- Cvsg - list.chattanooga.digital

Regular meetings
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. June 4, 2026

June 4, 2026

My apologies to anyone who attempted to join the meeting on Tuesday online. I had the meeting configured wrong. I’ve fixed that. In the future, we will meet via https://go.eduity.net/call/3hmzaw47. The Study Group is moving to a different phase, refocusing on applying lessons learned over the last year. I’m not sure who is interested in participating at this point so I have deleted and recreated the event. I will continue to host these meetings on the first Tuesday of each month. If you wish to attend, add the attached file to your calendar. FYI, if you or anyone wants additional information about the Study Group or related activities, feel free to email venturing(a)chattanooga.digital <mailto:venturing@chattanooga.digital> (cc’ed). — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Regular Meeting agenda for 6/2/26
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. May 30, 2026

May 30, 2026

The major topic for the next regular meeting — and for the group going forward — is how to apply what we have learned about Venture. How? There is not funding or other resources for a formal organization to gather and share input let alone a long-term process. That does not mean it can’t be done. It just must be done in an informal, small-scale manner. We are going to crowdsource community engagement using Venture’s approach. Crazy? Not really. Venture provided a DIY kit for this very purpose. We can make it even easier by putting the kit online, translating “supplies" into a set of simple software tools. We will talk through this on Tuesday, starting with Venture itself as background, then focusing on the DIY kit. I’ve included major elements of both Venture and the DIY kit in the agenda for reference. Key elements from Venture (see the original Venture proposal <https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/pub/venture-proposal-1984>): Purpose: “to link the region’s distinct constituencies (neighborhood, business, Labor, government, civic, ethnic, rural, urban) in a community-wide decision-making process to test, analyze, and recommend policy which will lead to substantive public and private action” "identify specific issues and policy alternatives and recommend choices for the future which will move Chattanooga in the direction its citizens want to go; "to inform and educate citizens regarding alternatives; "to inspire confidence; "and to provide a vehicle for community leadership and direction." Providing "an agenda of general issues for consideration and analysis” Leading to a "commitment portfolio” (with Venture as “trustee”) Implementation Diplomacy Organized as a large board, small coordinating council, and committees DIY kit (see VISIONS 86 Do It Yourself Kit <https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/t/visions-86-do-it-yourself-kit/24>) Purpose: "to involve their citizens in dealing with tough issues, setting visionary goals, and then pulling together to build a better community.” The basics: SPACE SUPPLIES STRUCTURE General session Discussion groups Summary session SOJOURNERS Moderators Facilitators Participants Issues PEOPLE PLACES WORK PLAY GOVERNMENT FUTURE ALTERNATIVES Most important point: “When I said something, someone wrote it down.” Every participant gets to speak. When a participant speaks, someone writes it down. Applying the DIY kit as “community confabs” Hear from the region’s distinct constituencies Community-wide goal-setting, priorities for substantive public and private action Identify prospective task force members Probably the key topic to discuss is “space.” I think the study group basically serves as the “board.” Should we have a “coordinating council” or just consider the “usual suspects” a virtual coordinating council (organizations with which we coordinate)? Let me know of other topics you might want to cover. CVSG Regular Meeting, June 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, EDT Location: In-person - Chattanooga Small Business Resource Center, 332 E M L King Blvd Online - https://go.eduity.net/call/zewrvv4o — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Evolving the dialogues
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. May 26, 2026

