One of our participants had an issue that caused us to have to cut the pilot session short. They are fine! Thank you to everyone who helped out! We will reschedule the pilot. Actually, I think we need to do a few pilot sessions, including at least one that is totally virtual. It would be great to have other conveners. Who might be willing to convene a pilot session? Generally, recruiting conveners will be a major challenge/task for crowdsourcing visioning. This will be critical to get broad, diverse, representative participation and really tap the community potential. What are your thoughts about that? Even though we barely got started with the process, there were a few clear lessons from the session: Choose a general topic: People, Place, Play, Prosper, or Public Have a clear, meaningful question. The original kit was strongly oriented toward “what” — What do you want in the community (that’s missing)? What does the community need? I also think “how” is important but that should probably be a separate session or step in the process after visioning. Follow the protocol; review and enforce the rules. Keep the process focused and on track and ensure everyone is heard. We have a number of talkers in the group (including me). Facilitators will have to rein such folks in. It is important to have less outgoing, talkative people participate. This should probably be an objective, to include people who don’t participate in much and hear from people who don’t talk much. Keep introductions brief. It’s my habit to allow a lot of discussion in study group meetings because that’s basically what the group is for. As we refocus on applied learning, “turning talk into action,” we need to be more intentional and structured. Telling myself. 😉 I’m bcc’ing several folks who participated/were interested in the session but have not joined the Chattanooga Venturing Study Group email list. Y’all feel free to reply directly to me — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg@eduity.net 706-271-5521