Hi Greg, Sorry Ihad to leave a bit early. Chris did a great presentation and I would love to see his organization work in North Georgia, too, and we talked a bit on the way out. 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. So, yes, the optics of having a "celebrity" of some sort would make folks feel more empowered. And the topic is an important one, and the exercises illustrated the obstacles, and Chris has a great organization. But who's listening? It's the same non-profits and community groups. If we had someone from the city council or the mayor's office attending, I think folks would be more confident their concerns would be heard. Jack On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 10:37 AM Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. <greg@eduity.net> wrote:
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@eduity.net 706-271-5521
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