May 26, 2026

You should have just gotten an email about the next dialogue this Monday. Please, share and attend! It is about urban design and development, an important issue for our community and we have some great discussants. It may be our last large scale session for a while. Generally, I think the dialogues need to be less topical and more action/outcomes/results-oriented. Venture did this really well. So, I think we should use Venture’s approach, modified to fit current realities and make use of today’s tech, for dialogues about challenges/needs and opportunities/resources in our community. I have pulled the text out of the “VISIONS 86 Do It Yourself Kit” and published it here as a starting point: https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/pub/visions-86-do-it-yourself-kit I am personally interested in learning more about how Venture worked, particularly the visioning process and task forces. We can do separate, topical dialogues for that purpose. Information about all of this will be posted publicly to the Venturing site. I encourage everyone to join by clicking here <https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/invites/xQEhVNYuDG> so you can be in on private group conversations and information. Our next regular meeting, next Tuesday, noon, online at https://go.eduity.net/call/zewrvv4o or in person at the City’s new Small Business Resource Center, 332 E M L King Blvd Chattanooga,TN 37403, will focus on crowdsourcing community dialogues. I’ll send an agenda 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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Creating Great Central Places Dialogue, June 1, 5:00 PM
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. May 26, 2026

May 26, 2026

Greetings! Please consider sending this to your associates who might be interested in participating in the dialogue. We would love to have representatives from other parts of the area. Please attend! Chattanooga Venturing Dialogue Creating Great Central Places Monday, June 1, 5:00 PM, Waterhouse Pavilion at Miller Plaza Central places are critical for community. They are how we connect, do business, and find community. Urban design and development has implications for suburbs and an exurbs. What role do community members play in shaping our central places and their connections to other parts of our community? Is that only a role for professional planners and real estate developers? What do YOU want from our central places? Join us for this dialogue, co-produced by River City Company, that will celebrate the work of Stroud Watson and others who transformed Downtown Chattanooga and ask, "What next?" How do we make our central places more vibrant and valuable for all? Doors open at 5:00 PM. Dialogue starts at 5:30. Register to Attend! <https://luma.com/event/evt-2uBCljFQNVgHw6m> About the sponsors: Eduity, LLC, Smart Planning <https://www.eduity.net/> Chattanooga.Digital - The World’s First Digital Utility! <https://chattanooga.digital/> — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Where should we start engaging the community?
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. May 20, 2026

May 20, 2026

The general input from the group is that our focus going forward should be on applied learning about community engagement. Where should we start? A key element of genuine community engagement is allowing community members to set the agenda. The way to do this is to listen to them about what is important to and missing/needed in the community. Are you personally interested doing this? Of course, the challenge is to do this in a fair, open manner so that voices from all parts of the community are heard and can be heard by others. What suggestions do you have about who to engage, where, and when? Might you be interested in working on community engagement tools? If none of the above, what is your interest in Chattanooga Venture and/or community engagement? Please let me know what you think! I need your input. Email me directly (greg(a)eduity.net <mailto:greg@eduity.net>) with answers if you do not feel comfortable emailing the entire group. Our next regular meeting on June 2nd (in-person and online) will focus on this issue/question. 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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Agenda for Tuesday, May 5th, CVSG Regular Meeting
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. May 4, 2026

May 4, 2026

The Chattanooga Venturing Study Group’s regular meeting is noon tomorrow at Adele’s. Please a bit early to purchase lunch. We’ll wrap up around 1:00. Here’s our agenda for tomorrow: Review our purpose Discuss change of focus to applied learning How might we genuinely engage community members and connect existing efforts to increase incomes and prosperity throughout the area? Walk through online platforms venturing.chattanooga.digital for Study Group purposes. Bring your laptop or use your smart phone Create an account via https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/invites/yHMGvGCeCb in.chattanooga.digital Open to the local public for community purposes and to be used by the Facilitator Bank Present initial plans for the Facilitator Bank Discuss Chattanooga Venturing Dialogues Next dialogue on “Central Places and Urban Design and Development," June 1, Waterhouse Pavilion Move to a webinar/podcast format with small in-person groups, possibly with satellite sessions The value of learning activities Discuss regular Study Group meetings Move discussions and meetings online via Discourse and Nextcloud Talk Continue in-person meetings? Maybe quarterly? Let me know of any other topics to cover. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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CVSG Regular Meeting, Tuesday, May 5th agenda
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. April 30, 2026

