas Support and/or streamlined access/inclusion programs for New Chattanoogans (1) Younger citizens engaged & sharing their ideas. (1) High school and college students involved in venturing 13. Means/How we do it… - 1 vote / 2 ideas Kindness (1) Consolidated Efforts (consortium grants?) to address the problem of too many orgs going it alone 15. Tech & Community Engagement - 2 votes / 2 ideas Community Platform for citizen voice (2) One cohesive clearinghouse for plans & visioning. Community-wide plans tied together 16. Attractions - 2 votes / 2 ideas Convention/Destination Center (2) New public attractions Community Assets Development Resource Center Rails 2 Trails City/County council/commission meetings Form-based code committee Time Free Press Chattanooga Area Food Bank National Park City CARTA CNE Trust for Public Lands TDOT Uber/Lyft/Waymo Railroads Aldi Waterways (City of Chatt Program) Lookout Mountain Conservancy Glass Street Businesses: local laundries, music shop, alterations, daycares, repair shops, shoe repair Ag-Businesses: local food, fresh markets, hemp, etc McNabb Center Tech Goes Home Government at all levels Neighborhoods Chamber of Commerce Small business incubator (needs investment) CALEB Kiindhearts A Step Ahead Life Spring Chattanooga 2.0 Better Education Facilities Siskin Children’s Institute Level 1 Trauma Center at Erlanger ArtsBuild City office of Arts and Culture Crabtree Farms YMCA - mobile market Heart Institute ClearStory Arts CEMPA community care Chattanooga Free Store Chattanooga Area Food Bank The kindness of people in Chattanooga

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Results of February 3 CVSG regular meeting
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 3, 2026

Feb. 3, 2026

We had a very good discussion about the kickoff event during the CVSG regular meeting today. My takeaway is that we all feel really good about the event itself and the method/process but feel it needs to be more inclusive. Lisa, could you please share the text you received from one of the facilitators? I think it expressed this very well. Kate will share notes from the regular meeting and outputs of the kickoff meeting in the near future. In the meantime, key items from the regular meeting are: The first dialogue on Monday, February 23, at 5:30 PM (doors open at 5:00), featuring former mayor Ron Littlefield, will focus on citizen/community engagement. Please help promote this! I’ll send an email about it in the next week when we have participants nailed down. Registration is live at https://luma.com/cz0hwuhv. Attendees have the option of a free ticket, a “pay what you want” ticket with $10 suggested, and a $20 “benefactor ticket. Mayor Kelly is not available so we are looking for others to participate in the dialogue. Kevin Roig a senior member of his team or RPA leader who was involved with OneChattanooga plan to participate. Two other two dialogues are in the works: Conservation, Moccasin Bend Task Force, and, the river will be our topic on March 23rd, with Sally Robinson. I’m reaching out to Tricia King Mims with National Park Partners and Tennessee Aquarium staff to dialogue with her. Housing affordability and quality, co-produced by CNE, will be our topic for April 27. We need to identify individual(s) from Venture to anchor the dialogue. I plan to as Bob Corker for his recommendation. We now have two committees: Event planning, chaired by Pat Smith and supported by Kate Rudder, will take the lead on planning the dialogue series. Kate, Pat, I’ll assist with that but hope to hand that off to you after the first dialogue. My general guidance is that we should (a) address issues that we on Venture’s agenda, (b) feature Venture legacy organizations, and (c) focus on what to do now for the future. Goals and objectives, chaired by Steve O’Neil, supported by me. I believe Anca is also willing to help with this. My general thought is that we should focus on outreach, participation, and support objectives. Possibly our biggest issue is getting financial support for the program. I’ve been covering costs out of my pocket, which I frankly can’t afford to do. Kate and Philip have been doing serious work pro bono. We really need resources for outreach to diversify and expand participation. Kate and I will be engaging the foundations and developing a sponsorship program. I sincerely believe we have a strong value proposition and a sustainable business model. Please let me know of any resources or suggestions for how we might generate support. Thanks for your interest and involvement. More soon! — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Covering costs
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 3, 2026

Feb. 3, 2026

Great event last night! What an amazing kickoff! Not to jump right into financial issues, but I covered the $375 service fee (which is very reasonable but still…) for the facility. Unfortunately, I cannot do this in the future. Frankly, I need to be making money, not spending it. I’ve added two paid tickets to the first dialogue. One is “pay what you want,” with a $10 suggested contribution for “Supporter". The other, “Benefactor” ticket is for $20. We will see how this goes. Let’s keep planning in earnest but, if we cannot fully cover the cost for the first dialogue plus some, we will need to radically changing plans for the dialogues. We will discuss today but just wanted to be clear and frank about the situation and need to find financial support for Study Group activities. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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OK, I lied...
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Feb. 3, 2026

Feb. 3, 2026

… one last email bcc’ing everyone who has expressed interest in participating on the Chattanooga Venturing Study Group to remind you that: All internal CVSG email communications going forward will be via cvsg(a)list.chattanooga.digital. Please add it to your contacts and/or safe senders list. You should have an invitation to join in your inbox or junk/spam folder. If you do not, you can subscribe at https://list.chattanooga.digital/mailman3/lists/cvsg.list.chattanooga.digit…. You can also create an account with that service to access archives, etc. IF YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THIS LIST YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE GROUP EMAILS IN THE FUTURE. The CVSG regular meeting for February is today. Our agenda is to: Review CVSG goals from last month's meeting Better understand “the Chattanooga Way,” what Venture did and how it did it by reviewing how it addressed issues in its “commitment portfolio” and how those emerged from its “challenge agenda” and how that agenda was set. Identify questions people have about Venture. Gather input about what people want and value in our community as we do. Connect and engage people representative of our community, particularly those who can engage and speak for various parts of the community, to learn with us. Establish infrastructure to achieve these goals: for capturing historical information about Venture and related initiatives, connecting people to learn, identifying and sharing critical factors for community venturing, maintaining a network of learners. Educate people about Venture and community venturing, raise awareness of the study group, and seek support for our program. Discuss the 2026 program Initiatiate a task force to assist with the 2026 program and determine what’s next for the Study Group beyond our 2026 program Establish organizational and personal learning objectives How do you plan to use knowledge from Venture, what do you plan to do with it? For your convenience a calendar file for our regular meetings is attached. You can find additional information about the CVSG online at https://chattanooga.digital/chattanooga-venturing and register for events, including dialogue sessions and regular meetings, at https://luma.com/ChattanoogaVenturing. Feel free to email me directly with any questions or suggestions. Please forward this email to others who might be interested and encourage them to complete the interest form by clicking here <https://cloud.eduity.net/apps/forms/s/KbHkwnS9TtBcBb5fSNFoKmA8>. Sincerely, — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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