April 30, 2026

For those who did not make it to our last dialogue on housing, one of the key insights, beyond the insights into our current housing issues, was the value of games as learning exercises. This is a prime example of how we might improve community venturing, building on practices from the past. The challenge is to translate that talk into action: What do we do with insights from learning exercises? How to we effectively act on our knowledge as and for the community? This is something Venture did amazingly well, about which I think we still have a lot to learn. That is one of my personal learning objectives. The preliminary agenda for our next meeting is: Review our purpose and proposed shift in focus to applied learning How might we genuinely engage community members to increase incomes and prosperity by connecting existing efforts throughout the community? Walk through online platforms venturing.chattanooga.digital (Discourse) for Study Group purposes, including documenting Venture and related initiatives and supporting community venturing as a practice Bring your laptop or use your smart phone Create an account via https://venturing.chattanooga.digital/invites/yHMGvGCeCb in.chattanooga.digital (Friendica, which is like an community-owned Facebook) for general community purposes, specifically for engaging, hearing from, and sharing insights of community members To be used by the Facilitator Bank and open to the local public Plans for the Facilitator Bank Announce open applications, cost, and structure Discuss timeframe and milestones Chattanooga Venturing Dialogues Next dialogue on “Central Places and Urban Design and Development," June 1, Waterhouse Pavilion Move to a webinar/podcast format with small in-person groups How to incorporate connecting and learning activities Regular Study Group meetings Move discussions and meetings online via Discourse and Nextcloud Talk Let me know of any other items to cover or any input/questions you might have for any of the above. — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Re: Last night's Chattanooga Venturing Dialogue... and next week's regular meeting
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. April 28, 2026

April 28, 2026

Thanks for the feedback! Addressing several replies together… > On Apr 28, 2026, at 12:18 PM, Arch Willingham <a.willingham(a)tuparks.com> wrote: > > I think y’all need to keep pushing the concept of “The next version of Chattanooga will be crafted by you!”. I LOVE that, Arch! But… what is the means for that? See my response to Jack, below, for more on this. (Spoiler alert: reviving the Facilitator Bank, using a dedicated, local, public online platform.) > On Apr 28, 2026, at 12:42 PM, Audrey Ramsey <aramsey3(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I think CNE is a well kept secret. More PR is needed for CNE especially during these tough economic times and the housing crisis we face today. I hoped the topic would draw in more people for this very purpose! CNE definitely is not as well known as it should be. It is such an amazing, effective organization. Maybe it's because they have been rather focused. Maybe it’s because we simply don’t have good community media. Bigger picture, I would personally love to see the Study Group evolve into a network for sharing information about resources like CNE but I really think we need to LISTEN first and foremost, not tell. Once people have told us about their goals, issues, needs, after we have listened to and shared their concerns and ideas, then we can tell them about resources. > On Apr 28, 2026, at 11:48 AM, Tricia King Mims <tricia(a)nppcha.org> wrote: > > I think the cost is a deterrent as a few people have told me they would have come to my talk with Sally and Eleanor had it been free. There is a no-cost registration option for our public events — registrants simply have to put “0” in the amount field for “Attendee” ticket — and we welcome folks who have not registered (and don’t ask them to pay an attendance fee, although that’s likely to change in the future to cover our costs). > On Apr 28, 2026, at 11:05 AM, Jack Zibluk <jackzibluk(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > My overvalued 2 cents is that Ventures at this point is made up of non-profits and community groups and individuals with great ideas and valid concerns, but 1) an "action plan" or similar framework of translating concerns into actions hasn't come together and 2) there doesn't seem to be a lot of buy-in from the political community, River City Co., the chamber of commerce or other folks whose support would be necessary to put concerns into action. The plan (program) for 2026 is to (1) establish an online platform, (2) hold regular meetings, and (3) host topical dialogue sessions. We are working on all of those and welcome any help. Remember that the Study Group is an informal group, Jack. It has no real structure or capacity. I have done most of the leg work, supported Eleanor, Kate, Philip, a few folks who have helped engage stakeholders like those you mention in 2, and, of course, our speakers and dialogue participants. The Study Group's purpose has always been to learn about how to do community engagement, not to actually engage people and document/share their concerns. We simply do not have capacity for that. That said, there seems to be strong interest in "hearing the voice of the community." That is why I’m reviving the Facilitator Bank. It will have formal expectations of participants and will be more structured. The Study Group can advise, guide, and support facilitators. If you have other thoughts on how to do this, I’m all ears! What do you think we should ask for/expect as buy-in from stakeholders? Representatives of the groups you mention have attended Study Group events and meetings. River City Co is co-producing/hosting our next dialogue. I’m sure others would participate if invited but, again, we have limited capacity that. I’m doing what I can, roughly following Venture’s timeline. We have gotten a lot of encouragement but I have not seen any interest in funding this work or supporting in any substantive way. — GL

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Last night's Chattanooga Venturing Dialogue... and next week's regular meeting
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. April 28, 2026

April 28, 2026

Thanks to Chris Thompson and the CNE team for the program last night! It was very informative. I thought the learning games were especially interesting as an engagement practice. They definitely helped folks — some of whom had deep experience with the topic — understand the issues. With a bit of tweaking, learning exercises like that could become powerful catalysts for collaborative action. They are a bit labor-intensive but that issue could be addressed by creating generic versions or templates for facilitators to use without any/much pre-work. Unfortunately, it was not as well attended as past sessions. Does anyone have any thoughts about why? Was it lack of a Venture-era “celebrity” to anchor the discussion and/or singular focus on CNE? Is the topic just not that important or interesting? Surely not! Did we just not reach the right audience? My goal is for the dialogues to be interesting and useful to activists and change-makers, especially as we consider changing format. Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Our next regular meeting, next Tuesday, May 5, at noon, will focus on means to address our new focus and goal. Based on your input the Study Group’s goals are to build community infrastructure for engaging people and to connect causes, initiatives, and organizations in the community. Rather than telling people what’s happing, our goal is to hear about and share others’ goals, issues, needs, opportunities, and resources. Basically, we’re applying lessons learned from Venture and similar initiatives to learn-by-doing about community venturing, we’re facilitating community problem-solving rather than just providing solutions. The proposed focus is how to increase incomes and prosperity in our community, guided by the question, “how might we do better and make more?” — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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Recent community engaged planning/visioning efforts
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. April 26, 2026

April 26, 2026

I have recently learned (or been reminded) about a couple of community engaged planning/visioning efforts. The Chamber of Commerce worked with community groups and businesses to create a plan for the future in 2019/2020, called Velocity 2040 <https://chattanoogachamber.com/velocity2040/>, to make Chattanooga-Hamilton County "a place where we all succeed together.” River City Company developed the ONE Riverfront District Plan <https://www.rivercitycompany.com/one-riverfront> in 2022 to "create a place for all Chattanoogans to enjoy” including the "civic responsibility to improve social and economic equity.” This was followed by more focused plans for the Riverfront parks (Ross’s Landing, etc.) and Hawk’s Hill (currently site of AT&T field). These are in addition to the City’s One Chattanooga plan <https://chattanooga.gov/stay-informed/one-chattanooga> of 2022 for “a community where all Chattanoogans can thrive and prosper” and Plan Hamilton <https://planhamilton.org/> for "sustainable and responsible growth that preserves the unique and cultural aspects of the county” that was adopted in 2025. Are you aware of these? How might we build on these? Should we study them? Should we use them as a jumping off point for our efforts? My sense from the group is that our goal is not to plan or strategize for a particular purpose (or revist previous planning). Our goals are just to listen, connect, and build infrastructure for engagement. Is that right? — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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